Grantham-based Richardson Racing enjoyed its best weekend of the season to date in the 2012 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup, securing no fewer than six podium finishes and posting lap-record breaking pace in both classes at Snetterton.
In the G55 class, Andrew Richardson was quick from the off, qualifying a solid fourth place, before converting this into a fifth place finish in the opening race. Moving up to fourth early on in race two, Richardson managed to overhaul championship leader Tom Sharp to take third, before going one better in race three, securing second after pressuring race winner Sharp all race.
“In hindsight I could probably have made the move on Tom stick in the final race but it would have taken a rough move and that isn’t how I’d want to take the place,” he said. “I was happy with second place as we’ve shown our pace already this season and haven’t got the results we deserved. However, this weekend, we’ve shown what we are capable of and have picked up three good finishes.
“We have just got quicker and quicker all weekend. The fact we haven’t had any of the problems we had earlier in the year has meant we could focus on improving the car and now we need to keep the momentum going and try and fight for our first victory.”
In the G50’s, Mark Davies continued his domination of the class with a perfect weekend, securing pole, three wins and three fastest laps to extend his healthy championship lead to more than 120 points.
After qualifying more than a second faster than his class rivals, Davies led all three races from start to finish, winning the third by more than fifteen seconds from his closest rival, securing three overall top ten finishes in the process and a new lap record.
“I thought it would be a bit closer than it was this weekend but it’s been perfect with pole, three wins and three fastest laps,” he said. “I’ve not done anything differently behind the wheel but the car was really strong and we had more pace than the rest of the G50 field.
“We made some changes to the car for the final race and it was even better than in the first two races and we also made a good choice on how to manage the tyres like we did at Croft. It paid off brilliantly.”
For Louise Richardson, Snetterton marked a return to the G50 class, having missed the last two rounds due to sponsorship issues. Despite her lack of track time and the fact she was forced to use old tyres for the weekend, Louise qualified third in class.
After finishing fourth in class in the opening race, Richardson went on to secure her fifth podium finish of the season with third in race two. A spin on the opening lap of the final race while avoiding an incident ahead dropped her to the rear of the field, but she was able to fight back to finish fourth at the finish.
“It’s been a difficult weekend for me,” she said. “I was a bit rusty in the opening race, although I could have been on the podium without a mistake at Williams when I went off and lost places early on. Race two was much better and we got onto the podium but race three didn’t go to plan at all. On the opening lap I had Tom Ingram alongside me and I’m not sure if there was some contact or whether I just got onto the dirt from cars spinning ahead, but I suffered a spin myself and dropped right to the back.
“From there, I just had to try and get as high as possible and I did my best to get third on the final lap but Reece [Somerfield] was just fast enough in the right places to stop me getting onto the podium. Hopefully we can now get something sorted so I can be out at Knockhill.”
