Charlie Robertson took a fantastic victory during round four of the Michelin Ginetta GT4 SuperCup season at Donington Park over the weekend
The win, added to a second place finish in round five – helped elevate the Whyteleafe teenager into the outright lead of the championship.
Increasing his tally of podium finishes to four from the opening six races of his maiden campaign in the category, the Investigo and Blackstar-backed 17-year-old now holds a two point advantage over chief rival Andrew Watson in the title race.
Starting the weekend superbly by securing pole position for the opening race, round four, the Whyteleafe-based youngster made the most of his grid-topping slot by lighting up the rear wheels perfectly to open a clear lead on the run to Redgate for the first time in Saturday's encounter.
Under pressure from the chasing Ginetta G55 of Pepe Massot as the lead duo headed out of the Old Hairpin and up through Schwantz Curve, Robertson defended the line well and saw off an attempted pass into Redgate at the beginning of lap two.
Edging away by fractions of a second thereafter, the HHC Motorsport driver reeled off a series of fastest laps and upped his advantage to just shy of one second by the end of the seventh tour. Going on to set the quickest lap of the race on lap ten, with a time of 1m09.599 seconds (102.36mph), the series rookie claimed his second win in just four Ginetta GT4 SuperCup races by 1.6 seconds.
"We got it together in qualifying, managed to get pole, and then the target was to get a lights-to-flag win", said Robertson. "Pepe [Massot] was really quick behind me over the first couple of laps, he made a challenge a couple of times but I managed to hold him off. When I got the little gap I managed to maintain it throughout the race."
Ahead of the first of Sunday's pair of races, round five, persistent rainfall made circuit conditions very tricky and the only option for all drivers was to run with wet-weather Michelins. Unfortunately, Robertson wasn't able to get the launch he wanted as too much wheelspin dropped him back to fifth.
Following an early safety car interjection, racing resumed on lap four with Robertson immediately taking fourth place from former category champion Carl Breeze at Redgate and then grabbing third in quick succession from Watson at the Old Hairpin.
At Redgate the next time around, he passed Harry Woodhead for second and then set off after Massot who had built a lead of over two seconds. Reeling off a series of very rapid laps, including the best of the race two laps from the finish, Robertson piled on the pressure and when an attempted pass into Redgate on the penultimate lap didn't work out he sensibly settled for second.
Round six supplied a frustrating conclusion to an otherwise excellent weekend when several teams changed from treaded to slick tyres prior to the green flag lap, as the weather started to significantly improve. Understanding this to be in contravention of the rules, HHC and fellow teams Douglas Motorsport and JHR Developments chose to keep their cars on wets to avoid likely penalties.
When racing began, a total of just five cars were on the actual grid with the remainder queuing up at the end of the pitlane. While Robertson was able to slice his way into second after a sluggish start, the rapidly degrading tyres on the ever-drying track meant an eventual finish of 10th place. Post-race, though, Watson was penalised for 'gaining an unfair advantage' which hoisted Robertson into ninth.
"We thought changing tyres before the green flag broke the rules and we didn't want to risk a penalty, so we decided to stick with the wets", explained Robertson. "In the end no action was taken though against any of the others, which was a pity.
"Overall, it's been another good weekend. We've been really competitive and to take two podiums and our second win is good going. Moving into the championship lead is the most important thing, it sets us up really nicely for the next round."
Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire will host rounds seven, eight and nine of the Michelin Ginetta GT4 SuperCup season a fortnight from now over the weekend 3rd/4th May.
