SV Racing’s David Pittard was elated after sealing a sensational Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup pole position at Silverstone on Saturday (27 September) and will lead a bumper 18-car grid – the largest of the season so far – away from the start of Round 23 tomorrow (Sunday 28 September).
Pittard was somewhat out of position in Friday’s (26 September) free practice sessions, ending FP1 in ninth and FP2 eighth with a seven tenths deficit to pacesetters Andrew Watson and Charlie Robertson, but felt the speed would be unlocked by making small setup tweaks and fitting fresh Michelin tyres.
The Letchworth Garden City resident went fifth on his first attempt but then knitted together the quickest first sector of all and a personal best second sector to record a 58.346s and go fastest overall.
Championship leader, Charlie Robertson, narrowed the gap slightly, but Jamie Orton and Andrew Watson served up a nail-biting finish to the 20-minute session by making last-minute improvements that brought them to within +0.075s of pole.
However, despite his rivals’ best efforts, Pittard kept a grip on the top of the timing screens and a customary burst of pure elation demonstrated the delight and surprise he felt at hooking up such a perfect lap, which “came out of nowhere”.
An excitable Pittard said: “That was cool! Silverstone National is quite a simple track so you can work out how fast your lap is going to be by the way you exit corners; Copse corner felt pretty decent, Becketts was very good, I thought I outbraked myself at Brooklands, Danny (Buxton) recommended a little change for Luffield after practice and I banged in the time.
“I never expected to see a 58.346s, I must admit, so I’m absolutely buzzing and there was an explosion of emotion once pole was secure and I was out of the car. It’s quite difficult to pass around here so I couldn’t have taken pole at a better place. It’s testament to SV Racing, the faith the team has, the preparation the guys put in and we’re getting our performance per pound spent, that’s for sure! Happy days!”
Mechanical issues truncated Friday’s free practice sessions for Cook, although a determined and persistent joint effort by SV Racing and Ginetta ensured the Bristol-based racer was back in the running on Saturday afternoon.
The KX Akademy scholar was limited to just 20 minutes of clear running on Friday and was therefore prevented from acclimatising to his new surroundings and making an impact on the timings, and he subsequently felt very green going into qualifying at Silverstone.
Discovering that lessons learned during his years of racing front-wheel-drive doesn’t translate to rear-wheel-drive machinery, Cook was starting from a blank sheet of paper and had it all to do to master his Ginetta G55 and put in a representative qualifying performance, while assessing the Michelin-backed GT4 Supercup as an option for his 2015 campaign.
Nevertheless, the 23-year old accepted and rose to the challenge with all the vim and vigour we’ve come to expect from him as a title contender in the Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup – Britain’s premier one-make saloon car championship – and gradually picked up his pace to breach the top ten in his first ever Ginetta GT4 Supercup qualifying session.
“We went faster again, but it’s not fast enough for my liking and the balance wasn’t quite right because that was our first trouble-free run and I had to treat it like a test session, staying out there from start to finish,” said Cook. “It was important to pound around and get some laps under my belt before the races tomorrow; although I had hoped to be higher than tenth, even though I feel I got everything out of the car. There’s more to come and that will come with more time on car setup. We just bolted on a base setup that we thought would be somewhere near the sweet spot and three tenths would have put me in fourth and we will continue to treat the races as a test and see what we can do.”
For more information on SV Racing, please visit the www.svracing.co.ukwebsite, ‘like’ the team’s Facebook page or follow @SV_Racing on Twitter andInstagram.