Archie Clark, Harry Gamble and Luke Shaw have been crowned the 2025 class champions in the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT Championship following a pulsating season finale at Donington Park this past weekend (04-05 October).
Clark was victorious in the PRO class with a race to spare, securing both his and the MDD Racing team’s maiden Ginetta championship wins, while Gamble and Shaw emerged from a tense final race of the season with title glory in PRO AM and AM respectively.
Qualifying
Full of confidence after his perfect weekend in the penultimate round at Brands Hatch, Jack Collins (E3 Sport) excelled in qualifying with his third double pole position of the season. He finished 0.164s ahead of the leading PRO-AM contender Gamble (Elite Motorsport).
Clark (MDD Racing) crucially outqualified his PRO class title rival Robert Cronin (Elite Motorsport) behind, with PRO-AM runner Nick White (Raceway Motorsport) next up. Shaw (Raceway Motorsport) rounded out the top six overall as he took the AM class pole.
Race One
The opening race started in dramatic fashion, as a couple of incidents heading into Old Hairpin led to three cars spinning into the gravel. They included Nick White and Ali Juffali (Elite Motorsport), title contenders in PRO AM and AM respectively, but all three were able to get back on track.
The action continued in the midfield as Alex Duncan (Xentek Motorsport), one of the drivers to benefit from the opening lap incidents to rise from 12th to seventh, made further progress ahead of Shaw. Cameron Pratt-Thompson (SVG Motorsport) also passed Shaw, however he hit the tyre stack at the chicane soon after and had to retire from the race.
At the front of the field, Collins had converted pole position into the lead. Gamble was hot on his heels for the majority of the race before he became the next driver to make contact with the tyre stack. While he tried to continue, the PRO AM title contender eventually had to retire too.
While Collins went on to pull clear for his third consecutive race win, Clark enjoyed a comfortable run to second at the chequered flag. That result ensured he secured the points required to be provisionally crowned the PRO class champion with a race to spare.
On his first outing in the championship since Oulton Park back in May, Mike Taylor (Triple M Motorsport) grabbed third overall on the final lap to complete a great drive from eighth on the grid. His efforts also secured him a maiden PRO AM class victory.
Cronin picked up a PRO podium in fourth ahead of Duncan, who finished second in PRO AM having ended up gaining seven places overall through the race. Shaw took a crucial win in the AM class in sixth overall, ahead of PRO runner Hadley Simpson (Xentek Motorsport).
Felix Livesey (Orion SPR) was the other driver to spin on the opening lap and the Ginetta Junior graduate fought back well to eighth overall on his GT Championship debut. Another newcomer was GT Academy graduate Marc Elman (SVG Motorsport), who finished up second in AM.
Emma Tomlinson (DTO Motorsport) had finished ahead of him on the road, however a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits meant she ended up rounding out the top ten overall and the AM podium. Colin White (CWS Engineering) was next, ahead of the recovering Nick White.
Fox Motorsport pair James Rolling and Oliver Fordham were next up, as Juffali completed the race finishers. Following his opening lap incident, he made a trip to the pitlane and dropped off the lead lap, leaving him 15th overall at the line.
Race Two
The second race of the weekend, traditionally a 40-minute endurance encounter with a mandatory pitstop, unfortunately started with a large incident exiting Redgate corner which involved seven cars. This led to the race being postponed and re-run at the end of the day.
Due to time restrictions after the delay to proceedings, the final race would be re-classified as a 20-minute sprint race. After the incident at the original start, Colin White, Duncan, Cronin, Tomlinson and Livesey were unfortunately all missing from the grid.
The remaining title contenders were able to race though, with Gamble and Nick White battling it out for PRO AM glory, as Shaw and Juffali fought for AM honours. Collins started from pole position, however Gamble dived down the inside at Coppice on lap one to grab the race lead.
The top two ran in close formation throughout the race, but Collins wasn’t able to get quite close enough to make a move. Gamble therefore secured the PRO AM title with his second overall victory of the season, making him the third sibling in his family to become a Ginetta champion.
Collins was second to complete a run of four consecutive podium finishes to end his maiden car-racing campaign. A great opening lap for Simpson saw him move up two positions to third, starting a close-fought three-way battle for the position with White and Taylor.
Both drivers worked their way past Simpson through the Old Hairpin on lap seven, with Taylor then picking off White into Mcleans. He went on to finish third overall ahead of White, with those two ending the campaign on the PRO AM rostrum.
Pratt-Thompson passed Simpson in the closing stages as the duo completed the PRO podium alongside Collins. Behind, a composed drive from Shaw secured him a sixth AM class win of the campaign to secure his first Ginetta title from Juffali. Fordham ended his maiden Ginetta season on a high note with a breakthrough AM class podium ahead of Elman and Rolling.
Full race results can be found at www.tsl-timing.com/event/254005
Both races can be watched back at www.youtube.com/user/ginettatv
