Driver Database News

Nathan Freke made a near-perfect start to the seventh event of the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup season at Knockhill in Fife today, Saturday, 3rd September, by securing an excellent lights-to-flag win during round 18 – his fifth victory from the last nine race starts.

Although the first half of the season proved troublesome for theplayer.co.uk/Century Motorsport driver, over the last few race meetings Freke has been able to show the sort of pace and ability which took him to the Ginetta G50 Cup title – the forerunner to the GT Supercup – in 2009.

Edging out Tom Sharp by 0.143 seconds in qualifying to claim pole position, Freke got away well at the start to fend off the IDL driver and soaked up continued pressure from the former championship leader to take another richly deserved success.

On lap three, the Safety Car was deployed after a multi-car tangle at Leslie’s which accounted for the extremely unfortunate Fergus Walkinshaw, who starred in qualifying with a sensational third fastest time, and also resulted in pit visits for Lee Pattison and Josh Fielding.

Seeing off Sharp’s challenge at the re-start, Freke certainly didn’t have things all his own way as his pursuer piled on the pressure. The pole-sitter hardly put a wheel wrong though and didn’t offer up anything like an opportunity for Sharp to grasp.

“It went well, Tom did put a lot of pressure on me but it is difficult to overtake here”, said Freke, “I knew if I kept everything clean I could make his life hard but I did make a little mistake at Clark which did allow him to get right back onto me on one lap, but we got enough of a gap and controlled it.

“It’s the first race, brand new tyres, so you need to try and keep the car in line. If you start burning tyres up in the first race, by the time you get to the third race of the weekend you’re really going to be in trouble. The car was absolutely faultless and I’m really pleased with another win – we’re creeping up on them in the championship.”

Behind Sharp, points leader Carl Breeze was an ever-present threat and the top three proved to be very well matched in terms of pace. In the end, Sharp had the edge with a best time of 53.162 seconds (86.09mph) but he couldn’t quite carve open an opportunity to try and attack Freke.

“Carl was fast and he was behind me the whole time putting the pressure on”, said Sharp, “I think we had the edge on Nathan but in a race like that when someone is so close behind you, it’s a case of thinking if you want to try and attack and risk losing a few places. I tried that at Croft and it didn’t work so I learnt my lesson and held back on that one today! The car was really good, very fast.”

Yet another podium for Breeze, his 12th of the season, enabled him to maintain his position at the top of the driver standings but Sharp’s runner-up placing, added to the bonus point for fastest lap, mean the latter has closed to within 26 points of the Total Control Racing driver.

“Third is good points and the finish moves me up to the inside of the second row for tomorrow morning’s race so I’m quite happy with that”, commented Breeze, “To be fair, the three of us at the front were all running similar pace. In sector one I seemed to have more pace than them but then I lost out in sector two. We’ll make a few changes for tomorrow but it’s not been a bad day.”

The top three were able to break away from the rest, headed by Ciceley Racing’s Adam Morgan who maintained his consistent run of form with yet another strong finish albeit a couple of seconds shy of the podium placings.

Photo by Jakob Ebrey Photography.

As fan-sponsored team YourRacingCar.com’s driver Fulvio Mussi smashed the lap record in the Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup at his home races at Brands Hatch; Nathan Freke won the championship adding a further three podiums, three pole positions and two fastest laps to his season’s haul ahead of Frank Wrathall who also took to the podium three times in the season finale.

Nerve-wracking weekend for the YRC fan sponsors as the battle went to the final race, when Fulvio went all out to make sure of holding on to the fourth place in the championship in his first season out. A stunning lap of 1m 32.731s with a top speed of near enough 128 mph on the GP circuit. This topped off the well-deserved fourth podium finish of the season in the second race that added a 2nd place cup to the YRC trophy cabinet.

The fan-sponsored racing team’s driver was on the pace from qualifying. Despite a quick trip to the pits to check out a flat-spot on the right front tyre he was putting together great laps for second best sector times in the first and second sectors. Fulvio made sure he had his best starting positions of the season on the first two rows of the grid for the weekend’s races with, importantly, Tom Sharp starting one place behind him in each race.

In the first race, Fulvio was close to taking Nathan Freke at the first corner in a bid to gain the lead, but the eventual Cup champion was having none of it. Four corners later contact between the cars behind resulted in the YRC car being shunted off the track, but for once the car bodywork damage was minimal. A great recovery by Fulvio put the car back on track, but in fifth with no immediate chance of recovery as a safety car incident, caused by an incident involving TCR team mate Carl Breeze and the unfortunate Colin White which tagged other TCR team mate Joachim Ritter, added three yellow flag laps. Despite several attempts to regain position that’s were the YRC team ended that race. This reduced the points margin between fourth and fifth in the Cup.

