Tom Ingram took a lights to flag victory in Round Three of the 2013 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup, making it three different winners on the opening weekend of the season.
The reverse grid for the final race of the weekend saw the top four finishers from race two swapped, putting Ingram on pole position, an opportunity he wasn’t going to waste after a mixed weekend, leading throughout to take his seventh career G55 victory by over three seconds.
The race ended a few laps earlier than expected though after a nasty accident involving G50 runners Simon Green and Dan Norris-Jones brought out the red flag. Green ran wide into the Paddock Hill gravel and collected Norris-Jones as he re-joined the track, both making heavy contact with the crash barrier on the run to Druids.
Behind Ingram, a spirited drive from Matt Nicoll-Jones saw him take second, the Academy Motorsport star fighting back after being pushed out of the place on the opening lap to take his third podium of a superb debut weekend, giving him the early championship lead.
Nicoll-Jones’ challenge was aided by a calamitous retirement for Carl Breeze. Running in second at the time, the reigning champion slid off into the gravel at Clearways under yellow flags, in the process hitting the stricken car of Total Control Racing team-mate Jamie Orton who had spun out after contact from Nicoll-Jones a lap earlier.
Also benefitting from his mistake was Mark Davies, the reigning G50 champion picking up his first podium of the weekend in third after holding off a determined Andrew Watson for the latter stages of the race, the Irishman securing fourth on his debut weekend.
Fergus Walkinshaw took his best result of the weekend in fifth ahead of KX Akademy star Rob Boston, while for round two winner Pepe Massot, the race proved to be a tough affair. The Spaniard finished seventh after being on the end of a few forceful moves, notably from Boston.
James Birch took eighth with Century Motorsport, with Carl Boardley and Marcus Hoggarth completing the top ten.
In the G50 class, Sean Huyton enjoyed a clear run to his first victory in the category, the reigning Ginetta Challenge champion winning by 5.6 seconds from a bonnet-less Reece Somerfield, the only two classified finishers in the class after the aforementioned accident.
