Will Burns secured a first ever victory in the final race of the 2016 Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup season opener, while a podium finish for Tom Wrigley confirmed him as the early championship leader.
Burns benefitted from an unfortunate spin for erstwhile leader Carl Boardley to seize the advantage and take the victory in a race that was shortened after the red flags were brought out for an incident between AM class runners Fraser Robertson and John Wall.
Boardley was drawn out the hat as the beneficiary of the reverse grid pole position and looked set to take full effect around a circuit he’d won the previous weekend at in Pickup Truck Racing, as he led the early stages from Burns and a fast-starting Reece Somerfield.
The man on the move in the first half of the race was Rob Boston Racing’s Wrigley, who fought back through the order after a slow getaway dropped the Round Two winner from fourth to seventh on the opening lap.
Following an early safety car period to retrieve the stricken G55 of Mike Newbold who pulled off circuit with a mechanical problem, Wrigley was quickly ahead of Colin White, Mark Davies and Jamie Orton
That put him in position to start a thrilling duel with Somerfield over the final podium place, which soon became second when Boardley spun out of a near two second lead on his own at Druids, promoting Burns into the lead.
By that point, Wrigley had got ahead of Somerfield at Paddock Hill Bend, but as the field tried to avoid Boardley’s car in the middle of the track, the positions switched back. Wrigley got back ahead with a great move at Paddock Hill on lap 21, but it would be to no avail as the red flags emerged.
With the results counted back a lap, Burns was the victor in his Douglas Motorsport G55 ahead of Somerfield, with Wrigley left to settle for third place – though late drama for Orton meant that was enough to give him the championship lead.
Round One winner Orton found himself spun around at Clearways by Tom Hibbert, who set the fastest lap of the race as he impressively climbed through from eleventh on the grid to fourth place ahead of Callum Pointon and Rob Wheldon.
Davies and Rob Gaffney were next up, while White completing a hat-trick of victories in the AM class in ninth overall. Ben Green took tenth, a positive conclusion to a tough weekend, while Orton was left down in eleventh – not the way he wanted to celebrate his 100th Supercup start.
Full race results can be found here.
