Charlie Robertson took a dominant lights-to-flag victory in the opening Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup race of the weekend at Rockingham.
The HHC Motorsport racer was the star of the field in the eighteen lap encounter, converting his record sixth pole position of the season into a comfortable sixth win of the campaign.
It was pretty plain sailing for the championship leader, with David Pittard only briefly looking like he might challenge him, and the only concern for the victor was preserving his tyres after a couple of lock ups around the abrasive Corby circuit.
“Rockingham is notoriously hard on tyres so I had to try and keep the tyres good for the whole race,” said Robertson. “Once I’d had a second or two lead, I was thinking about conserving them and I managed to do that towards the end. It’s good to get another win under our belt and we’re going strong.”
It was a fairly uneventful race at the head of the field, with Pittard holding off a fast-starting Carl Breeze at the start before those two remained in those positions for the duration of the race, though the latter did have to fend off some late pressure from Andrew Watson.
Will Burns ran fifth throughout, his eleventh consecutive top five finish in the championship, while Luke Davenport sat sixth for the first half of the race until an unfortunate off-track excursion at Brook chicane on lap 10 lost him two places.
While Davenport was forced to retire with a damaged radiator, the beneficiaries Tom Oliphant and Carl Boardley went on to finish sixth and seventh. Oliphant was the man on the move in the race, fighting back well after falling to ninth on the opening lap due to contact.
Behind them, a great battle between championship debutants Dennis Strandberg and Tom Howard went the way of the Swede, with Dan Norris-Jones rounding out the top ten behind them ahead of Giles Dawson and John Hindhaugh.
Alongside Davenport, Jamie Orton was the only other retirement in the race. The HHC Motorsport racer had started fourth, but after first lap contact that left him at the back of the field, pulled into the pits at the end of lap two to preserve tyres.
