Callum Pointon won a storming Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT5 Challenge race to start the series’ final day of the season. However, with Ollie Chadwick chasing him home the resulted counted the race winner out of the championship battle with a race to spare.
With his second place Chadwick took the lead of the championship, just a handful of points ahead of James Kellett who finished fourth behind Ryan Hadfield.
The top six, completed by Stewart Linn and James Robinson finished the race split by nearly eight seconds but more much of the race the group could almost be classed as one, with each driver – save for the leader and caboose – having to manage attack and defence.
Poleman Chadwick led the opening lap but behind Pointon was moving up to the lead the challenge, demoting Kellett a place to third at Coppice on the opening lap. A lap later at the Melbourne Hairpin Kellett was in the lead, but he too was unable to breakaway. Unrelenting pressure from Chadwick caused them both take slow lines through the chicane on lap four, with Kellett – previously seeming to have fallen out of the battle – taking advantage to pass both drivers at the following hairpin and Hadfield, Linn and Robinson also buying into the battle.
The freight train of cars pushed by Kellett, the erstwhile points leader down to fourth before dropping away from the podium fight to finish five seconds off the race leader.
Luca Hirst, Matt Palmer, Russ Simpson and Dan O’Brien completed the top ten.
GT5 challengers Glen Broster and Mohammed Elshimy tangled at Coppice on the opening lap in an incident that also involved GRDC+ man Shawn Fleming. He was the only one of the three to see the checkered flag, Elshimy out on the spot, Broster limping round to retire in the pits.
Rob Keogh snatched GRDC+ victory through the final corners, beating Ben Hyland to the line by just 0.156 seconds after the pair had raced into Goddards side by side. Keogh had shadowed class pole sitter Hyland for the entire race before he took his opportunity.
