With the Ginetta GT Academy celebrated its milestone 100th race at Croft last weekend, we decided to catch up with some of the championship’s most successful drivers over the years to reminisce about their time on the grid and how it helped them in their careers since.
Toby Trice
Toby Trice wrote his name into the history books when he won the first-ever GT Academy race at Brands Hatch in 2021, kicking off a run of five consecutive wins to start the season. A total of nine victories helped him become the inaugural GTA champion, launching a career that has since seen success in one-make Porsche racing.
Trice: “I look back at 2021 with nothing but pride. I had only done a few meetings in GRDC prior to get used to what motorsport was about, so GT Academy was my first serious go at a championship with an ambition to win. We were pretty limited on budget, didn’t really have any pre-season testing, so to come out as champion with a whole race weekend in hand was amazing. I’m so proud of that season against a very competitive grid.
“I’ll never forget my first drive in a G56 GTA on a taster day at Snetterton and straight away realising what a cool bit of kit it was. Upgrading to a V6 engine, proper gearbox and race chassis felt incredible. It was a raw driving experience with no electronic aids, which set me up really well for the next step into GT4-spec machinery.
“Everyone sort of says that if you can drive a Ginetta well, you can typically go on and drive other things well. The characteristics of the car really help you learn a lot about driving and car control, and I will always recommend to people that there’s no better place to start racing than the GT Academy.”
Angus Whiteside
One of Trice’s main competitors that season was Angus Whiteside. Showing from the outset that racing rookies were capable of battling right at the front of the field, he won eight races outright en-route to the rookie class title. Another to since star in one-make Porsche racing, he currently competes in GT World Challenge Europe.
Whiteside: “It was my first year racing cars and first time ever doing a motorsport championship. I have such amazing memories of that season, getting to fulfil my dream, especially with such a great group! The rookies that year were such good people, many of which I still talk to today.
“The GT Academy taught me all the foundations of driving a car. Managing the platform in different cornering scenarios, a strong grid so plenty of traffic and learning overtaking, while the road tyres were a great schooling especially when driving in the wet as the grip level was never that high. It was perfect!”
Ravi Ramyead
After a short debut in 2021, Ravi Ramyead then returned for two full seasons and utterly excelled. Rookie champion in 2022 and GTA runner-up in 2023, he holds the championship records for most overall wins (15), overall wins in a season (13) and most overall podium finishes (28). He’s gone on to become an accomplished GT4 racer, taking wins in British GT and now racing on the continent.
Ramyead: “I really enjoyed the GT Academy. It taught me how to drive, it taught me how not to crash, it taught me how to deal with the clerk of the course and it taught me what a race weekend was all about. If you’re coming in with no knowledge of that, it builds all of that experience.
“At the beginning I learnt how to drive quickly, then towards the end I learnt how to race. You’d be stupid to try and start in a faster car without getting that education first. The G56 GTA as an entry-level race car was brilliant. Its combination of no ABS, no traction control and a road tyre meant you actually had to learn how to drive, there was nothing to save you. There is nothing else I’m aware of, for the money, that you can jump in and will teach you those skills.”
Marc Warren
As Ramyead took the rookie spoils in 2022, the GTA title went to Marc Warren. That made him a three-time Ginetta champion after successes in GRDC and G40 Cup, having won eight races in his single GT Academy season. Warren’s trophy-laden rise up the GT ladder has continued since with titles in one-make Porsche racing and British GT4, and he’s stepped up to GT3 racing for the first time this year.
Warren: “Coming from the G40, the G56 felt like a proper racing car. They had a similar trait, in that they encouraged you to push on, but didn’t make anything easy either so you really had to develop and hone your skills to be quick and consistent. The G56 had great balance and it was a fantastic car, I loved it.
“The skills you pick up that were needed to make a GT Academy car fast, they stay with you and carry on in to the next categories of car. As you move up you get ABS, traction control, slick tyres, rolling starts and things like that, but the fundamentals are the same and just get exaggerated.
“The GT Academy is absolutely the right way to learn your skills and your crafts. I had so much fun in my season in the championship. The grid looked amazing, the racing was really close and I made a lot of good friends that year.”
Thomas Holland
Amongst the drivers looking to stop Warren’s march to the title in 2022 was Thomas Holland. A fellow G40 Cup graduate, he was one of only three drivers other than Warren to win that season with a memorable victory at Brands Hatch. Like many other GT Academy graduates he stepped up to GT4 racing next and secured his maiden British GT victory in the Silverstone 500 earlier this year.
Holland: “I look back fondly on my time in the GT Academy. It was my first steps into “big car” racing having been in MX5s and G40s until that point. It was also what I would have called my first “normal year” in motorsport, with crowds fully returning and less COVID restrictions. It was a culture shock as a new driver having been only my third year of racing.
“The championship was quite important in terms of my development as a driver, as my first step into a more “electronic” car with a modern dash and sequential gearbox, as well as teaching me the importance of tyre management with the road tyres. Racing the G56 GTA really helped me prepare for the G56 GT4 car. Even though the differences between the two specs of car are many, the overall characteristics of the chassis are reasonably translatable.”
James Nicholas
A number of successful GT Academy drivers over the years have continued progressing up the Ginetta UK Championships ladder. James Nicholas excelled across a two-year spell, securing 27 overall podium finishes (one shy of Ramyead’s record) as he finished third in the rookies in 2024 and GTA champion last year. He’s stepped up to the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT Championship this season and immediately established himself as a race-winner in the AM class.
Nicholas: “My first year in the GT Academy was a big learning curve, and then I had to come back and try to get the title. I’ll always look back at those years in the GT Academy as a huge period in my life, because it was just unbelievable. That’s why I’m back now in the GTP8 and will probably stay with Ginetta for as long as I can.
“What I have appreciated is how hard the GT Academy cars are to drive. Jumping in to one as a rookie, it gives you a real stepping stone to come to something like the GTP8. Having no aids like traction control and ABS, it is pure driving. It makes it more entertaining for fans and as drivers, because it creates more mistakes which leads to close racing.”
Harry Gamble
One of Nicholas’ rivals in the rookie class in 2024 was Harry Gamble. Continuing his family’s successful legacy in Ginetta racing, he produced a brilliant performance in his sole GT Academy campaign to win five races outright. He graduated to the GT Championship last year and took two overall wins on his way to the PRO AM class title, and he’s already won three more races in the championship this season.
Gamble: “My season in the GT Academy was brilliant. I don’t think there’s any better place to start your racing career. It’s a grid full of low experienced and rookie drivers, so you’re learning around people in a similar situation to you.
“It’s a good test of your skills. On the road tyres, it’s teaching you not to push too hard, to avoid overheating them. It’s a great way to learn and then step up into the GT Championship, with a lot more power and slick tyres.”
The 2026 Ginetta GT Academy season continues over the weekend of 15/16 August with three races at Snetterton in Norfolk as part of the next domestic British GT Championship event.
