Louise Richardson finishes in style at the finale

Podium (photo by Marc Waller)Louise Richardson had only her second race meeting of the year at Brands Hatch (Gp circuit) with the final rounds of the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup.

After her success at Silverstone there was a hope that she might upgrade to the G55 class for the final 3 races but in the end she returned in her G50. Having won both races at Silverstone she hoped to score a hat trick of victories at the final rounds.




She qualified on pole for the first race but unfortunately as the lights went out she made a poor start. This wasn’t to stop her though as she caught and passed every G50 as well as some faster G55s to take another victory, posting the fastest G50 lap of the race in the process.

The other two races were both on Sunday and were held in very wet conditions. In the first on Sunday Morning Louise once again made a poor start slipping down to third of the G50s. She soon fought back and by the end of the second lap she was up into second place. She started challenging Rob Gaffney for the lead but a safety car interrupted her challenge and she had to settle for second. Louise was disappointed not to get the win but second was still a great result. There was one final race to go and Louise was determined to return to the top spot.

Louise Richardson (photo by Marc Waller)Race three’s start was much better and Louise was soon in the lead and off in pursuit of theoretically faster G55 cars. In the process she again set fastest G50 lap. She ended up an excellent tenth overall as she took her fourth G50 victory out of five.

Despite only contesting two meetings, Louise ended up a stunning fourth in the G50 Championship with her points per race ratio being higher than any other driver. Only G50 Champion Sean Huyton has more victories and he raced the whole season! Louise looked back on her weekend and her acheivements;

“The weekend couldn’t have got much better really,” she said. “To qualify on pole, take two wins and get two fastest laps is really good and I’m delighted to have come back into the series and won four of the five races I’ve taken part in.

“I didn’t make it easy for myself this weekend as I didn’t get a good start in any of the races. Winning race one was good despite a poor start but in race two, I didn’t get away well and then exiting Graham Hill Bend, I got a bit of wheelspin and also had cars going off ahead of me so had to ease off.

“It took a while for me to get into my rhythm in the conditions and I had an issue with my wipers which made it more challenging. The final race was also tricky as I was quicker than my rivals on the GP loop but on the Indy section, it was like my car was on ice. That made it particularly tough when we had a Safety Car that closed the field up, but I was able to make my car wide on the restart and then pull away.

“While it would have been nice to do a full season this year, the results in the two rounds I’ve done have given me a lot of confidence going into the winter. To have been out of action for more than twelve months and then come back and be right on the pace straightaway is good, and hopefully has shown potential sponsors what I’m capable of.”   By Marc Waller




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