Breakell Racing are ramping up their preparations for the Sports Prototype Cup visit to Monza next month, as their busy season of Ginetta racing continued in earnest with recent events at Donington Park and Oulton Park.
Following the unfortunate cancellation of the previous round at Portimão, the Sports Prototype Cup will be making a long-awaited return to the track next month with a special visit to Monza in Italy (10-12 September).
The event will see Breakell Racing compete at the world-famous ‘temple of speed’ on the support bill for the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, with an exciting development seeing the grid opened up to Radical SR3 cars alongside the Revolution A-Ones.
The Lancashire team have an arrive and drive package available in their Radical, alongside drives in Revolutions. All enquiries regarding competing with the team should be directed to info@breakellracing.co.uk or 07843 388161.
James Breakell - Team Principal:“We’re really excited to head to Monza next month. It was a great experience competing alongside Formula 1 at Portimão last season, so to get the chance again at such an iconic venue as Monza is an amazing opportunity for the team and our drivers.
“The introduction of Radical SR3’s to the grid is brilliant and we’ve got arrive and drive packages available in both our Radical and Revolutions. It’s an exciting opportunity not to be missed and we welcome all enquiries about competing in this prestigious event.”
This past weekend (31 July / 01 August), the Clitheroe based squad were at Oulton Park contesting the latest rounds of the Michelin Ginetta Junior Championship and Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup with Aqil Alibhai and Reece Somerfield respectively.
Competing at Oulton Park for the first time, Alibhai showed strong progression across free practice and qualifying before producing his best performance of the season so far in race one. From 24th on the grid, he gained three places on the opening lap before a red flag stoppage.
After the restart, the South African rising star continued his tremendous march up the order. Quickly moving into the points places, he was up to 17th before scything his way through some final lap incidents to emerge with a sensational seasons’ best 12th place result.
Unfortunately the planned second race of the weekend was later postponed due to delays to the timetable, meaning Alibhai will now contest four races next time out at Knockhill.
Somerfield meanwhile enjoyed a great weekend too. After qualifying eighth fastest, he showed his racing prowess with a fantastic drive in the opening race to charge up the order to fourth position at the chequered flag.
The Ginetta veteran then produced a typically rocket launch in race two to storm from fourth to second by the opening corner. Starring on the live ITV4 television coverage, he put up a valiant defence in his podium battle before ultimately finishing in fifth.
James Breakell: “It’s been a great visit to Oulton Park, especially experiencing our first BTCC weekend with all the fans. We couldn’t be prouder of Aqil for a truly fantastic drive in the race. He drove smartly, stayed out of trouble and made some moves to secure a real confidence-boosting result.
“Reece did a brilliant job. After a great drive to fourth in race one, to see him up battling for the podium again in race two was mega. He’s on a great run of form at the moment and we’re excited to see what both he, and Aqil, can achieve at Knockhill next.”
Earlier in the month, Breakell Racing returned to Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT5 Challenge action at Donington Park (10/11 July). Sean Peters was back with the team for his second appearance of the season, having enjoyed a strong showing on his debut at Brands Hatch.
Peters once again lined up in the competitive ‘GT5 Challenge Am’ class for the three races in Leicestershire and showed fantastic progress across the weekend. Building up his pace across practice sessions on Friday, he then qualified sixth in class on Saturday morning.
A composed drive in an action-packed opening race that afternoon saw him stay out of trouble and score a brilliant seasons’ best fourth place finish. He followed that up with fifth in each of Sunday’s races, with his continued improvement shown by his fastest lap coming in the final encounter.
James Breakell: “We’re really pleased with Sean’s progress across the Donington Park weekend. Considering it was only his second outing in the car, he’s getting grips with it well and made consistent improvements with his lap times from session to session. The fourth place finish in class was a deserved reward for all his hard work.”
A busy month ahead for Breakell Racing features three more weekends of Ginetta racing. The GT5 Challenge continues at Snetterton (07/08 August), with Silas Rytter making his debut, before the GT4 SuperCup and Juniors go racing at Knockhill (14/15 August) and Thruxton (28/29 August).
Ginetta images from Jakob Ebrey Photography.