Dennis Strandberg put in a charging performance to win the third and final race of the weekend in the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT5 Challenge at Rockingham.
The Academy Motorsport driver took his maiden win by 1.283 second ahead of Mark Davies, after storming through the pack from 9th on the after receiving a grid-penalty for dangerous driving in race two earlier in the day.
The race started off in dramatic fashion, with pole-sitter Gary Simms leading the 25-strong field into the Dean hairpin for the first time, ahead of Nick Zapolski and the fast-starting G20 of Stuart Pearson. The action was short lived though with the beached cars of Finley Ratcliffe and Alex Preston bringing the safety car out.
On the restart it was Strandberg making waves, quickly disposing of the G20 of Pearson into Dean and Zapolski into the Tarzan hairpin in a matter of one lap. Continuing the trend, Strandberg made his move for the lead two laps later, making use of a good run out of Dean to power past race two winner Simms on the following straight.
Simms’ decline through the field then continued, with Optimum Motorsport’s Matt Davies putting in the performance of the weekend to clinch a stunning 2nd place from 23rd on the grid and finish just shy of the top step. Total Control Racing’s George Gamble completed the rostrum.
The Rockingham round of the GT5 Challenge leave Gamble an impressive 36 points ahead of Ollie Chadwick, with Gary Simms in 3rd and race three winner Dennis Strandberg jumping up to 4th as the championship heads to Silverstone.