The second race was less eventful with a fired up Fulvio making a well-judged overtaking move at the tight second corner hairpin to gain second place. Great pace and positioning on the track ensured that he skilfully held the place to take a trophy and give the YRC fans some podium shots for the album.

Still needing to be ahead of nearest rival Tom Sharp, to retain Cup position, Fulvio lost ground to him off of the line, but again Fulvio’s pace in the car meant that he was not going to be passed by any others and for good measure he took the lap record off of the Cup champion on lap 10 giving the YRC fan sponsors a lot to celebrate in the sunshine.

Hannah James, Team Manager said “Fourth place in the Cup in our first season for our fan-sponsored car is fantastic! The buzz of the home crowd and all the YRC fans cheering and hooting Fulvio as he’s gone passed today seems to have done the trick – to smash the lap record is just brilliant. We could not have done it without the fans and small businesses who have got on board this year so a big, big thank you to each of them. TCR have engineered the car, and Carl the YRC car mechanic has been amazing – we hope they all get more sleep next year!”

Go to www.joinYRC.com at the end of October to see how you can join in the team’s fun and successes in 2010 as a fan sponsor. Any businesses who want to be members or partners of the team should contact Hannah@yourracingcar.com or Kathryn@yourracincgcar.com to get involved.

Nathan Freke fittingly sealed the 2009 Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup title with a true champion’s performance at Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit, on Saturday, 3rd October – a brace of largely unchallenged wins handing the Kidderminster racer a deserved championship triumph.

At the wheel of his Century Motorsport entered G50, the 26-year-old started the weekend in perfect style by taking pole position for both of Saturday’s encounters and in the races he was never headed en-route to his 13th and 14th victories of the campaign.

Lining up on pole position at the start of the first race of the day, round 26, Nathan knew he needed just a handful of points to make sure of the title but he was determined to secure the championship in winning ways. Getting away cleanly from the grid, second placed starter Fulvio Mussi did pressurise into Paddock Hill Bend but Nathan held on to the lead on the run to Druids for the first time. Before the start of lap two, the Safety Car was deployed due to a lap one accident at Paddock Hill Bend involving Joachim Ritter and Chairman’s Cup campaigner Colin White. The re-start came at the beginning of the fifth tour and Nathan never looked likely to put a wheel wrong, even though Wrathall was never much more than a second adrift all the way to the chequered flag on lap 10.

Reflecting on a fantastic title victory, Nathan said: “I’m pretty pleased! In the week leading up to this event we knew the 10 points we needed to make sure of the title wasn’t a lot to get but I’ve seen leads like that taken away before. I’ve always loved Brands Hatch, the car was sublime on Friday in the test, and to win and take the championship in style is fantastic.”

In round 27, Nathan won a by a clearer margin of almost two seconds from Mussi ,at the start pole-sitter Nathan and fellow front-row starter Wrathall made an even getaway but with the inside line his, the new champion held on to the lead, to record yet another lights to flag victory including the fastest lap.

Newly crowned 2009 Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup Champion Nathan concluded his outstanding season in winning style on, Sunday, 4th October, with his 15th victory of the campaign during the final race of the year.

Although heading into round 28 with the pressure of the title battle lifted from his shoulders, the Century Motorsport driver was nonetheless made to work incredibly hard for the win by Dynojet’s Frank Wrathall. Nathan’s 2009 record speaks for itself and along with his stunning total of 15 wins the 26-year-old secured seven other podium finishes on his way to a huge 125-point margin at the head of the driver standings in his first season of G50 Cup action. In addition, he never failed to finish a race.

Reflecting on a truly outstanding season, the champion commented: “It’s been fantastic and this weekend has just been the perfect end to the year for us. I knew the last race would be hard, Frank (Wrathall) did a great job and it was very tight at the finish. The start was good but I had a big slide through the back section which knocked my confidence a bit and so I slowed the pace a little.

“I could see Frank catching but I knew if I didn’t make any mistakes and drove a tight race, he wouldn’t be able to get past. In the end I managed to hold it to the line and I want to thank the team for doing such a fantastic job all year, the car was so consistent yet again. To end the season with a win is superb, looking back it really couldn’t have gone any better.”

