Daviid Pittard led from lights to flag in the first race of the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT5 Challenge at Silverstone, claiming his maiden victory in the series, but it wasn’t without a fight, after Brad Bailey pulled out all the stops to unnerve the championship newcomer.
Getting a good start off the line, Pittard led into the first corner as the remainder of the top five – Calvet, Bailey, Burns and Basey-Fisher – squabbled over the remaining spots, until a mistake for Calvet saw him drop to ninth.
With Clive Richards and Luke Davenport joining the developing squabble, they made light work of Burns over the ensuing lap to slip into fourth and fifth respectively by the third lap, whilst in the G20 class, a storming start for Stuart Pearson saw him power away with the lead, as Gary Simms, Nick Zapolski and Brian Murphy are left to race for the final two podium positions.
By lap four, Pittard had a two second lead over Bailey, who in turn had three seconds of breathing space from Basey-Fisher, however, over the course of the lap, a great drive from Bailey saw him slash the lead to just 0.1 seconds as they crossed the line to start lap seven.
Whilst Pittard is forced to drive extremely defensively to keep an ambitious Bailey behind, he wasn’t about to let his debut win get away from him, and a spin for Bailey which saw him drop to fifth allowed the SV21 driver to relax a little.
Behind, Bailey found himself chasing the tail of the Basey-Fisher, Richards and Davenport battle as Davenport forced Richards wide at Brooklands; taking fourth, and soon-after, third place in the process.
On the final lap, the two youngsters continue to position-swap over as they neared the flag, but it was Davenport who claimed second by just 0.150seconds, promoting him to the lead of the championship as Bailey’s race came to an end in the gravel at Luffield – his first DNF of the year.
Close behind were two fantastic last-lap fights – the first between Clive Richards and Gary Duckman, with the latter finishing in fifth – his best result of the season thus far, whilst Tor McIlroy pressed 2012 Ginetta G20 Champion over seventh place
Pearson took a comfortable G20 Class win with a 10 second advantage over Gary Simms and Brian Murphy, making it his sixth win out of a possible seven this year.
Source. Ginetta
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