Luis Beilicke returned to his dominant best in the Ginetta GT Academy on the opening day of the Ginetta Festival at Croft (27 June), with a perfect pair of victories taking his tally to seven for the season so far.
Qualifying
The class points leaders coming in to the event, Beilicke (Want2Race) and Tom Walker (E3 Sport), were the top two drivers in testing on Friday. They repeated that result in qualifying the following morning, as Beilicke continued his 100% pole position record this season.
The German ace set two rapid laps prior to a spin at Clervaux ended his session early, meaning he still came away with a double pole. Walker was six tenths of a second adrift, while Ian Beaumont (SVG Motorsport) and Joe Ostholthoff (Want2Race) were second quickest in rookie and GTA respectively.
Race One
Beilicke converted pole position into a dominant lights to flag victory in race one. Leading through the opening two laps, the race was then red flagged to allow for the recovery of the car of Faye Goff (Want2Race) after an incident.
The rookie pace-setter continued his impressive performance after a safety car restart, pulling clear to an eventual eight second winning margin. This was aided by an exciting battle in the closing stages for second position between GTA contenders Walker and Ostholthoff.
Ostholthoff pressured Beaumont into a mistake at the Complex on lap eight to grab third overall and then hunted down Walker ahead. He couldn’t quite make a move though, with Walker holding on to the GTA class win. Beaumont followed them home to fourth overall and second in the rookies.
Connor Blackburn (Performance One) and Will Fallon (Privateer) enjoyed a close battle over fifth position overall, with Blackburn holding him off to complete the GTA class podium. Behind, Ash Young (Performance One) picked up a rookie podium result in seventh overall.
Ben Wiseman (Want2Race) was the next rookie contender in eighth, while GTA entrants Robin Grimwood (E3 Sport) and Want2Race team-mates Allan Wright and Damien Duffy rounded out the race finishers.
Race Two
Beilicke completed a perfect Saturday with a faultless race two performance. Starting strongly from pole, he then benefitted from a battle developing for second place to pull clear of the field and eventually take another victory by 12 seconds.
The epic scrap for second was between Walker and Ostholthoff as they renewed their duel from race one. After soaking up a lot of pressure from behind, Walker eventually lost out on lap nine as Ostholthoff dived down the inside into the final hairpin to take the GTA class victory.
Walker lost further ground at the hairpin a few laps later, with rookie Beaumont getting ahead for third overall. Walker had to settle for fourth in the end, but remained second in the GTA ranks as Blackburn once again completed that class podium behind.
Lucas Theo (SVG Motorsport) was on a charge through the race as he bounced back from issues earlier in the day. After making quick early progress from 13th on the grid, he pressured Young into a mistake for seventh before a late move on Fallon netted him sixth overall. He completed the rookie podium in the process.
An unfortunate spin at the hairpin dropped Young out of eighth position, with Wiseman, Grimwood and Wright ending up ahead of him at the chequered flag. Goff finished up sixth of the rookie contingent in 12th, as Duffy completed the finishers behind.
In addition to his double rookie win, Beilicke was also successful twice in the Silver class (for drivers aged 22 and under). In the Chairmans Cup (for drivers aged 45 and over), Grimwood was victorious in both races to take his tally to three for the season.
Full race results can be found at https://www.tsl-timing.com/event/262631
Qualifying and both races can be watched back now at www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdLhUvVWqxA
The action continues tomorrow (28 June) with another qualifying and two races, once again streamed live on GT World.
