Nathan expressed his delighted as a last minute dash across the finishing line saw him crowned The Shuttle’s Sports Personality of 2009. He won a thrilling vote on the Kidderminster Shuttle website to take the title in the most fiercely contested battle since the competition started three years ago.

With thousands of votes registered over three weeks, Nathan took the title with 39 per cent of the vote. It took a late surge in votes for Nathan to see off Sarah Biles, who had edged into the lead on Monday morning, only for the driver’s supporters to hit back before the noon deadline. Nathan was nominated after winning the Ginetta G50 Cup last year with a mammoth points lead, admitted he has been staggered by the level of support he has had.

“It’s brilliant to actually be named the Shuttle’s Sports Personality for 2009.

“It was such a thrilling race and it wasn’t clear until the vote had finished who had actually won, I came back off holiday on Sunday night and rallied the troops for one last push and it seems to have worked. I’d like to thank everyone who has voted for me, I’m really grateful that everyone has got behind me. It has made me feel part of the local community and the world of motorsport, I’ve had race marshalls, drivers and teams get behind me, which has been amazing.”

Nathan will receive a silver salva to commemorate being named Sports Personality.

“I have yet to finalise my driving plans for 2010, but it is looking more likely that I will compete in the GT4 class of the British GT Championship as well as driving in selected endurance races such as the Silverstone 24 hour race. I will also be running 4 drivers in the Ginetta G50 Cup with my Century Motorsport team.

With the Championship wrapped up Nathan now set about finishing the season in style by winning the remaining 2 races, which would give him a hat trick of wins at one meeting for the 3rd time. Race 2 was a near repeat of race 1 and an umcomplicated win, Race 3 however was a lot closer with Frank Wrathall right on his tail at the end. A brilliant end to the season, 15 wins, 14 poles, 22 podiums and 12 fastest laps, 28 finishes = 856 points and the Championship.  Picture by Chris Roberts / WiderViewPhotos

Last week at Silverstone the Michelin Ginetta G50 Championship had its latest meeting, supporting the British Touring Championship, and Nathan managed to win all 3 races.

As Nathan commented “Knowing Silverstone well I was full of confidence going into the weekend - Friday testing went well, quickest in both sessions and the car seemed to be dialled in great.” On Saturday morning the single qualifying session was held in which the fastest three times counted for the grid positions for the three races over the weekend. After Qualifying Nathan said “Qualifying was very tight, putting it on pole by only 0.05s was closer than I would have liked but was still happy with the result!” The weather on the Saturday was bright and the crowds had the added attraction of the Air show, which included at the end of the day a fly past by a Vulcan bomber. For the first race on Saturday championship contender Frank Wrathall pushed Nathan hard for most of the race, but he held on to win. On the Sunday’s 1^st race again Wrathall pushed Nathan really hard but this time he managed to pull a small gap by the end of the race and so get to the chequered flag with a comfortable lead. As the Sunday races are covered live by ITV4 this meant an interview with ITV’s Louise Goodman before the trip to the podium truck and the awards of the trophies and champagne. The final race later on Sunday was held after there had been a brief shower so all the teams were leaving their tyre choice until the last minute, but with a dry line appearing and the track drying the correct decision of slick tyres was made. This time Nathan started in 2^nd place behind Wrathall and had a great battle until he managed to get past on the National straight and then held this lead until the chequered flag. After the races Nathan commented “The races went pretty much went to plan, though the first 2 races were very tough with Frank Wrathall pushing me very hard so I had to drive a tight race and not make any mistakes, thankfully it worked and I got 2 great wins. The third race was all a bit of a panic with tyre choice being a big decision! I started on grid in 2^nd place and so Wrathall got away in the lead but I could see that I had a quicker car than him. I waited for the race to settle then made my move… once in front I knew I had the pace to get away and went on to win by a decent margin.” “The weekend was sublime and couldn’t have gone better from a points perspective! Looking forward to Rockingham in 3 weeks (Sep 19/20)!!  Picture by Chris Roberts / WiderViewPhotos

Nathan had a much better weekend at Knockhill with two wins and a 4^th place finish in the Ginetta G50 Cup series. 

