Carl Breeze soaked up race long pressure from team-mate Jamie Orton to secure his first Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup win of the season at Donington Park.
The HHC Motorsport duo jumped pole-sitter Tom Oliphant at the start of the race, with the fast-starting Breeze diving through the front row to take a lead he wouldn’t relinquish.
Oliphant looked to fight back later in the lap heading to Coppice, but some robust defending from Breeze maintained his advantage – though with Orton running under his rear spoiler it certainly wasn’t a routine run to victory from there.
As the top two ran nose to tail, Oliphant was briefly shuffled back to fifth before a strong fightback got him back into the podium positions – third place coming after an attempted move for second into the Old Hairpin by Will Burns ended with him slipping to fifth behind Michael Caine.
Orton and Oliphant soon did everything possible to make progress without risking their podium positions, but neither could force a mistake from those in front, with Breeze leading home a HHC one-two from Orton at the finish.
“I got a fantastic start and somehow squeezed through the middle into the lead, it was down to millimetres into Redgate,” Breeze told TCF. “I got a little bit of a lead but I knew they would be catching me up, my car is very slow in certain parts of the circuit.
“That left my under attack in some key overtaking areas, so I had to be very intelligent with where I positioned my car. At the moment we’re struggling a bit with my car with straight-line speed, but if we’re able to pick up a win when we’re not at our best, it should fire out a warning to my rivals that when we do get the car hooked up we are going to be a potent force.”
Oliphant was caught late on by Michael Caine, a competitive run to fourth securing him a second consecutive reverse grid pole position of the season, with Burns left to settle for his lowest finish of the season so far in fifth.
Ollie Jackson emerged from a good battle with Reece Somerfield in sixth, while Colin White took the AM class victory in eighth overall. Tom Wrigley and Rob Boston completed the top ten, the latter having had a topsy-turvy race in which pace that earned him the fastest lap was hindered by contact.
Osamu Kawashima finished up eleventh ahead of Mitchell Hale, who was awarded a fifteen second penalty for exceeding track limits, with Chris Ingram and Fraser Robertson completing the finishers. It was a race to forget for those called Bradley, with namesakes Smith and Ellis both suffering mechanical issues.
Full race results can be found here.
