Carl Breeze

Carl Breeze
Breeze in 2014
NationalityUnited Kingdom British
Born (1979-07-07) 7 July 1979 (age 45)
Kings Lynn (England)
Ginetta GT Supercup career
Debut season2009
Current teamTotal Control Racing
Car number3
Former teamsTollbar Racing with WIRED
Starts112
Wins29
Poles11
Fastest laps22
Best finish1st in 2012
Previous series
2010
2010
2009–10
2005–08
2002–04
1999–2001
1998
1998
1996–97
Britcar 24hr
GT4 European Cup
Ginetta G50 Cup
SEAT Cupra Championship
BTCC
Formula Renault UK
Formula Palmer Audi
French GT Championship
British Formula Ford
Championship titles
2001Formula Renault UK

Carl Breeze (born 7 July 1979 in Kings Lynn) is a British auto racing driver. He is not to be confused with Hyla Breese, an Australian driver also with British Touring Car Championship experience. His racing heroes include Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet and Valentino Rossi. Breeze currently competes in the Ginetta GT Supercup.

Career

Early years

Breeze won 3 major British karting titles before moving up to car racing. He began his car racing career in British Formula Ford with a best result of 2nd in his debut season in 1996. For 1998 Breeze competed in Formula Palmer Audi[1] and competed in two races in the French GT Championship before moving into Formula Renault for 1999. In 2001 he was champion, with results which were stronger than Kimi Räikkönen's the previous year, although unlike Kimi he had experience of the championship and its circuits.

British Touring Car Championship

Breeze driving the Team Halfords Peugeot 307 at Brands Hatch during the 2003 British Touring Car Championship season.

He made a move to tin-top racing in 2002, joining Vic Lee's team for rounds 4–10 of the BTCC in an independent Peugeot 406 Coupe. He signed for a full season in their self-developed Peugeot 307 in 2003, but moved to the GA team's Vauxhall Astra mid-season. He remained with the team for 2004[2] racing both the Astra and an Alfa Romeo, with an assortment of team-mates including Stefan Hodgetts, Kelvin Burt and Gavin Smith.

SEAT and Ginetta

Breeze driving at Snetterton in the 2007 SEAT Cupra Championship.

For 2005 he moved to the SEAT Cupra Championship with the Barwell team, finishing 4th overall with one with and 10 podiums. For 2006 he raced for Edenbridge as team-mate to Tom Ferrier,[3] and continued in the SEAT Cupra competition.

When SEAT ended the championship after the 2008 season, Breeze switched to the Ginetta G50 series in 2009 where he ended the year third in the driver standings – an impressive effort after sustaining a leg injury during an early-season race at Oulton Park. In 2010, he remained in Ginetta G50 and finished the season as Vice-Champion. Breeze also raced in one round of the GT4 European Cup in 2010 driving a Ginetta G50 GT4 with co-driver Frank Wrathall.[4]

For 2011 the Ginetta G50 Cup became the Ginetta GT Supercup[5] and Breeze challenged for the title again in the new Ginetta G55, but lost out by 5 points in the championship to Adam Morgan. He will continue to race in the Ginetta GT Supercup in 2012 racing for Tollbar Racing.[6]

Breeze had a disastrous start to the 2012 season and the task looked near-impossible with a deficit of almost 120 points after just 3 rounds. With the title in mind Carl move back to his old TCR team and put together a sensational campaign charge. A run of 18 podiums out of a possible 19, which included 6 wins saw Breeze secure the Championship in the last race of the season at Brands Hatch.[7] Long time sponsor Blue Chip Customer Engineering Ltd have put together a 2012 season highlights page [8]

In 2013, a last-minute deal meant that Breeze was able to return to defend his 2012 championship,[9] remaining with TCR. A season-opening win at Brands Hatch Indy circuit saw the campaign get off to a good start, followed by two more wins at Donington Park in rounds 4 and 5.

At the third meeting of the season at Thruxton on 4/5 May, Carl nearly scored maximum points by taking wins in rounds 7 and 8, and a 2nd-place finish in round 9, having lost the lead of that race to Tom Ingram on the penultimate lap.

