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News » GT & Sports News » 2016 Round 1 – Krayem sets records and wins at Combe
2016 Round 1 – Krayem sets records and wins at Combe
Posted by on 22 April 2016 | Comments
David Krayem took the clean sweep of pole position and the race victory at the first round of the Castle Combe GT Championship.

Krayem, in the modified Ginetta G50, started the day by taking pole by over a second, ahead of Barry Squibb in his 700HP Mitsubishi Evo. Defending champion Oliver Bull lined up third in his Vauxhall Tigra Silhouette, alongside Ben Scrivens in the second Ginetta. Chris Vinall (Seat Leon Supercopa) took the fastest class time of the day, ahead of Adam Prebble in his Rover Tomcat.

As the race got underway, Barry Squibb got the better start off the front row, taking the lead from David Krayem. They were followed by Steve Hall in the Audi TT RS, who made an incredible start from 12th on the grid.

Angus Gorringe, who was debuting his flame-spitting TVR Sagaris V8, pulled in to the pits at the end of Lap One. Sadly, he took no further part in the race.

In the early stages, a wonderful battle formed in the mid-pack, with the Rover Tomcat of Adam Prebble leading Martin Thomas (BMW M3 GT4), Chris Vinall and Ilsa Cox in their Seat Leon Supercopas. On the fourth lap, Thomas made it past Prebble and broke away.

Squibb still led as he and David Krayem crossed the line to start lap five. The pair broke away from the rest of the field, and the battle between Steve Hall and Oliver Bull in their silhouettes came to an unfortunate early end on lap six, as Hall retired into the pits under circumstances similar to his premature exit from qualification earlier in the day.

David Krayem seemed to have a better run around Camp Corner than Squibb in the Evo on every lap, however, the sheer power of the Japanese machine made it incredibly difficult for Krayem to capitalise. On lap nine, however, Krayem crossed the timing beam on his own, and Squibb failed to make another appearance. Sure enough, mechanical issues robbed Squibb of a near certain podium and a high chance of victory. 

Further back, Ilsa Cox made her move on Chris Vinall, and began to challenge Prebble for fifth overall and the lead of Class E.

From then on, Krayem was unchallenged on his drive to victory, taking the Castle Combe GT Championship lap record on his way to the chequered flag.

Krayem crossed the line to take the overall and Class B victories by 16 seconds, ahead of Class C winner Oliver Bull. Ben Scrivens joined his team mate on the podium, coming home home third, while Martin Thomas followed to take the Class D win as well as fourth overall. Adam Prebble came fifth, and secured the Class E win by just two seconds, ahead of Ilsa Cox in the Seat.

Michael Harris took the Class F win in his lively Peugeot 205 after an exciting battle with Phil Gale in his Class B Darrian T9.

The Castle Combe GT Championship will feature heavily on the bill for the upcoming Motors TV Live Raceday, with a double header scheduled on May 2nd.

2015 Supercar Challenge, Castle Combe GT, WRDA, MSV

MOTOR RACING: Tetbury’s Dave Krayem takes four victories at Castle Combe and Pembrey (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Article by Derek Binsted dj.bin3@ntlworld.com

MOTOR RACING: Tetbury’s Dave Krayem takes four victories at Castle Combe and Pembrey

DAVE Krayem from Tetbury had a weekend to remember, first at Castle Combe on Saturday after completing a racing double in the GT Championship and Sports versus Saloon race, while the following day saw him repeat the feat in Wales. Racing his Ginetta G50 in the Castle Combe Championship bout, Krayem posted a time of 1:09.651 which gave him pole position after qualifiying.

With some good driving, Krayem took the lead and started to pull away from the chasing pack, and when the chequered flag was taken he had stormed to victory by a winning margin of almost 15 seconds. The Sports versus Saloons race had 28 cars taking part and would be over 15 minutes of the circuit.

A good start soon put Krayem in the lead of the race. He managed to complete 13 laps in the allotted race time, and took another race win this time by a matter of seconds to complete a double. Krayem followed up on his Castle Combe triumph at Pembrey to compete in the Welsh Sports & Saloon car championship. A good qualifying session saw Krayem post his fastest time of 1:01.262 which was good enough for 2nd place on the grid out of the 30 cars taking part. Krayem came out later in the day for his first race, and found himself tucked right in behind the leader as the cars went around the opening lap of the race. Some good clever driving saw the Tetbury man eventually take the lead and pull away from his closest challenger to him, before taking the race win by less than four seconds. The second race saw Krayem having another good tussle with Keith White, who finished second behind Krayem in the opening race. Krayem made sure he kept the race lead throughout, and impressively started to open up a gap between him and White. The chequered flag was taken after another 16 lap race, which meant Dave Krayem went home with four race wins from two days after replicating his Castle Combe double went home with four race wins from two days after replicating his Castle Combe double in Pembrey.