Ladell keeps points lead with clean sweep at Oulton
GINETTA GT4 SUPERCUP
Charlie Ladell’s championship advantage grew further in the Ginetta GT4 Supercup thanks to a confident brace of victories at Oulton Park.
The Rob Boston Racing man’s cause was helped further by a mixed weekend of fortunes for many of his closest rivals, Harry King losing out most of all after a meeting plagued by car troubles.
Not even a “perfect” lap from Andrew Gordon-colebrooke could stop Ladell from going one better to claim pole and victory in race one, Gordon-colebrooke making a crucial mistake at Old Hall on the second lap to negate his best qualifying effort so far.
“You don’t get many races like that,” said Ladell after a commanding win over his nearest title contender, Carl Boardley. “We got it really hooked up from qualifying and felt comfortable.”
Ladell doubled up with another dominant performance the following day, to make it five wins from the first eight races, and opening up a 25-point cushion over the consistent Boardley, who finished second for the sixth time in 2018.
Ladell’s cash-strapped team-mate
Adam Shepherd shook off budget concerns to round out the podium in both contests.
Tom Roche produced a fine comeback in the third of the Rob Boston Racing cars, meanwhile, after being bumped to seventh on the grid for disrespecting track limits in qualifying.
Roche took evasive action of Gordoncolebrooke’s recovering car in race one, and was forced to pit to remove grass from the car’s front splitter. What followed was a fine charge from ninth to fourth place, a late dive to the inside of Reece Somerfield’s G55 heading into the high-speed Druids right-hander proving the showpiece of his recovery.
“A great race,” he said. “It’s hard to overtake here but I went for it!”
King was limited to three laps in qualifying with suspension issues, and a broken toe-link removed him from second in the closing laps of the opening race. Starting 10th for race two, the Elite Motorsport man’s misery was compounded by a brief power failure that limited him to a lowly 10th.
Dave Brooks earned his first Am class win after the retirement of
Michael Crees in race one, sharing the wins with Colin White.