Stu-pendous Euro victory for Middleton
Ashington driver in top gear in Belgium
HIGHLY-RATED endurance racing duo Stuart Middleton of Ashington and Will Tregurtha have made an indelible early impression on the GT4 European Series.
In their maiden outing in the championship they claimed an an outstanding victory in race two at Zolder in Belgium.
Starting the event with a hugely competitive showing in qualifying - Middleton securing third on the grid for round one and Milton Keynes driver Tregurtha scorching to a maiden series pole position in the round-two session - in the races they delivered supreme performances.
They celebrated a richly-deserved maiden podium with third in race one - which later became second following a penalty for a rival.
Then in race two the reigning British GT4 champions – both part of the Ginetta Driver Development Programme – secured a dream result with victory for the No.55 HHC Motorsport Ginetta G55.
Racing against 43 other teams in the hugelypopular championship, with new cars from the likes of Audi, BMW and Mercedes, the seasonopening performance of the British duo and their trusty HHC-engineered Ginetta was nothing short of exceptional
Middleton said: “I was absolutely delighted with how our first weekend in the championship went.
“P2 and then a win from the two races, it was awesome and you cannot ask for much more than that from our first races in Europe and first at Zolder.
“We were racing against very experienced drivers and top teams, so we have to be happy with what we achieved.
“In practice we knew we were strong and so we were confident going into qualifying.
“I was happy with P3 and Will did a fantastic job with pole in his session, the team set the car up amazingly as they always do.”
Tregurtha added: “I am really happy, it was a fantastic weekend.
“To take pole in my first qualifying session in Europe was pretty awesome.
“We played it smart with the traffic and looked after the tyres and Stuart did well in his session too with P3.
“To finish on the podium in the first race was fantastic, I really did enjoy it.”
Beginning their maiden weekend in the GT4 European Series in impressive style, the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Stars were third fastest in the opening practice and in the top three again in session two – a very strong marker ahead of qualifying and the races.
Qualifying went just as well, Middleton securing the third-fastest time for the race-one grid with a lap of 1m38.454 seconds while Tregurtha scorched to the race-two pole position with a fantastic lap of 1m38.259 seconds.
In race two, Tregurtha made the most of his superb pole position by holding the lead off the start and then soaking up all sorts of pressure from the Audi of Patrick Zamparini.
As the opening quarter of an hour concluded, the safety car was deployed and when the action resumed shortly afterwards another incident almost instantly triggered its reappearance.
Building a cushion of more than five seconds and setting the fastest lap of the race, with around 19 minutes to run Treurtha made the regulation pit-stop to hand over to Middleton.
Great work from the HHC pit crew meant Middleton was able to slot into the race with a substantial lead.
Just under six seconds ahead of van der Ende’s McLaren, Middleton had everything in control into the last quarter of an hour but problematic backmarkers meant his advantage over the closing Nicolaj Moller-Madsen was reduced.
Driving impressively under immense pressure, Middleton did slip to second behind Moller-Madsen with a lap and a half to go - but the Dane had a time penalty which meant the HHC driver did not need to fight the position.
Despite taking the chequered flag in second place, Middleton and Tregurtha were victorious in the final classification by 20 seconds.
Next on the championship schedule for Middleton and Tregurtha is this weekend’s second meeting of the GT4 European Series at Brands Hatch in Kent.