'Tremendous Weekend' for Freke at Knockhill
Kidderminster's Nathan Freke had a great weekend at Knockhill with two wins and a 2nd place in the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup races that support the MSA Dunlop British Touring Car Championship.
After the last strong round at Snetterton Freke and his Century Motorsport team were split with his Scottish engineers (Jamie & Martin) supporting him at Knockhill with the rest of the team at Rockingham for the British GT races, managed by his father Clive.
With the weather regularly a variable the start of the weekend for qualifying was in wet conditions and Freke was hampered by a misting windscreen and so his laptimes were down on where they should be, particularly as he had been quickest in all 3 test sessions on Friday. Knowing how important the grid slot would be on the very last lap Freke loosened his racing seatbelt so he could clear his windscreen and then went to the limit and over to get a deserved pole position, but only by a very small margin to rival Sharp.
As Freke commented, "That was the most frightening lap I have ever done and I am glad it paid off with a pole position"
By the time the 1st race set off on its green flag lap the rain had moved away and the circuit was dry. As the lights went out Freke made a near-perfect start and kept ahead of his rival Sharp, who was presurising him strongly, so securing an excellent lights-to-flag win during round 18 - his fifth victory from the last nine race starts.
As Freke said after the race "It went well, Tom (Sharp) did put a lot of pressure on me but it is difficult to overtake here", said Freke, "I knew if I kept everything clean I could make his life hard but I did make a little mistake at Clark which did allow him to get right back onto me on one lap, but we got enough of a gap and controlled it.
"It's the first race, brand new tyres, so you need to try and keep the car in line. If you start burning tyres up in the first race, by the time you get to the third race of the weekend you're really going to be in trouble. The car was absolutely faultless and I'm really pleased with another win - we're creeping up on them in the championship."
The Sunday of the main race day, when the other two races would take place, was a lovely sunny day at Knockhill and Freke was determined to maximize his points total against his three rivals for the title - Breeze, Sharp & Morgan.
At the beginning of race two a determined Sharp battled hard to get past Freke but he held his lines and by mid race he had pulled out a gap which meant he could drive a little smoother and conserve his tyres for the final race of the weekend. As Freke summed up "The car was perfect and allowed me to drive a controlled race after I had battled with Sharp in the opening laps. Thanks to my team for setting up a great car"
The final race of the weekend had a reverse grid with the number 5 pulled so Freke would start the last race in 5th place.
With a Ginetta G50 on pole it was going to be a strong battle, but with rival Breeze ending up in the gravel trap Freke was now in 3rd place. After the safety car came in Sharp, Freke & Morgan all got past Fanin (Ginetta G50) so the order stayed the same to the flag even though Freke closed up on Sharp, but opportunity to overtake never came up.
At the end of the weekend Freke commented "This has been the best weekend of the season and I have closed up to the 3 drivers in front of me and will be looking to maximize my racing at the last 3 meetings to see if I can next season be on the BTCC grid"
The championship now moves onto Rockingham with the next races on September 17 & 18th.
Story & Imagery : Chris Roberts (WiderViewPhoto.com) 