Racing record

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(key) Races in bold indicate pole position (1 point awarded – 2002 all races, 2003–2004 just for first race) Races in italics indicate fastest lap (1 point awarded all races) * signifies that driver lead race for at least one lap (1 point given – 2002 just in feature race, 2003–2004 all races)

Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Pen. Pos Pts
2002 Team Halfords Peugeot 406 Coupé T BRH
1
BRH
2
OUL
1
OUL
2
THR
1
THR
2
SIL
1

DNS
SIL
2

16
MON
1

Ret
MON
2

18
CRO
1

8
CRO
2

12*
SNE
1

14
SNE
2

6
KNO
1

Ret
KNO
2

14
BRH
1

Ret
BRH
2

DNS
DON
1

13
DON
2

7
−5 17th 8
2003 Team Halfords Peugeot 307 T MON
1

Ret
MON
2

10
BRH
1

Ret
BRH
2

10
THR
1

10
THR
2

Ret
SIL
1

Ret
SIL
2

DNS
ROC
1

Ret
ROC
2

9
13th 22
GA Motorsport Vauxhall Astra Coupé CRO
1

8
CRO
2

9
SNE
1

Ret
SNE
2

7
BRH
1

10
BRH
2

15*
DON
1

8
DON
2

8
OUL
1

15
OUL
2

11
2004 Team Sureterm
GA Motorsports
Alfa Romeo 156 THR
1

Ret
THR
2

Ret
THR
3

11
BRH
1

Ret
BRH
2

DNS
BRH
3

DNS
SIL
1

7
SIL
2

16
SIL
3

5
OUL
1

Ret
OUL
2

13
OUL
3

Ret
MON
1

11
MON
2

Ret
MON
3

8
CRO
1

11
CRO
2

13
CRO
3

14
KNO
1

Ret
KNO
2

Ret
KNO
3

DNS
15th 14
Vauxhall Astra Coupé BRH
1

13
BRH
2

12
BRH
3

10
SNE
1

14
SNE
2

Ret
SNE
3

Ret
DON
1
DON
2
DON
3

Complete Ginetta G50 Cup results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1 point awarded just in first race; races in italics indicate fastest lap – 1 point awarded all races;-

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 DC Points
2009 Total Control Racing BRH
1

1
BRH
2

2
BRH
3

1
THR
1

1
THR
2

3
THR
3

1
DON
1

4
DON
2

2
DON
3

2
OUL
1

4
OUL
2

C
CRO
1

2
CRO
2

Ret
CRO
3

DNS
SNE
1

1
SNE
2

1
SNE
3

1
KNO
1

Ret
KNO
2

4
KNO
3

3
SIL
1

4
SIL
2

3
SIL
3

16
ROC
1

4
ROC
2

Ret
ROC
2

8
BHGP
1

7
BHGP
2

7
BHGP
3

8
3rd 629
2010 Total Control Racing THR
1

5
THR
2

3
THR
3

4
ROC
1

2
ROC
2

1
ROC
3

2
BHGP
1

1
BHGP
2

1
BHGP
3

13
OUL
1

1
OUL
2

1
CRO
1

3
CRO
2

3
CRO
3

3
SNE
1

1
SNE
2

1
SNE
3

2
SIL
1

2
SIL
2

6
KNO
1

4
KNO
2

10
KNO
3

9
DON
1

13
DON
2

9
DON
3

3
BRH
1

1
BRH
2

1
BRH
3

3
2nd 717

Complete Ginetta GT/GT4 Supercup results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1 point awarded just in first race; races in italics indicate fastest lap – 1 point awarded all races;-

Year Team Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 DC Points
2011 Total Control Racing G55 BHI
1

