David Pittard says his 2014 Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup season went better than expected after overhauling former champion Carl Breeze on the final weekend to take the vice-champions honours.
Pittard headed into the Brands Hatch finale over forty points back from the 2012 victor, with a dominant double victory in the penultimate meeting at Silverstone having moved him back into contention.
Carrying the momentum from those wins into the final three races of the year, Pittard posted a trio of second place finishes around the iconic Grand Prix circuit, though the last of those was eventually turned into a seventh with a post-race penalty.
Those results, coupled with a mechanical problem in race one and a race three retirement for Breeze, gave Pittard the championship runner-up spot.
“I don’t really know what to say, I’m overcome with emotion, it’s just awesome,” an elated Pittard told TCF.
“It was a massively tall ask to take second coming into the weekend, but we put ourselves in the position to challenge for the top two and I’m ecstatic we got it.”
Second place was the culmination of a superb maiden Supercup campaign for the Ginetta GT5 Challenge graduate, who took to the grid with SV Racing with backing from the KX Akademy.
Kicking things off with a podium finish on each of the first two meetings, Pittard’s breakthrough weekend came at Thruxton in May when he carded a sensational double victory and second place finish to cement his status as a potential title contender.
Those hopes were dented by a tough run in the middle of the season though, with Pittard only able to take two podium finishes in the next ten races, a third at Oulton Park and a third win of the year at Croft.
Pittard Burst Into The Title Picture At Thruxton – Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
The low points came in the final races at Oulton Park, when clutch problems left him limping into retirement from a third place grid start, and Snetterton, where in similar fashion a sheered wheel nut left him unable to take his pole position, both problems costing him potentially big points hauls.
Pittard bounced back well though, with a second place at Rockingham setting him up for his fantastic end to the year, which capped off a season which the Hertfordshire-based racer admits exceeded all his expectations.
“Back at the Autosport Awards last year, I said that I’d like to score consistently and put myself in contention for the championship going into the final rounds at Brands,” reflected the KX Akademy member.
“While we’ve achieved that, in March those expectations had dropped though as the car arrived late, we had no testing whatsoever, the team was new to the series and we thought we’d trundle round in the midfield for the first half of the season and challenge at the front later in the year. So we’ve definitely exceeded that.
“You kind of put together a two year plan for this series, but we were able to kind of skip the first year and come in as title contenders from the off and led the championship twice. We dropped off a bit in the middle of the season, but came back strong when it all mattered.”
As Pittard mentions, it wasn’t just his first season in the Supercup but also the first foray into the series for the SV Racing team, and Pittard was full of praise for their efforts through the campaign.
“The SV Racing with KX team have given me a fantastic car,” Pittard enthused. “Danny Buxton has put together a great group of people and kept them motivated all season, Rob Boston is a brilliant engineer, driver coach and a great friend, and Oscar Miller too, he’s the man, a fantastic mechanic.
“A huge thank you to all of them, I just sit down, shut up, listen to them and try my best to implement what they had to say. It’s been brilliant.”
*Read more of David’s thoughts on his 2014 season in his #TeamTCF blog by clicking here.*
