Ginetta GT5 Challenge

Davenport Strikes Back In Race Two To Deny Bailey Double

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After his race one penalty, Davenport held of Brad Bailey for victory (Photo Credit: Chris Gurton Photography)

Luke Davenport made amends for his race one mistake with a hard-fought victory in race two of the Protyre Ginetta GT5 Challenge at Oulton Park.

The 19-year-old hung on to take his first win of the season, holding off the attentions of race one winner Brad Bailey in a thrilling scrap that boiled down to the very last corner.

After a penalty for a jump start in race one earlier in the day, Reflex Racing’s Davenport made a much better start to lead the race ahead of David Pittard, but it was all in vain as the race was red-flagged for a big pile-up exiting Old Hall for the first time.

The field looked to be filtering through cleanly unlike race one, but a spin for Jason Kenny on the exit of turn one caused mayhem that saw the G20s of Ian Ingram, Mark De Spong, Jonny Greenwood, Nicholas Zapolski and Darren De Mattia all eliminated on the spot, while Matt Flowers came off worst of all as he piled into the accident and sustained heavy front end damage to his Academy Motorsport G40.

The restarted race saw Davenport repeat his good start to hang on to the lead, Bailey jumping Pittard later on the first lap before setting his sights on the race leader.

Oliver Basey-Fisher began a charge from fifth place on the first lap by passing Clive Richards for fourth, before starting to hunt down Pittard for the final podium spot.

Bailey continued to up the pace as he set the race’s fastest lap on the fifth tour around the Cheshire circuit, and kept that pressure increasing as they approached the seventh and final lap.

Bailey showed his nose either side of Davenport on numerous occasion although the leader placed his G40 in the right position on the track at Knickerbrook to hold him at bay, surviving one last attack at Lodge to seal the victory by just 0.180s.

Behind them was another superb last lap scrap for third with Pittard also holding off a run from Basey-Fisher heading into the Knickerbrook chicane, but the SV21 driver was caught napping at Druids two corners later as Basey-Fisher grabbed his second podium of the day.

Richards meanwhile was a lonely fifth, seven seconds ahead of sixth place man Will Burns (Academy Motorsport), while Thiago Calvet (Optimum Motorsport) and Gary Duckman (EJM Preperation) rounded out the top eight.

G20 honours this time went the way of Brian Murphy in a much-depleted field of four cars ahead of Stuart Pearson, while an epic battle for third (and to avoid finishing last overall) was won by David Pattison ahead of Marcus Vivian.

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