On Saturday morning Nathan commented ”With the forecast on Saturday being wet things were uncertain with no dry testing …. qualifying was still damp although a dry line appearing wets were the only choice - I knew that the last lap would be the quickest and that it was going to be vital to be right on it from the word go. Everything went to plan and I got 3 poles with a healthy margin.”

The first race on Saturday morning was held on a wet track but Nathan made a great start, with his main rival Breeze slotted into 2^nd place but he was soon having to battle closely with Frank Wrathall and Fulvio Mussi with both trying him. On the last lap Wrathall and Breeze tangled leaving Breeze in the gravel. Nathan had kept his calm and kept a good lead throughout the race to get a deserved win, in what were tricky conditions.

The next race on Sunday morning started off with most of the cars going out on slicks and then having to change to wet weather tyres back on the grid, which took an extra few minutes. Nathan again made a good start from the line and led a group of 5 cars contesting the race on a wet track initially but with a dry line appearing through the race.  Wrathall stayed closely with Nathan for the first part of the race but then slipped behind, with Nathan winning by over 2 seconds at the line for another deserving victory.

For the final race the sun had come out and “for the first time over the weekend we were certain what tyres would be needed!! A good start saw me storm away to a 1 second lead - as the race went on the tyres started to go off slightly and my lead was decreasing by around 1 tenth a lap - I felt everything was under control until lap 19 where I clipped the kerb just too hard in the chicane which launched the car into a spin.. with the engine stalled I lost over 20seconds and could only recover to 4th. “

At the end of the weekend Nathan commented “On reflection the weekend was a great success - sure it would have been nice to win 3 in a row but these things happen and we managed to extent our lead from 17points to 64. We are now fully focused for Silverstone in 2 weeks (Aug 29/30) and are really looking forward to it!

Pictures and words by Chris Roberts / WiderViewPhotos

Nathan Freke was again competing in the Ginetta G50 Cup series, as it moved to the Norfolk circuit, Snetterton, after a summer break and all the drivers were keen to get back on track.

Nathan did get a podium finish in the last race but was disappointed in the other two races, particularly after Friday’s free practice things had been looking good. As Nathan commented “With a new engine in for Friday I was uncertain about how quick we would be but things soon sorted themselves out and I ended up quickest on the Friday - things were looking great until the last lap of the test where i had an electrical issue…. at first it seemed to be a niggle but after further investigation the problem appeared to be far more severe than first thought.After no success in pin pointing the problem the decision was made to run the car without any warnings on the dash and more importantly no flat shift.” 

There were two races on the Saturday and in race 1 Nathan battled up to 4^th position but the lack of his normal flat shift, meant he had to briefly come off the throttle with changing gear. This meant he was losing momentum down the straights, but his race craft kept him ahead of some of his rivals at the flag.

In the 2^nd of two races he had a great start off his grid position of 4^th to be on the tail of his main rival (Breeze) by the 1^st corner and he battled to stay in that position for the majority of the race. Keeping ahead of his rivals with great positioning of his car at both the Esses and Russell Chicane, until late in the race when he had a broken rear suspension bush which put him off in a spin, resulting in a dissapointing 9^th place finish, and not the podium his superior driving had deserved. As Nathan commented “A bad finish to a bad day!”

Sunday was only scheduled for one race - with the same issue still hounding us the team moral was low. After a fuel consumption test of the Saturday race we discovered that the car had used 7 gallons of fuel over 18 laps, some 3 gallons more than it should have. The electrical problem has worsened and was causing the engine to massively over fuel. Not only was this adding to my lack of pace it was also putting the engine at risk of failure due to fuel contaminated oil. The Ginetta support crew were on hand all weekend to assist the best they could with the problem and taking into account our budget restrictions very kindly offered to help me out for the final race. With a new ECU and wiring loom on the car the problem was solved and suddenly the 3rd race was looking a little more promising! starting 5th once more I managed to get another good start and grabbed 3rd at the first possible opportunity - unfortunately I couldn’t make any inroads into the leaders gap and had a pretty solo race but was glad to be back on the podium and to get back down to some good pace. At the end of the weekend Nathan said “With the issue we were faced with on Friday I think that we did well to get the results we did - the championship lead I had has been greatly reduced but I’m still positive and know that now all the problems are sorted I can get back to winning ways at Knockhill. I would like to thank the support of my team, main sponsors EOS Productions, and Hows My Driving” Picture and words by Chris Roberts / WiderViewPhoto

Nathan will partner 17-year-old single-seater racer Benji Hetherington in a Ginetta prepared by his own team, Kidderminster-based Century Motorsport. The aim is to take the fight to the dominant team in the GT4 class of British GT, the Team WFR pairing of Jody Firth and Nigel Moore, who have won seven times in 10 outings.