3
BHI
2

9
BHI
3

2
DON
1

2
DON
2

NC
DON
3

3
THR
1

1
THR
2

2
THR
3

1
OUL
1

2
OUL
2

3
CRO
1

4
CRO
2

5
CRO
3

2
SNE
1

1
SNE
2

2
SNE
3

4
KNO
1

3
KNO
2

4
KNO
3

Ret
ROC
1

1
ROC
2

14
BRH
1

1
BRH
2

1
BRH
3

5
SIL
1

3
SIL
2

4
2nd 689
2012 Tollbar Racing with WIRED G55 BHI
1

4
BHI
2

12
BHI
3

Ret
DON
1

2
DON
2

2
DON
3

4
THR
1

3
THR
2

9
THR
3

3
1st 719
Total Control Racing OUL
1

2
OUL
3

2
CRO
1

1
CRO
2

2
CRO
3

2
SNE
1

4
SNE
2

1
SNE
3

3
KNO
1

1
KNO
2

1
KNO
3

2
ROC
1

2
ROC
2

3
SIL
1

2
SIL
2

1
BHGP
1

2
BHGP
2

3
BHGP
3

3
2013 Total Control Racing G55 BHI
1

1
BHI
2

6
BHGP
3

Ret
DON
1

1
DON
2

1
DON
3

Ret
THR
1

1
THR
2

1
THR
3

2
OUL
1

4
OUL
2

4
CRO
1

2
CRO
2

3
CRO
3

Ret
SNE
1

2
SNE
2

1
SNE
3

4
KNO
1

3
KNO
2

3
KNO
3

4
ROC
1

8
ROC
2

7
SIL
1

7
SIL
2

3
BHGP
1

6
BHGP
2

3
BHGP
3

6
2nd 626
2014 United Autosports Pro BHI
1

4
BHI
2

Ret
BHI
3

Ret
DON
1

4
DON
2

4
DON
3

5
THR
1

2
THR
2

2
THR
3

5
OUL
1

2
OUL
2

6
CRO
1

1
CRO
2

1
CRO
3

2
SNE
1

3
SNE
2

2
SNE
3

4
KNO
1

1
KNO
2

1
KNO
3

2
ROC
1

3
ROC
2

4
SIL
1

4
SIL
2

4
BHGP
1

9
BHGP
2

8
BHGP
3

Ret
3rd 615
2015 HHC Motorsport Pro BHI
1

2
BHI
2

2
BHI
3

2
DON
1

3
DON
2

1
DON
3

5
THR
1

1
THR
2

1
THR
3

3
OUL
1

2
OUL
2

1
CRO
1

4
CRO
2

2
CRO
3

Ret
SNE
1

Ret
SNE
2

7
SNE
3

3
KNO
1

4
KNO
2

9
KNO
3

5
ROC
1

1
ROC
2

1
SIL
1

3
SIL
2

4
BHGP
1

1
BHGP
2

1
BHGP
3

3
2nd 705

24 Hours of Silverstone results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Car No. Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
2010 United Kingdom Strategic Racing / John Welch Motorsport Australia Mark Pilatti
United Kingdom Adam Christodoulou
United Kingdom Luke Wright
United Kingdom Aaron Williamson
SEAT Leon Supercopa 45 3 523 10th 6th

References

  1. ^ 1998 Championship Standings Archived 4 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Formula Palmer Audi.
  2. ^ "Carl Breeze Interview". Archived from the original on 17 May 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-28.
  3. ^ "Edenbridge confirms two car entry". Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 28 July 2006.
  4. ^ What a GT4 weekend! Double win in the Eifel for IMS Ginetta and Matt Nicoll-Jones Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine, GT4 European Cup.
  5. ^ NEW GINETTA GT SUPERCUP FOR 2011 Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Ginetta Cars.
  6. ^ GINETTA GT SUPERCUP STARS READY FOR BATTLE, Ginetta Cars.
  7. ^ "Blue Chip's Carl Breeze takes emotional GT Supercup title win". 29 October 2012.
  8. ^ [1] GINETTA TITLE WINNING SEASON VIDEO & PICTURES
  9. ^ CARL BREEZE SET FOR MICHELIN GINETTA GT SUPERCUP RETURN Archived 5 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Ginetta Cars
Sporting positions
Preceded by Formula Renault UK
Champion

2001
Succeeded by
Preceded by Ginetta GT Supercup
Champion

2012
Succeeded by