James Nicholas and Sam Shrimpton have been crowned the 2025 Ginetta GT Academy champions, emerging victorious in the GTA and rookie classes respectively after an action-packed finale weekend at Donington Park (04-05 October).
Nicholas and Shrimpton dominated their classes across the final three races of the weekend, each securing a hat-trick of victories to win their titles in style. They become first time Ginetta champions, having both started their career via the PalmerSport Ginetta Race Scholarship.
Qualifying
The three GTA title contenders heading into the weekend shared the top three positions in qualifying. Nicholas (E3 Sport) charged to the top of the timesheets for the fourth time this season, lapping almost four tenths of a second quicker than anyone else.
Charlie Digby (MDD Racing) and Jamie Caudle (E3 Sport) were split by just 0.043s behind, while Shrimpton (W2R) boosted his rookie title chances by securing the class pole position in fourth overall ahead of GTA contenders Peter Thompson (W2R) and Julian Wantling (E3 Sport).
Race One
The opening race of the weekend began with front-row starters Nicholas and Digby heading into Redgate side-by-side for the first time. Digby would unfortunately run wide through the gravel trap, while Caudle capitalised to grab the lead from Nicholas on the run to Hollywood.
That kicked off an exciting battle for victory between the title contenders. Caudle soaked up the pressure from his rival in the early laps, before a slide through Mcleans allowed Nicholas through. Caudle briefly got back ahead at the same corner a few laps later, but his lead only lasted one corner.
Shrimpton latched onto their tail to make a three-way fight at the front. A good move through the Old Hairpin on lap nine netted Caudle the lead again, with Shrimpton following him to take second place. Nicholas fought back quickly though, grabbing second from Shrimpton next time round at Coppice.
The decisive moment of the race came as Caudle locked up heading into the chicane on lap ten, forcing him to run across the grass. Nicholas took full advantage to take the race victory ahead of Shrimpton, earning them both vital maximum points scores in the GTA and rookie classes respectively.
Caudle made a crucial late move on Thompson to recover to third overall and second in the GTA ranks. Thompson followed him home for his first GTA class podium finish of the campaign, having pulled off a move on 2024 GTA champion Wantling in the early stages.
Shiv Sapra (Paradine by Xentek) and Joe Edge (W2R) secured rookie class podium finishes in sixth and seventh overall respectively. Following his opening lap issue, Digby impressively fought back from 15th overall to finish eighth, however that result would drop him out of GTA class title contention.
Alex Deighton (Paradine by Xentek) marked his return to the grid with a ninth-place finish. Ben Cooke (W2R) rounded out the top ten on the road, however a five-second penalty for track limits infringements dropped him back a position behind Robin Grimwood (E3 Sport).
Faye Goff (W2R) and Ash Young (Performance One) completed their debut races in the championship with fourth and fifth place finishes respectively in the rookie class. They were split in the overall result by GTA contenders Lucie Hodgson (W2R) and Phil McGarty (Xentek Motorsport).
Race Two
Nicholas started from pole position for the rolling start on Sunday morning, however a fast-starting Digby went from the outside of the front row into the lead heading into Redgate. A quick change behind too saw Caudle leapfrog Shrimpton for third.
Shrimpton got back ahead into Goddards at the end of the lap though, with those two keeping tabs with Digby and Nicholas out front in the opening stages. The race was paused at the end of lap four however with the safety car coming out due to an incident between Goff and Lexie Belk (Privateer).
The action would restart with a three-lap shootout to the chequered flag. Nicholas was immediately looking to challenge for the lead, knowing he needed to outscore Caudle as much as possible in the race, however Digby defended well out front.
It was a four-way battle for the win heading onto the last lap. Nicholas made his crucial move into the chicane, grabbing the lead as a trip across the gravel dropped Digby to fourth. Behind, Caudle and Shrimpton swapped places three times in the final corners of the lap.
Nicholas therefore made it two wins from two races for the weekend ahead of Caudle, as Shrimpton secured another rookie victory in third overall. Digby completed the GTA podium, while rookie contenders Sapra and Edge rounded out both the class podium and the top six overall.
GTA trio Deighton, Wantling and Grimwood were next up. Thompson had run in fifth place in the early laps before an issue dropped him back to an eventual finish of tenth. Hodgson and McGarty made good progress behind, gaining three and four places respectively through the race.
Cooke finished up 13th ahead of rookie Allan Wright (W2R), who was running tenth before a spin at Goddards. Young and Damien Duffy (W2R) completed the rookie class finishers, ahead of SVG Motorsport’s GTA class team-mates Chris Babington and Gilbert Verdian.
Race Three
Nicholas and Shrimpton headed into race three knowing that victories would secure them the class titles. Nicholas led away from pole position, with Shrimpton slotting into third place, as a multi-car incident played out behind them at Redgate.
This brought out the safety car to allow for the recovery of the stricken cars of rookie trio Edge, Wright and Duffy. When the action resumed, Nicholas was quickly able to build a gap at the front and went on to lead the remaining laps to be crowned the provisional GTA champion.
Caudle followed his E3 Sport team-mate home to confirm his second place in the GTA standings, while a brilliant third overall for Shrimpton earned him the provisional rookie title honours. There was a dramatic finish in the battle for fourth overall meanwhile between Deighton and Thompson.
Deighton had risen from seventh to third on the opening lap, before losing out to Shrimpton on the safety car restart. On the final lap, Thompson mounted a move into the last corner Goddards and eventually grabbed the third position on the GTA podium by just 0.165s from Deighton.
Digby had been running in fifth place before retiring in the closing stages of the race. Grimwood rounded out the top six overall, while Wantling produced a brilliant fightback drive to seventh having dropped back to 14th in avoidance of the opening corner incident.
Sapra was involved in the opening lap drama as well and also produced a comeback drive, climbing from 15th to ninth behind his Xentek team-mate McGarty. Cooke completed the overall top ten ahead of Young, who secured a great rookie class podium finish to sign off his debut GT Academy weekend.
The postponed race from the penultimate round at Brands Hatch was scheduled to take place at the end of the Donington Park weekend, however timetable delays on Sunday led to it being cancelled.
In the Chairmans Cup, a class for drivers over the age of 45, Thompson picked up a couple of wins over the event. Deighton scored the other victory, ensuring he ends the season as the winningest driver in the class, while Wantling and Grimwood also took home trophies from the finale.
Full race results can be found at www.tsl-timing.com/event/254005
All four races from the weekend can be watched back at www.youtube.com/user/ginettatv