“We had hoped to do several rounds this season, but date clashes have meant we have had no opportunity until now. It’s going to be a good experience, and we are hoping that we might be able to provide a little difficulty for the class regulars. That said, the two-hour race is a tough one to tackle and we’ve never tried the car without the wing, so it will be a steep learning curve.”

Nathan backed by EOS Productions, was British Formula Ford Champion in 2006 and a BRDC Young Driver of the Year finalist last season. He’s won six times this season in the G50 Cup to build a handsome championship lead.

Picture courtesy of Chris Roberts / WiderViewPhoto.com

Opening his account at Donington Park in mid-May, the Century Motorsport racer hasn’t been stopped since and during the 12th round of the championship he once again produced a superb lights-to-flag performance to open-up a slender one point advantage in the title race. Qualifying went well and resulted in 2 pole positions and a grid 2 after being baulked on one of his flying laps – a great effort considering Nathan had not driven the Croft Circuit prior to Friday testing. In addition to winning the first race he also claimed the fastest lap – a new lap record. Nathan now holds 4 lap records out of the 5 circuits visited. Commenting on win number five, a delighted Nathan said: “I think the only doubt about taking another win today was the start. My starts have been a little bit inconsistent so I had to make sure I got the car off the line well - actually I think I’ve found something that works now!

Sunday racing was a less straightforward affair and a decision was taken not to use the 2 remaining new tyres available to the team and save them for race 3 when Nathan was starting from grid 2 and would need them should he have to overtake after the start. This would make the race more difficult on old tyres but the gamble paid off when Nathan got away into the lead with Carl Breeze following. Nathan started to eke out a lead when on lap 7 trying too hard Breeze hit a tyre barrier and span off into a field badly damaging his car. Nathan then controlled the race from the front to take his sixth win in a row and open up a 38 point lead in the series.

Hopes for a similar result in race 3 were dashed when a monsoon struck and the race had to start under a safety car, after 3 laps the cars were released and Nathan was immediately under pressure from Frank Wrathall who seemed to have a better wet setup. After 7 laps of fierce defence Wrathall finally found a way past and pulled a small lead until the last 2 laps when Nathan pulled him back and nearly reclaimed the lead – but 2nd was an excellent result and a 52 point championship lead.

Nathan maintained his excellent form from Donnington Park, where he won all three rounds, by starting the 10th round of the campaign from grid 2 after outbraking himself at the hairpin, losing pole by 5 thousandths of a second. At the beginning of the 15-lap encounter, Breeze led away from pole position with Nathan holding second place ahead of the fast-starting Frank Wrathall. By lap five, the pendulum looked to be swinging in favour of Nathan as he set the fastest lap of the race, and new lap record, of one minute 27.466 seconds. Pressuring Breeze harder than ever, Freke made his move in the seventh lap when he sped past the leader as he span out. The Kidderminster speed demon raced on to an unchallenged win by 1.2 seconds from Wrathall.

“It didn’t go to plan off the start and then I made a big mistake at Lodge about three or four laps into the race which allowed Carl [Breeze] to get a gap,” commented Nathan.

“I knew we had a quick car though and when Carl had his slide at Old Hall I didn’t need a second invitation and we went through into the lead.”

Nathan started the 11th round impressively, taking the lead off the line and building a 0.7 second over the first lap and a half, but the competition was called off when Mark Proctor smashed into the championship leader.

The race is set to be rescheduled for the meeting at Silverstone on August 29 and 30.

The Century Motorsport ace will now be turning his attentions to the next three rounds at Croft on the weekend of June 13 and 14.