October 21, 2010
Published on tags: Superleague
The last round of the 2010 GPVWC Superleague came to the spectacular setting of night-time Singapore for an exciting race in Marina Bay. The season has been a thoroughly entertaining one, and as the curtains fell on the Championship, a feeling of excitement was spreading regarding the momentous news soon to be released about the future of GPVWC.

In Qualifying, Joe Consiglio, at his last race as World Champion before he passes the crown to team-mate Janne Tanskanen, topped the timesheet with a stunning performance, the only man to break the 1:29s barrier. Behind him, Jyri Lylykorpi on CSG made the best of his improving form to lock the rest of front row, while the Woods duo of Kieran Ryan and Mark Wicks proved once more to be the most evenly matched pair in the league by finishing close to each other in row 2.

The race saw fireworks from the start, with Lylykorpi outbraking himself and pushing Consiglio wide - opening the door for a thankful Kieran Ryan who set out to build a good gap before the first stop. Behind the leaders, mayhem ensued when Sam Millar was sent into a spin, cars drifting left and right to avoid the Scot. As the smoke disappeared, David Stanton was the only retiree from the first lap action.

As both Millar and Lylykorpi joined him on the sidelines, Consiglio set out to catch Ryan: the Nordsjoen driver, still looking for his first win as a World Champion, had plenty of pace but could not find any space past the fast Irishman. Behind, the only other retirements were those of William Ponissi and Mark Stanton, protagonists of a horrendous shunt which saw both team-mates out as the Italian was making his way to the pitlane. A misjudgement by pursuing Stanton saw the Englishman crash at high speed into the rear wing of Ponissi's car, sending the latter in the barrier and scattering bodywork parts all over the track.

As the lead fight went, inconclusive pit-stop only saw the gap momentarily increase and, with Mark Wicks far in the distance due to a mistake and fourth-placed Jason Muscat lapped, the race seemed destined to be a two-horse race down to the line. Five laps to the end, however, an unavoidable contact between the two leaders proved decisive as Kieran Ryan suffered a rear tyre puncture which forced him to limp back to the pits for repairs. Free of his dangerous rival, Consiglio could simply control the race and nurture his car past the line.

With the two Woods driver filling up the podium once more, and points for Muscat, David Jundt, Leontin Nemet and both ST Racing of Mark Fuller and Chris Williamson, while Mark Bullivant and Nikos Evangelidakis scored their first points of the season, the season was brought to an end. Consiglio became the fifth driver to win a race in the season (after Tanskanen, Ryan, Muscat and Lee Morris) and the teams were sent off to celebrate the start of holidays.

But the party won't last too long - 2011 is already round the corner and teams know they will need to prepare for it soon.