Post matching 'G56 GT4'
King (Elite Motorsport) started the meeting as he meant to go on by setting the pace in both of the free practice sessions on Friday. The Ginetta Junior graduate carried that pace into qualifying the next day, with a blistering effort of 50.481 seconds securing him a third pole position of the season.
It was close at the top though, with less than a tenth of a second splitting the top three as Burns (Rob Boston Racing) and Tom Hibbert (Triple M Motorsport) highlighted their pace. Fourth meanwhile was Boston, as he made his first outing in the series for four years.
From pole position, King stormed clear of the pack and built a four second lead at one stage. While a mid-race safety car cut that advantage, he maintained his lead after the restart to secure a dominant lights-to-flag victory from Burns, who ran second throughout.
Hibbert fended off spells of pressure from Boston to complete the podium, with the latter himself having to hold off Carlito Miracco (Privateer) to secure fourth. Reece Somerfield (Elite Motorsport) took sixth after overtaking Fin Green (TCR) halfway through the race.
The main action of the race came in the Am Class. Jack Oliphant (Century Motorsport) converted a maiden class pole position into the lead for a long spell, however after the safety car period Colin White (CWS Motorsport) fought past to take the victory.
James Kell (Rob Boston Racing) followed him home in second, while Nathan Heathcote (Century Motorsport) took third on the road. A ten second time penalty for a false start dropped him to fourth though behind his team-mate Oliphant.
The second race of the weekend proved to be dramatic encounter the front of the field. King led away from pole position, however he was deemed to have made a false start, earning him a ten second penalty that was immediately applied on the timesheets.
With Burns and Boston in pursuit, King produced phenomenal pace at the front as he looked to build a gap at the front and minimise the damage of the penalty. Posting a new lap record, he was almost into second position in the revised times when the safety car emerged.
With his lead slashed, it was damage limitation again for King but an unfortunate moment at the chicane late on dropped him to second behind Burns. The championship leader took full advantage to pick up his fifth win of the campaign, while King lost further ground on the last lap.
Boston came home in second to complete a one-two finish for his eponymous team, while Hibbert completed the podium ahead of Miracco. King ended up fifth on the road, though the penalty put him back to ninth overall and seventh of the Pro contingent.
White led from lights-to-flag in the Am Class, but he had to work hard for the victory with Heathcote and then Oliphant pushing him hard. While a penalty demoted the former to fourth in class, Oliphant secured second position ahead of Darron Lewis (Team HARD).
The reverse grid for the final race of the weekend put Miracco on pole position in front of the live ITV4 television cameras. He led the field away, but Boston squeezed past at the hairpin at the end of the first lap and romped clear for a nine second win – 2,163 days on from his last GT4 SuperCup victory in 2013.
Miracco went on to run second for the rest of the race to take home his third piece of silverware for the campaign. Behind, a fierce battle took place for the final podium position between the two main title contenders, with King having passed Burns into Clark’s on lap nine.
As the race developed, Burns was visibly quicker at certain points on the circuit but a spirited defence from King kept him in front through to the chequered flag. Post-race however, King was handed a time penalty to put him behind Burns after being deemed to have gained an unfair advantage when overtaking for third.
Burns therefore completed a podium hat-trick for the weekend to extend his championship lead, while behind King the top six was completed by Hibbert and Green. In the Am Class, Kell impressively fought through from the rear of the field to take a long-awaited maiden class victory.
Oliphant and White joined him on the class podium, having been separated in the final results by Sam Randon (Team HARD), who completed a top ten hat-trick for his debut weekend. Dan Kirby (Rob Boston Racing) rounded out the finishers to end a tough weekend for him.
The penultimate meeting of the 2019 Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup season is coming up in two weeks’ time (28/29 September), with the championship visiting Silverstone for three races around the National circuit.
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