July 15, 2012
Published on tags: Supercup
Alex Cooper continued to chip away at the point's lead of
Petter Kaasa with a home victory at Silverstone. Petter Kaasa would recover
from a rare mistake at the start-line to finish second while Terence Grech
would sustain his recent rich vein of forum with third.
Kaasa secured his fourth pole of the year ahead of Martin
Schumacher, the German turning out for CSG Racing in place of Ric Scott for
this event. Cooper would share the second row with Torrent Motorsports Mindaugas
Klumbis. Behind the front four was a tight group from fifth to twelfth, covered
by only a few tenths of a second.



Drama hit from the offset as the pole sitter's car would
lose traction under acceleration and spin out onto the grass, dropping him to
22nd position as the field hurtled through Abbey corner. It was a
horrible start for Torrent, as Klumbis was involved in a clash that resulted in
the Lithuanian spinning around. His day would end shortly after a collision
with a lagging Teemu Toikka left him with terminal damage.



At the front, the CSG team led a rare one-two for the team
with Schumacher taking point, showing his performance in Korea was not a
once-off. Kaasa took advantage of the tight midfield to steadily work his way
up the standings. An intense battle took
place throughout the top ten over the early stages with as many as ten cars
involved. Grech and Roy Schroten, along
with Kaasa would eventually break away from the group as others fell to errors
during skirmishes.



Adam Rouse suffered a rare spin trying to avoid running into
the back of Andrew Morgan. The Northern Irish driver returned to the Supercup
field for the first time since his win in Canada, this time driving for NRT
Racing. Morgan's return was short-lived as he got together with Kaasa when attempting
to go side-by-side with the Norwegian through Abbey, coming off the worst and
retiring.



Philip Cullen would find his early race compromised by
unforced errors and damage from contact with the spun Rouse at Vale. The
Halcyon driver, as is the norm now, battled it out with Rouse and his Jack
Nicholls which saw the trio involved in numerous tight tussles. Rouse would
come off worse, losing the car on the exit of Stowe and again on the home
straight causing substantial damage to the Hawkeye car, leaving him outside the
points for the first time since Barcelona.



As the pit stops approached, Kaasa had made it up as high as
third place. Schumacher would again have an unforced error cost him dearly,
spinning on the entry to the pit-lane and damaging his wing. After pitting from the lead, he would rejoin
down in sixth place. He was not alone in having issues during the pit stop
phase. A lazy spin cost Bart de Vos, running sixth prior to his stop, dearly on
his out-lap leaving him at the tail end of the group that consisted of Nichols,
Skrajnowski and the very impressive Morten Wernersen. The Green Stripes Racing
pilot ran within the top-10 all day and would be rewarded with a points finish.



Kaasa inherited the briefly lead with Schumacher's issue and
Cooper stopping. The championship leader
stopped a lap later than Cooper on lap 22. The Norwegian had no answer for
Cooper but limited the damage done to his championship lead with second place ?
a result some would see an unexpected bonus given his start-line faux pas.



Terence Grech and Roy Schroten enjoyed relatively quiet
races compared to their rivals. Both drivers earned the plaudits of their
fellow drivers as they finished third and fourth respectively. Behind them,
confusion reigned as Schumacher caught and passed Cullen for fifth. Seemingly odds-on to secure the position, he
was inexplicably blocked by debutant Matthew Chan while lapping him. The antics
of the Innervision driver allowed Cullen to cruise back up behind Schumacher
and the pair touched going into Stowe corner. Both subsequently recovered from
their off's but Schumacher seemed to take exception with Cullen after the race
had finished, slamming his car into the Halcyon after the flag. The pair was
seen discussing the incidents in the paddock afterwards.



Skrajnowski came home in seventh, adding to the sizable
bounty of points picked up for Malta Force by Grech and Wernersen's stellar
drive was rewarded with his first points finish in the Supercup in eighth. A
late stop at the end of lap 36 cost Jack Nicholls seventh position, dropping
him to ninth in a combative day for the Englishman, including a final lap dice with
de Vos on the final lap that went in his favour. The reigning Supercup champion's
topsy-turvy day eventually ended with him scoring a solitary point, his first
point for Halcyon.