The destination of the 2017 Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup title will be decided in the season finale at Brands Hatch after a hat-trick of top seven finishes wasn’t enough to secure Callum Pointon the title at Silverstone this past weekend.
Pointon headed into the penultimate meeting of the season with a chance of taking the crown with a weekend to spare, however just a single podium finish for him and a victory for chief rival Ben Green means it will go down to the final weekend.
It was Jack Mitchell, a driver who will feel he would have been in the title picture at this stage of the season were it not for clashing British GT commitments earlier this year, who led the way on a damp circuit in qualifying on Saturday, with Pointon and Green close behind.
Mitchell wasn’t in front for long in the opening race however as Green launched from third to first on the first lap and Pointon followed him through, with those two running in close proximity for the majority of the race.
There was late change however as Mitchell, Carl Boardley and George Gamble all passed Pointon on the penultimate lap, however Mitchell was later handed a ten second penalty for a false start, and Gamble a five second add-on for track limits.
Green would therefore take his sixth win of the campaign ahead of Boardley and Pointon, with Gamble slipping back to sixth behind Declan Jones and Tom Hibbert, while Mitchell would settle in ninth behind Charlie Ladell and Jason Baker.
After being cancelled on Saturday evening due to torrential rain, the second race of the weekend would kick off Sunday’s action, with a strong start for Hibbert seeing him rise to second behind Green, whilst Gamble and Boardley battled for third behind.
Boardley’s race would come to an end after contact and lead to the introduction of the safety car, and shortly after the restart the top two tangled over the lead, allowing Gamble to steal the advantage at the head of a six car train.
After another safety car interlude, Mitchell would be the man on the move in the closing laps as he sensationally lapped over seven tenths of a second quicker than anyone else in the damp conditions, storming through from sixth to the race lead in just six laps.
Gamble would go on to finish second ahead of Hibbert, with Ladell taking fourth ahead of Green and Pointon – a result that would prove crucial as the draw for the reversed grid would go on to place Ladell on pole position for the live-televised final race.
The former Clio Cup racer would go on to lead a Supercup race for the first time, however it was a short-lived moment as a couple of laps later his Rob Boston Racing team-mate Gamble swept past and edged away to victory – his first since the season opener back in April.
Ladell had Mitchell, Hibbert and Jones close onto his tail as the race progressed, but he kept them at arm’s length to make a long-awaited return to the podium and cap off his best weekend in the series so far, whilst Mitchell took third on the road.
The Laser Tools-backed racer was handed a five second track limits penalty though which dropped him to fifth, promoting Hibbert onto his second podium of the weekend ahead of Jones, who took his first ever fastest lap in the series.
Reece Somerfield completed the top six ahead of Pointon, who saw the race mark his 50th start in the Supercup. Green took eighth ahead of Boardley, however persistent track limits infringements saw him docked ten seconds and fall down the order, promoting Baker to ninth.
In the AM class meanwhile, Colin White took advantage of a retirement for points leader Jac Constable to close the gap at the top of the class standings, though it remains at fifty points with Constable having still take home a pair of victories.
The Xentek Motorsport ace took a lights-to-flag success in the opener as White fought his way through from eighth on the grid to second ahead of Jack Minshaw on the road, though a track limits penalty would cost the latter a podium as he dropped behind Ian Robinson and David Brooks.
Constable would retire from the second encounter though, with White taking full advantage with a hassle-free run to his sixth victory of the campaign in an impressive seventh overall, while Alexis Taylor produced a stunning drive from 21st to ninth for second in class ahead of Minshaw.
Constable would match his team-mates meteoric rise in the final race however, storming through the field from 22nd to tenth to secure victory number thirteen of the year, while White was hot on his heels and Minshaw complete the podium once again.
Paul Taylor took a best finish of fifth in class on his championship debut with TAG Racing, renamed from Team HARD, while experienced Supercup hand Fraser Robertson matched that result on his first appearance of the campaign.
Full race results for the Silverstone meeting can be found here: http://tsl-timing.com/file/?f=TOCA/2017/173703g50.pdf