At the start of this afternoon’s race, Nathan led away from pole position but Wrathall was determined to try and get ahead early as he attempted to run around the outside of the 2009 champion at the fearsome Paddock Hill Bend. Nathan held the lead though on the inside and started to pull marginally clear as Wrathall began to come under pressure from Tom Sharp and Fulvio Mussi.

Aiming to end the season on the biggest of highs, Nathan set a new lap record on the third lap but this was later bettered by Mussi, as Nathan continued to extend his lead, Wrathall’s car started to come into its own and he began to catch the Nathan while at the same time dropping his pursuers, and the fight for the win came down to a last-lap dash with Wrathall almost glued to the rear of Nathan’s Ginetta. With absolutely nothing separating the pair, Nathan managed to defend well enough into Clearways to keep Wrathall behind to win by less than a 10th of a second.

Final 2009 Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup Championship Positions:
Champion: Nathan Freke, 856pts; 2nd Frank Wrathall, 731pts; 3rd Carl Breeze, 629pts

Nathan is now considering his options for 2010, including expanding his Century Motorsport team to capitalise on their success this year as well as seeking opportunities in both Porsche Carrera Cup and Touring Cars to further his career.

Kidderminster’s Nathan Freke, racing for Century Motorsport had a varied weekend at Rockingham, but left requiring only 10 more point to clinch the Michelin Ginetta G50 championship at the final 3 races at Brands Hatch (Oct 3rd/4th).

After finishing runner-up to closest title rival Frank Wrathall in Saturday’s 10-lap race and then dropping out of contention in Sunday morning’s 24th round with alternator problems, although after a pit stop he did manage a top 10 finish. Nathan scorched to a clear victory in the third of the weekend’s races to lead home team-mate Benji Hetherington in the first ever one-two finish for the EOS Productions-backed squad.

Frank Wrathall had closed down nathan’s advantage to 64 points with a win in round 24, capitalising well on the car problems encountered by Nathans. While it is still mathematically possible for Wrathall to win the 2009 Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup, the odds are stacked massively against him and Nathan will only need an 11th place finish in the first of the trio of races at Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit next month to seal the title victory.

Nathan’s 12th win of the season in round 25 came off the back of a controlled drive from pole position, speaking after round 25, Nathan said: “This win makes up for the problem in the previous race. I didn’t get the best start while Frank (Wrathall) got away well, but then at Deene all I could see behind was carnage. My car was sublime, the team has done a fantastic job all season and I’m ecstatic to see team mate Benji (Hetherington) on the podium too; a one-two for Century Motorsport, it can’t get any better.”

The season finale of the 2009 Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup with rounds 26, 27 and 28 will be taking place over the weekend 3rd/4th October at Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit in Kent.

Nathan is now considering his options for 2010 and is looking at either British Touring Cars or the Porsche Carrera Cup, both of which will require extensive funding.

Opportunities with Nathan Freke can be explored by calling either of the numbers below or e mail mail@centurymotorsport.com.

Century Motorsport
07947 883103
07710 232813
www.centurymotorsport.com
www.nathanfreke.com
www.starting-karting.com

There was only one new name on the grid for the Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup qualifying at Rockingham. It was traffic free, but gearbox cooler pump problems made the YourRacingCar.com (YRC) car sluggish resulting in a consistent but mid-order qualifying position of sixth for the weekend’s three races. Saturday afternoon’s race saw YRC’s car squeezed out, but YRC’s driver Fulvio Mussi held on to the car in fronts rear and took his place back on lap 4. Then Fulvio hounded down close Cup rival Tom Sharp and made a move on lap 8 which resulted in YRC taking the chequered flag of the 10 lap race in 5th despite some rear damage from the action.

Sunday morning’s contest saw an early racing incident lifting the YRC car and weakening the left rear bodywork. Further on in the race Fulvio was again defending his position as his car was bumped up the rear several times by Sharp. Eventually the heavily damaged left rear shearing into the rubber was too much for the tyre – puncturing as Fulvio came out of the hairpin. Skilfully he got the car back to the pits for an unscheduled stop. Other incidents and mechanical problems for competitor’s cars shuffled the pack and Fulvio rejoined the race in 8th and held position until the end.

The final race saw a second corner run in with title chasing Frank Wrathall leaving the YRC car without a bonnet. Incredible driving from Fulvio ensured the YRC car came over the line despite the body damage. The loss of another car from the front of the pack meant that despite the aerodynamic disadvantage to the YRC car, Fulvio brought it home for the fans in sixth; only to lose ten Cup points as a result of the judicial enquiry into the early incident with Wrathall. It’s still enough to take Fulvio into the final race weekend of the Cup fourth, but with Sharp and returning previously retired Christian Dick close on his wheels.

