Jamie Orton led the opening race at Silverstone from start-to-finish to continue his superb recent form in the Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup.
Orton made it five wins in the last six races he’s contested with a dominant showing at the ‘Home of British Motorsport’ in his Triple M Motorsport-prepared G55.
It was Carl Boardley who had started the race from pole position, however a great launch for Orton saw him immediately assume the advantage of the race.
Boardley hit trouble at the next corner meanwhile after trying to head into the Maggotts/Becketts complex three abreast with Tom Wrigley and Callum Pointon.
The poleman came off worst, with an off track moment demoting him to seventeenth, while Pointon emerged in second ahead of Wrigley, who had climbed up from fifth on the grid.
By the end of lap three Wrigley was up to second and quickly set about closing a one second gap to Orton in front, with the championship leader getting within four tenths of the leader.
Orton kept him at arms length for the remainder of the race however to take the victory, with Wrigley picking up his fourteenth podium finish of the season in second.
Pointon held onto the final podium position throughout for his breakthrough rostrum finish, whilst there was a close fought battle behind between Mark Davies, Will Burns and Ben Green.
Green stormed up to fourth on the opening lap, but Davies grabbed it off him on lap ten after trading positions with Burns multiple times in the first portion of the race.
Davies was then handed a five second time penalty for exceeding track limits, but soon after it would go from bad to worse as contact from Green put them both into retirement.
Their demise opened the door for Tom Hibbert and the recovering Boardley to move into the top six – a stunning drive from Hibbert having seen him climb through from nineteenth on the grid.
His efforts wouldn’t be rewarded ultimately though, with sheared wheel nuts leading to one of his wheels escaping him with a couple of laps to go, forcing him to retire.
As Burns took fourth, a result that means the championship battle goes down to the Brands Hatch season finale, it was Boardley and Rob Gaffney who eventually completed the top six.
Colin White took another comfortable AM class victory in seventh overall, with Reece Somerfield and Ollie Chadwick completing the Pro finishers behind.
Chris Ingram and David Brooks rounded out the AM podium meanwhile, whilst failing to even make the start was debutant Jack Mitchell after an alternator belt failure.
*Update: Post-race, Wrigley was awarded a time penalty for his part in some contact early in the race, demoting him to third at the finish behind Pointon.
Full race results can be found here.
