Kidderminster race ace Nathan Freke came away from his least favorite circuit, Rockingham Motor Speedway, with the highest points tally for the 5th time in a row. Testing on the Friday went well with Nathan in touch with the quickest competitor but not completely happy with his performance.

Saturday morning qualifying seemed to be going well when Nathan posted a time nearly a second quicker than testing, unfortunately it turned out to only good enough for 3rd, the first time he had been off the front row this season on quickest times. Still a good result with 2 of his championship protagonists behind him and one in front.

Race one in dry conditions and Nathan gets a fantastic start driving between the grid one and two drivers to take the lead into the first corner. However the polesitter made a swift recovery to draft Nathan down the main straight and re take the lead after one lap, leaving the positions static until the end of the race. A good result considering Nathan’s struggle with the circuit. Commenting on his runner-up spot, Nathan said: “We have a university guy who’s been measuring heart rates of racing drivers and he’s been telling me my reaction rate and that’s spurred me on to get them down – so I was ready”, explained Freke, “I keep getting good starts, I got through the middle but I don’t think (George) Murrells saw me as he came down and hit me.

“I had a great first lap but this is a proper bogey circuit for me, I’ve never done that well here. Carl was just a bit quicker than me today, our car is good but I can’t seem to get the final sector sorted so considering that it’s another solid finish and puts us in a good position on the grid for tomorrow.”

Race two would have the added interest of a mandatory pit stop to change 2 wheels and strategy of when to come in would be critical. Nathan had yet another stunning start and led into the first corner, but yet again could not hold it after the first lap. Running in 2nd place it became obvious that all was not quite right as Nathan circulated at a slower pace than the rest of the G55 field, even so he maintained second position until the leader pitted and then led building an 88 second lead. With a 92 second pitstop time it became obvious that he could not get in and out of the stop and keep his lead, and the most likely result was fourth. However some excellent driving and Nathan finishes third.

Nathan had problems to overcome in the race, not least his ‘theplayer.co.uk/Century Motorsport’ car filling with smoke which affected his vision and concentration – in the end third place was a good result and takes his unbroken run of podium finishes to nine. Furthermore, the former G50 Cup Champion is now only 35 points adrift of the top of the GT Supercup table.

“I thought the pit-stop idea worked well”, said Freke, “The lads in the team loved it as it’s a bit more involvement for them and it does spice things up a bit. I felt a lot of nerves before the race because a slight glitch can affect your championship so much but, at the end of the day, we have to make sure we don’t have that slight glitch. I’m pleased it went well for Ginetta, I hope it made good TV!

“I got a very good start but from the first lap the cab was filling with smoke on the right-hand side and after three or four laps, I started feeling drowsy and making silly mistakes – I thought at one stage I was going to have to stop. Then I was worried about the car catching fire in the pit-lane but it cleared itself thankfully. By that time, the tyres had gone so I’m glad to pick up some good points.”

Nathan returns to the track in 2 weeks time at Brands Hatch where he needs to score maximum points to keep his title challenge alive.