Hannah James, Team Manager, said; “Fulvio showed why he is the fan’s favourite this weekend. Despite a mid-pack qualifying he has fought hard to retain our Cup position. Whilst the television coverage is welcomed by our sponsors we’d rather not be racing with a battle scarred car throughout the weekend – Fulvio’s got talent! Others would have struggled to bring the car home at this circuit let alone in sixth in the final race.”

YRC are looking forward to seeing more of the YRC fans drop by the team’s garage at Brands Hatch on 3rd and 4th October and by joining YRC before 24th September fans will have time to get their name and picture on the car this year. Their money will go towards the repairs on the car. It’s simple go and press the ‘Engine Start’ button at www.joinyrc.com. Businesses wanting to come to the racing to see their website over a wheel arch as one of our tyre sponsors should email Kathryn@yourracingcar.com.

Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup dominator Nathan Freke all but secured the 2009 title at Rockingham in Northamptonshire this afternoon, Sunday, 20th September – the Century Motorsport racer requiring just 10 more points to clinch the championship with three races remaining.

After finishing runner-up to closest title rival Frank Wrathall in Saturday’s 10-lap race and then dropping out of contention in this morning’s 24th round with alternator problems, Freke scorched to a clear victory in the third of the weekend’s races to lead home team-mate Benji Hetherington in the first ever one-two finish for the EOS Productions-backed squad.

Wrathall had closed down Freke’s advantage to 64 points with a superb win in round 24, capitalising well on the car problems encountered by the championship leader. But the Dynojet racer was sent spinning into retirement at Deene Hairpin on the opening lap of this afternoon’s race, the result of contact from behind, to leave his slim title hopes in tatters.

While it is still mathematically possible for Wrathall to win the 2009 Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup, the odds are stacked massively against him and Freke will only need an 11th place finish in the first of the trio of races at Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit next month to seal the title victory.

Freke’s 12th win of the season in round 25 came off the back of a controlled drive from pole position but he may have had to fight harder for the spoils had Fulvio Mussi not made contact with the rear of Wrathall’s car at Deene on lap one, ruling the multiple race winner out on the spot.

Following a short Safety Car period, which came as a result of the aforementioned incident, Freke led the field away ahead of Hetherington with G50 Cup debutant Adam Morgan flying the flag for Dynojet as he moved into the top three with a good pass into Deene on Christian Dick. Tom Sharp then managed to battle his way past the Speedworks driver to grab fourth at Pif-Paf.

Morgan started to come under serious pressure from Sharp but he held firm for several laps, giving a very good account of himself on his first weekend in a G50. The breakthrough for Sharp, however, came on lap seven at Deene and then Morgan slipped back to fifth after running wide at Yentwood.

The top five positions remained static from that point on with Freke winning by 1.3 seconds from Hetherington, Sharp taking his IDL car to third and Dick crossing the line just over a second clear of the impressive Morgan. Mussi, who was delayed in the lap one incident with Wrathall, fought back in his damaged yourracingcar.com G50 to take sixth ahead of Chairman’s Cup winner Richard Sykes.

Further behind, the move of the race came from Total Control Racing’s Carl Breeze when he managed to grab eighth position from Colin White. Held up in the lap one skirmish at Deene, Breeze tumbled down the order. His move around the outside of White though, which started at Pif-Paf and continued along Steel Straight, through Gracelands and into Tarzan, was a memorable effort.

Speaking after round 25, Freke said: “This win makes up for the problem in the previous race. I didn’t get the best start while Frank (Wrathall) got away well, but then at Deene all I could see behind was carnage. My car was sublime, the team has done a fantastic job all season and I’m ecstatic to see Benji (Hetherington) on the podium too; a one-two for Century Motorsport, it can’t get any better.”

Round 24 was all about Wrathall as he cruised to a 13 second win to perfectly back-up the success he enjoyed in Saturday’s outing. Getting away from pole position cleanly, Wrathall headed Freke and soaked up huge pressure from the points leader as the top two pulled clear of the rest initially.

Sharp made a good start from fourth on the grid to move ahead of Breeze into third but contact part way around the opening lap led to a shake-up in the running order with Breeze, White, Sykes and Sharp all suffering in a series of incidents.

