Carl Breeze utterly dominated proceedings in the opening Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup race of the Thruxton weekend, setting the fastest lap of the race en-route to an eight second lights-to-flag victory.
Breeze topped the day’s earlier qualifying session by over half a second, and that pace was firmly carried across into the race as following a trademark fast getaway, he quickly pulled clear of the pack behind.
Over three seconds clear within the first three laps, he continued to pull away at quite a rate – giving him the luxury of backing off to preserve his tyres late on around the abrasive Thruxton track.
“I really pushed hard in the first two laps on cold tyres and was surprised with the size of the gap I had,” said Breeze. “It was even more surprising that the gap was gradually going up and up as well, as close to the end I backed off quite considerably to save the tyres.
“It’s fantastic for the Bluechip car to have fastest lap by nearly a second as well. With maximum points for the weekend, it puts the pressure on Jamie [Orton].”
It was championship leader Orton and Will Burns who completed the HHC podium lockout, with those two running in formation throughout the race. That almost wasn’t the case though, with Burns nearly succeeding in overtaking his team-mate at the Chicane early on.
Tom Oliphant sat in fourth for the duration, with a late surge in pace seeing him close to within a second of the podium positions at the finish.
In the process, Oliphant pulled over six seconds clear of Bradley Smith in fifth, who just edged out Mitchell Hale in the fight at the bottom of the top six.
Michael Caine produced a sublime drive to fight back from the bottom of the grid, which came following a post-qualifying penalty, to seventh at the finish – despite the JHR Developments racer also being handed a ten second time penalty for the race.
A solid debut for Gaeten Paletou saw the ELMS driver post an eighth place finish ahead of Tom Wrigley and Reece Somerfield.
Ollie Jackson had produced a great move around the outside of Smith for fifth on the opening lap, however after a trip to the pits a lap later for a gear change issue he was left to settle for eleventh at the finish.
In the AM class, Osamu Kawashima took a dominant second class win of the campaign ahead of Colin White, Fraser Robertson and debutant Keith White, brother of Colin.
