James Nicholas celebrated a near-perfect weekend in the penultimate round of the 2025 Ginetta GT Academy at Brands Hatch (23-24 August), securing both race wins to strengthen his title bid.
Qualifying
Nicholas (E3 Sport) was the quickest driver in testing around the Brands Hatch Indy circuit on Friday, and he carried that pace on to the full Grand Prix layout. A great lap put him top of the qualifying timesheets for the third time in four meetings, going quickest by four tenths of a second.
Points leader Jamie Caudle (E3 Sport) was second fastest by just 0.007s to Charlie Digby (MDD Racing). A last gasp lap from Sam Shrimpton (W2R) earned him the rookie class pole position in fourth overall ahead of Paradine by Xentek team-mates Shiv Sapra and championship debutant Simon Traves.
Race One
The opening race got started at the second attempt, after an incident on the original start led to a retirement for Damien Duffy (W2R). Nicholas converted pole into the lead off the restart, with Caudle slotting into second as Digby and Shrimpton fought over third behind.
Shrimpton briefly moved into the position, but Digby and Louis Darling (MDD Racing) worked their way past by the end of the lap. PalmerSport Ginetta Race Scholarship winner Shrimpton fought back on lap three though, diving down the inside of Darling into Paddock Hill Bend for fourth overall.
At the front of the field, Caudle hung on to Nicholas in the early laps before the leader started breaking clear. Nicholas went on to take his tenth overall victory in the GT Academy by just shy of two seconds, with Digby following them home as the top three in the GTA points once again shared the podium.
Shrimpton took the rookie class victory in fourth, a result given more importance as class rival Sapra suffered an unfortunate retirement. Darling finished fifth on the road, however he dropped four places when a ten-second penalty for a false start was applied post-race.
Traves therefore marked his GT Academy bow with a fifth-place finish, with Peter Thompson (W2R) hot on his heels. Robin Grimwood (E3 Sport) fended off Allan Wright (W2R) to the chequered flag, the latter earning a rookie class podium in the process. Thompson, Grimwood and Wright shared the Chairmans Cup rostrum too.
Lexie Belk (Privateer) rounded out the top ten on the road, however a five-second penalty for track limits infringements dropped her behind Lucie Hodgson (W2R). Ben Cooke (W2R), Phil McGarty (Xentek Motorsport) and Chris Babington (SVG Motorsport) completed the finishers.
Race Two
Digby was on pole position for the second race of the weekend, courtesy of posting the best ‘second fastest’ time in qualifying. He converted pole into the early race lead, whilst Nicholas fended off Caudle on the opening lap to maintain fourth place.
The top three were split by less than a second for a number of laps, before a switchback move through Westfield netted Nicholas the race lead. He went on to pull clear to a 3.5 second victory, as Digby soaked up pressure from Caudle for the remainder of the race on his way to second.
Shrimpton made opening lap progress past Traves to move behind his rookie class rival Sapra, however the latter was able to pull almost six seconds clear through the race for a sixth win of the season. Traves came home fourth in the GTA class, with Darling occupying the position before pulling off into retirement.
Thompson took the Chairmans Cup victory in seventh ahead of rookie podium finisher Wright, while Belk led home Grimwood and Hodgson following an exciting three-way battle between them. McGarty was next of the GTA contenders, while Duffy bounced back from a race one DNF to finish fourth of the rookies.
Due to a delay in Sunday’s racing that led to a revised timetable, the third GT Academy race of the weekend was unfortunately postponed. Confirmation of whether the race will be rescheduled at a future event is to be confirmed in due course.
Full race results can be found at www.tsl-timing.com/event/253405
The weekend’s two races can be watched back at www.youtube.com/user/ginettatv
The final round 2025 Ginetta GT Academy season will take place at Donington Park over the weekend of 04/05 October.
