Ginetta Take Positives From Tough Silverstone Weekend

Ginetta once again proved the pace of its GT3 and GT4 offerings at Silverstone this weekend, after nine of the Yorkshire marque’s cars took to the GP circuit in a whopping 47-strong grid for round four of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship.

In the GT3 class, Team LNT’s Mike Simpson and Richard Sykes, IDL-CWS’s Tom Sharp and Colin White, and Stark Racing’s Ian Stinton and Nathan Freke graced the paddock in their G55’s, with each showing strong pace on track.

For Ginetta’s factory outfit, Team LNT successfully proved the pace of their Ginetta G55 GT3 car around the home of British motorsport despite a chaotic start to the race, ending their on-track action early after being collected by an out-of-control rival car.

Having finished in P6 & P8 respectively during the two of Saturday’s Free Practice sessions, Team LNT were looking strong for a top 10 qualifying session. However, mechanical issues hampered the engine power leaving them with just 73% throttle for the 45 minute charge, resulting in Sykes being forced to start the race from a rather unrepresentative 18th.

Despite the lowly grid slot, an excellent start from Sykes saw him claim two positions in the opening minutes of the race, before he began to chase down the Mtech Ferrari of Derek Johnston for 15th.

Sadly for Team LNT, contact with Mark Blundell’s United Autosport McLaren saw the Ginetta sandwiched between both cars, with all three suffering from extensive damage, which forced the trio into retirement after just five laps.

Sykes said; “A disappointing end to the weekend – we had the pace and could have almost certainly challenged for a decent finish. Watching both the television and in car footage of the incident, it’s clear I gave Blundell plenty of room to pass into the Hairpin but he didn’t use it, which caused further problems going into the next left-hander; the result was contact and race over. Apart from that, the car was going great – it’s a shame Mike Simpson hasn’t had a chance to drive it yet!”

Positives can be taken from a storming drive by Tom Sharp and Colin White in their IDL-CWS Ginetta G55 who powered from 11th on the grid into the top five over the opening three laps – with great race pace, the team suffered from pitting too early to make their driver change, as a safety car period shortly afterwards put them a lap down. Things were not helped by a drive through penalty for a pit stop infringement, pushing the team from first on track, down to 13th in a matter of minutes.

In the GT4 class, the Optimum Motorsport pairing of Rick Parfitt Junior and Ryan Ratcliffe made their way onto the podium with a first in class and third in the European championship finish, their highest class finish of the season so far. Not to be overlooked however, the APO Sport car of James May and Alex Osborne ran well, contesting podium positions with many of the European invitees.

Despite a deflated end to what looked to be a positive weekend for Ginetta, Team LNT are hopeful of positive results in the next outing at Snetterton.

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