Ginetta GT5 Challenge

Pittard Makes It A Silverstone Double

1 Mins read
The battle for second helped Pittard to a comfortable win (Credit: Chris Gurton Photography)

David Pittard added a second lights to flag win to his Ginetta GT5 Challenge weekend at Silverstone, taking the championship lead in the process.

Unlike his first win yesterday his journey to victory in the first of Sunday’s two races more straight-forward, with another good start helping him into a lead that he would not be challenged for through the eight lap race.

Instead the battle of the race was for second, with Oli BaseyFisher leading Clive Richards, the pair’s battle helping Pittard to establish a lead. With the grid for the race set by the second fastest times from qualifying Brad Bailey and Will Burns – perhaps the two drivers most likely to challenge Pittard for victory – were starting in sixth and eighth respectively before they started to make immediate progress up the order.

A fantastic first lap from Burns pushed him up to fifth, with a move to fourth coming a lap later as he passed a Thiago Calvet fading back through the pack after starting second. The Brazilian’s race would end in the Chapel gravel trap on the final lap after spinning out of seventh place.

Following in Burns’ steps Bailey moved up the order, pushing both Calvet and Gary Duckman down a place in a single move through Brooklands and Luffield. Burns and Bailey’s progress, married to Richards and Bailey-Fisher’s on-going battle bought the quartet together in the closing lap.

An opportunistic move put Burns second at Club, only to fall back to fourth by running wide at The Loop. Burns did, eventually, take second place, passing Richards for third around the outside of Club before taking second from Basey-Fisher on the more conventional inside line on the final lap.

All of this inflated Pittard’s advantage, crossing the line 4 seconds clear of Burns with Basey-Fisher completing the podium places ahead of race-long rival Richards and Bailey.

In the G20 class Stuart Pearson took his second win of the weekend. Once he and Gary Simms had both passed early leader Brian Murphy Pearson was able to break away into a comfortable lead while Murphy and Simms fought over the lower podium steps. That battle came to abrupt end at Copse when Simms spun, shedding the right-rear tyre in the process. Unseen Murphy retired further round the same lap, leaving the podium spots to Mark de Spong and Jonny Greenwood.

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James is our Diet-Coke fuelled writer and has been with TCF pretty much since day 1, he can be found frequenting twitter at @_JBroomhead
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