Back at the front, Freke continued to pressurise Wrathall for the lead while Mussi ran in third position ahead of Hetherington, just half a second splitting the second pairing. On lap eight though, Freke started to slow as an alternator problem impeded his pace and he was forced to pit at the end of the 10th tour having already slipped to fifth.

He did manage to rejoin and take the points for 10th place as the last of the classified finishers though, three laps down on Wrathall, with Hetherington taking second place – and a new Ginetta G50 Cup lap record of 1m23.894 seconds (83.24mph) – ahead of Dick, Morgan and Joachim Ritter.

Tony Hughes took his maiden Chairman’s Cup win with a fine sixth place while Mussi could only manage eighth, behind Julien Draper, having been forced to pit with damaged bodywork at the back of his car which was rubbing on the rear tyres.

Commenting at the end of round 24, Wrathall said: “I think I had it pretty easy in this race. Early on, the car was moving around a lot but as soon as Nathan (Freke) dropped back with his problem I could get into my rhythm. It’s great to take another win.”

There are just two weeks to wait until the season finale of the 2009 Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup with rounds 26, 27 and 28 taking place over the weekend 3rd/4th October at Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit in Kent.

Provisional 2009 Ginetta G50 Cup Championship Positions (after Rd25):
1st Nathan Freke, 746pts; 2nd Frank Wrathall, 645pts; 3rd Carl Breeze, 583pts; 4th Fulvio Mussi, 429pts; 5th Tom Sharp, 394pts; 6th Christian Dick, 389pts

Photo by Jakob Ebrey Photography.

In Sunday’s Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup action, TCR’s drivers all had incidents of one type or another with both races proving to be tricky. The best result came with an excellent top five result for Joachim Ritter during round 24, three places ahead of Fulvio Mussi who was forced to pit midway through with damage. Carl Breeze was involved in contact early on which led to a retirement.

In round 25, Mussi was the best-placed of the drivers with a sixth place finish, two spots ahead of Breeze who again had a trying race. The latter did produce the pass of the day though when running around the outside of Colin White from Pif-Paf, along Steel Straight, through Gracelands and then making the move stick at Tarzan Hairpin. Ritter, meanwhile, finished in 11th position.

Brookes added: “Other than Joachim’s top five in the first race, Sunday was a very difficult day for the Ginetta team. We’re not sure why everything seemed to go wrong but that’s the way it goes sometimes. It’s very unfortunate but we plan to be back stronger in two weeks and get back to the front where we should be.”

The final two rounds of the ELF Renault Clio Cup and the last three races of the Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup will take place a fortnight from now, 3rd/4th October, at Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit in Kent.

Photo by Jakob Ebrey Photography

Last week at Silverstone the Michelin Ginetta G50 Championship had its latest meeting at Silverstone, supporting the British Touring Championship, and Nathan Freke managed to win all 3 races.

As Nathan commented “Knowing Silverstone well I was full of confidence going into the weekend – Friday testing went well, quickest in both sessions and the car seemed to be dialled in great.” On Saturday morning the single qualifying session was held and the fastest three times counted for the grid positions for the three races over the weekend. After Qualifying Nathan said “Qualifying was very tight, putting it on pole by only 0.05s was closer than I would have liked but was still happy with the result!” The weather on the Saturday was bright and the crowds had the added attraction of the Air show, which included at the end of the day a fly past by a Vulcan bomber. For the first race on Saturday championship contender Frank Wrathall pushed Nathan hard for most of the race, but he held on to win. On the Sunday’s 1^st race again Wrathall pushed Nathan really hard but this time he managed to pull a small gap by the end of the race and so get to the chequered flag with a comfortable lead. As the Sunday races are covered live by ITV4 this meant an interview with ITV’s Louise Goodman before the trip to the podium truck and the awards of the trophies and champagne. The final race later on Sunday was held after there had been a brief shower so all the teams were leaving their tyre choice until the last minute, but with a dry line appearing and the track drying the correct decision of slick tyres was made. This time Nathan started in 2^nd place behind Wrathall and had a great battle until he managed to get past on the National straight and then held this lead until the chequered flag. After the races Nathan commented “The races went pretty much went to plan, though the first 2 races were very tough with Frank Wrathall pushing me very hard so I had to drive a tight race and not make any mistakes, thankfully it worked and I got 3 great wins. The third race was all a bit of a panic with tyre choice being a big decision! I started on grid in 2^nd place and so Wrathall got away in the lead but I could see that I had a quicker car than him. I waited for the race to settle then made my move… once in front I knew I had the pace to get away and went on to win by a decent margin.” “The weekend was sublime and couldn’t have gone better from a points perspective! Looking forward to Rockingham in 3 weeks (Sep 19/20)!!

