Tom Wrigley bounced back from a difficult Rockingham meeting to rebuild his championship lead over Will Burns at Silverstone last weekend. It was a weekend of firsts too, as Carl Boardley and Fraser Robertson celebrated their maiden wins whilst Callum Pointon made his podium debut.
Boardley kicked off his weekend topping the time sheets in qualifying as he took his maiden pole position ahead of his 60th SuperCup race. He plugged in his quickest lap at the halfway point in the session just before the rain started to fall on the Silverstone circuit.
Jamie Orton ended the session second, just ahead of Tom Wrigley and Mark Davies, both of whom had to carry three place grid penalties from Rockingham, pushing them down to fifth and sixth respectively, whilst promoting Callum Pointon and Ben Green up the starting order.
Off the line, a storming start for Orton from second on the grid saw him snatch the race lead on lap one. It was three abreast into the Maggots / Becketts complex for the first time and pole man Boardley ended up running wide and dropping to 17th, promoting Wrigley – who had started fifth – into second and Pointon third.
Whilst the leading trio stayed in that order throughout the 15 lap race – with Pointon picking up his first podium in the process – however, after the race, Wrigley was handed a 10 second penalty for a lap one incident putting him behind Pointon in the amended result. Boardley put on an impressive performance to finish in fifth, helped, in part, by the demise of a trio of rivals up ahead.
The first pair to lose out were Green and Davies. The pair had been embroiled in a fantastic fight for fourth with Burns until contact between saw both cars out of the race, with Burns handed fourth. There was more drama behind as Tom Hibbert’s wheel came loose and saw him out of the race following what was a storming recovery drive from the back of the grid to fifth place.
In the AM class, it was another dominant win for Colin White, who found himself enjoying a number of battles with pro drivers Boardley and Reece Somerfield as he drove his way to his 15th class victory. Joining him on the rostrum once again were Chris Ingram and David Brooks, who had a fantastic race for their positions.
The second SuperCup race looked set to be a corker as title rivals Wrigley and Burns lined up side by side on row two of the grid, and the Ginetta G55s certainly didn’t disappoint. Orton started from pole with Pointon alongside, but it was the TCR car that got the better start, sweeping into the race lead into Copse.
Pointon held onto his lead for nine laps before Orton pounced and snatched the place heading into Luffield. From there, Pointon went backwards as Boardley then made a move at Copse on lap 13. Pointon then had Wrigley right on his tail and as the pair did battle, Burns seized his opportunity and passed them both into Copse on lap 16 as the pair ran wide.
The pair traded places lap after lap, with Boardley getting in amongst the action on lap seven as he passed the pair to move from fifth to third. Burns returned the favour later on though, capitalising on the Boardley/Wrigley battle to snatch third at the flag, and take another four points out of Wrigley’s title advantage.
Having failed to finish the opening race of the weekend, Davies, Hibbert and Green enjoyed strong recovery drives to move up into the battle for sixth. Davies led this particular train, and after passing Gaffney, started to reel in the top five, but ran out of laps before being able to mount a real challenge. Similarly, Jack Mitchell put on a fantastic race to recover from a pit lane start to finish in ninth in what was his second ever SuperCup outing.
In the AM class, White was forced to retire a handful of laps into the action, thus promoting Robertson into first and his maiden race win. Behind, there was an awesome battle for second in class between Ingram, Tilley and Car, the trio eventually finishing in that order.
Davies started from pole position for race three thanks to the reverse grid draw. His teammate Pointon – with two wins under his belt – started alongside with more silverware in his sights. However, Davies held the lead off the line – and for much of the race – until he was handed a five second track penalty for track limit violations and subsequently passed on the road by Boardley and Wrigley, as well as by Burns on corrected times.
Orton, although one of the favourites to make his way through the pack, fell down the order after being passed by Green and Hibbert on lap four, before retiring the car after another two laps.
In the AM class, it was another incredibly dominant win for White. Despite starting at the back of the grid, he was up into the lead of the class after the very first lap. Brookes finished second, split from White by Pointon, who was in podium contention until he spun at Luffield on lap 13, dropping him to 12th.
The result means Wrigley has built his 19 point advantage to 33 following his trio of top four finishes – two of which were crucially ahead of his points rival Burns. The championship therefore will go down to the wire at Brands Hatch in a fortnights time (1/2 October 2016).
