The GRDC class of 2019 tackled a one-day event on Saturday under glorious sunshine in Leicestershire, with qualifying followed by two races. The opening honours went the way of Mark Sansom, with the Snetterton double race-winner recording his first pole position of the year.
There was just six hundredths of a second splitting the top two in the times, with Toby Trice securing his first front row start in the series. Craig Cornick and Kidson locked out row two, with Harry Mangion enjoying a season’s best performance in fifth.
It was all change at the start of the opening race, with Trice emerging from lap one in the lead after Sansom slipped down the order. The fast-starting Mangion climbed three places to second ahead of Kidson, with Chris White also making early progress from eighth to fourth.
Kidson was the man on the move, picking off Mangion and Trice in consecutive laps to procure the race lead. Once out in front, the current want2race scholarship winner picked up the fastest lap honours for the first time as he pulled clear to a three second victory.
Trice and Mangion followed him home to each pick up their maiden podium finishes in the series, while behind Chris Threadgill impressively climbed from eighth at the end of lap one to fourth ahead of Harry Ormerod, who had started back in ninth on the grid.
Cornick rounded out the top six ahead of White and poleman Sansom, while Mark Lee and Paulo Scripo continued their consistent seasons so far in the top ten ahead of Neil Wallace, Ignazio Zanon and Nigel Fox.
With the race one result setting the grid for the next encounter, Kidson started proceedings on pole and took full advantage of the position. Two seconds clear at the end of the first lap, he went on to lead every lap on his way to completing a double victory for the weekend.
Arguably the drive of the race came from Cornick. From sixth on the grid, he was quickly into the top three and posted the fastest lap of the race as he closed down a near three second gap to Trice before sweeping past for second place.
Trice joined him on the podium in third, while Mangion emerged from a close-fought battle with White in fourth. Lee enjoyed his best performance of the season so far as he fought his way to a breakthrough top six finish ahead of Threadgill, Sansom, Wallace and Scripo.
The 2019 Ginetta Racing Drivers Club season comes to a close in six weeks’ time at Brands Hatch in Kent (03/04 August).