Even though six races still remain in the Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup, Total Control Racing has been officially confirmed as 2009 Team Champions in its debut year in the category with almost double the points of its nearest rival.

With the results from this past weekend’s Silverstone National Circuit races now declared final, TCR has scored an outstanding 1,000 points from the 22 rounds completed so far and cannot be caught over the remaining events at Rockingham in Northamptonshire and Brands Hatch in Kent.

To date Carl Breeze has taken seven race victories and seven other podiums for the team and is currently third overall in the driver standings, even though his entire season looked in jeopardy at Oulton Park in May when his car was T-boned at high speed by the unsighted Mark Proctor.

Team-mate Fulvio Mussi has been a consistent front-runner all year but his true breakthrough came at Knockhill in Scotland last month when he achieved his maiden Ginetta G50 Cup podium in the first of the weekend’s races, triggering a run of three successive visits to the rostrum. He is currently fourth in the championship.

Danish racer Joachim Ritter joined the TCR fold prior to the second event of the season at Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire, his arrival bolstering the squad’s attack. Improving markedly throughout the year, Ritter secured a season-best sixth place finish during round 20 at Knockhill to add to a string of consistent top 10 results. At present, he is a highly creditable 10th in the driver standings.

Winning the team’s title at its first attempt in the Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup is a terrific achievement for Wednesbury-based TCR, team principal Lee Brookes commenting: “We’re absolutely delighted with the official confirmation we’ve won the team’s championship with two meetings to go. It’s a great result and shows what an excellent job our three drivers and the entire team has done.”

TCR will be back in action just over a fortnight from now, 19th/20th September, with rounds 23, 24 and 25 of the Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup and rounds 17 and 18 of the ELF Renault Clio Cup taking place at Rockingham International Super Sports Car Circuit in Northamptonshire.

Provisional 2009 Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup Standings (after Rd22):
Drivers: 3rd Carl Breeze, 547pts; 4th Fulvio Mussi, 377pts; 10th Joachim Ritter, 227pts
Teams: Champions – Total Control Racing, 1000pts

Photo by Jakob Ebrey Photography.

TCR’s Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup squad had a tricky time at Silverstone National Circuit today with both Carl Breeze and Fulvio Mussi struggling with engine-related power issues which ultimately cost both the chance of a potential podium result.

For title challenger Breeze, a strong run to fourth place was a good result all things considered while Mussi had to call on all of his defensive nous to keep a train of cars behind him for almost the entire duration of the 21st round. Better fortune went the way of the team’s Danish driver, Joachim Ritter, who produced one of his best drives of the year to take a very competitive ninth place.

Breeze lined up fifth on the grid for this afternoon’s G50 Cup encounter and although getting away from the line well, he found himself boxed in on the inside run to Copse behind Chris Dittmann and so lost a place to Tom Sharp.

It didn’t take the TCR ace long though to get into the top four where he remained to the chequered flag, pressuring Dittmann for the podium throughout while at the same time defending his top four placing well from the attentions of Sharp.

Mussi made his Yourracingcar.com backed machine as wide as possible to hold on to seventh place with a terrific effort and in doing so he increased his points cushion in fourth place in the driver standings. Ritter, meanwhile, secured his 12th top 10 result with an impressive drive, gaining two places on his starting slot of 11th position and also moving into ninth in the championship.

“We’re definitely lacking some straight-line speed with Carl and Fulvio, we think there’s an engine issue with both of their cars so we need to get that looked into more deeply”, said Brookes, “Taking that into consideration, Carl did a great job to take a fourth place away today and Fulvio defended fantastically to take seventh place after he received yet more contact – he did very well.

“Joachim set some impressive lap times today, his ninth place was a good finish and especially with the fact we had a much bigger grid of cars this weekend. He’s improving more and more and picking up his pace nicely. We’re disappointed not to have been on the podium but the key thing is to get the power issue sorted for Carl and Fulvio so we can be back on top.”

TCR has three races to look forward to tomorrow, Sunday, 30th August, with round 22 of the Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup getting underway at 10.10 and round 16 of the ELF Renault Clio Cup following at around 12.00. The rescheduled 11th round of the Ginetta G50 Cup will take place at approximately 15.55. Please check listings for details of live television coverage on ITV4.