Tom Oliphant overhauled Michael Caine to secure his second Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup win of the season in the opening race of the weekend at Croft.
Oliphant started the race from pole position after dominating the day’s earlier qualifying session, but a slow getaway gifted the race lead to Caine off the line. That began a race long battle between the two, with Oliphant looking faster than his adversary throughout, but being unable to find a way past.
His opportunity came on lap seven though when a mistake for Caine going through the second part of the complex allowed Oliphant to draw alongside heading into the final hairpin.
Caine robustly defended his position, forcing Oliphant across the inside tarmac, but the Century Motorsport man was just able to keep his G55 ahead as they headed down the main straight, pulling clear to take the victory by eight tenths of a second.
Behind, Jamie Orton ran third throughout for his ninth rostrum finish of 2015 so far, though he didn’t gain as much ground as expected in the championship standings with Carl Breeze in hot pursuit.
A broken driveshaft in qualifying had left Breeze thirteenth and last on the grid, but the championship leader stormed through to fifth within the first three corners and went on to pass Ollie Jackson for fourth on lap two.
Jackson maintained fifth to the flag despite some wheel damage following contact from Will Burns when the latter challenged for the position at Tower on lap seven, Burns slipping to seventh behind first time top six finisher Tom Wrigley.
Reece Somerfield fought through from a pitlane start to finish eighth ahead of Mitchell Hale, while Osamu Kawashima secured the AM class win in tenth overall despite carrying a large chunk of foam in his front grill for the duration of the race.
Chris Ingram and Fraser Robertson completed the class podium, the latter having briefly disposed Kawashima of the lead before spinning at the complex, while last on the road was Bradley Smith after some pre-race drama saw him enter proceedings two laps late.
Full race results can be found here.
