Luke Reade has extended his points lead in the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT Championship. He secured a supreme hat-trick of victories as the second half of the 2023 season began at Snetterton (17/18 June).
Reade (Wolf Motorsport) topped the timesheets in qualifying on Saturday morning, securing a double pole position by just a tenth of a second ahead of Callum Davies (SVG Motorsport) and Breakell Racing trio Blake Angliss, Ruben Hage and Carl Garnett.
The opening race of the weekend developed into a duel between Reade and Davies for the victory. Drivers faced the added complication of light drizzle beginning to fall from mid-distance. Reade kept him at arms’ length to record the victory, with Davies settling for second at the flag.
Multiple G Fest race-winner Angliss completed the podium on his second appearance of the season, running third throughout. Fellow G Fest star Hage briefly lost fourth at the start of the race but fought back, while a typically fast-starting Colin White (CWS 4×4) moved up two places on lap one to fifth.
Garnett was left to settle for sixth ahead of Liona Theobald (SVG Motorsport) and Bal Sidhu (Xentek Motorsport), the latter stepping up to the GT Pro class for the first time after dominating GT5 Am through the opening half of the season.
Sam Harvey had secured his maiden GT5 Pro pole position at the head of a Xentek Motorsport one-two-three from Ella Lloyd and Luke Garlick. Lloyd moved into the lead on lap one though and pulled a gap of over two seconds to the pack at one stage.
Garlick closed in though and they enjoyed a thrilling battle in the closing laps. Lloyd impressively soaked up the pressure to take the victory. Will Rochford (TCR) survived a trip across the grass on lap one to secure a podium finish ahead of Harvey.
Race two on Sunday morning belonged to Reade, with a comprehensive lights-to-flag victory for the 2022 GT4 SuperCup ‘G55 Pro’ champion. Davies fended off an early challenge from White to settle into second, but couldn’t keep tabs on the leader.
The drive of the race came from Angliss however. After initially slipping down to fifth at the start, he fought his way past Hage, White – who had shot from sixth to third off the line – and then Davies to secure second place.
Davies finished third on the road before receiving a five second track limits time penalty that initially dropped him behind Hage. Post-race penalty for the latter moved Davies back to third. White finished fourth in the revised result ahead of Hage, Garnett, Theobald and Shawn Fleming (SF Racing).
Another exciting GT5 race saw Rochford move into the lead for the opening few laps. Unfortunately for him, Lloyd picked him off into Riches. Garlick briefly seized the advantage soon after. But, an off-track moment dropped him back to third. Lloyd came through to win after a late duel with Rochford. Karim Sekkat (Breakell Racing) was a weekend best of fourth in class.
The final race of the weekend started with Angliss swooping around the outside of Reade through the first corner to take the lead, however an immediate issue with his bonnet would go on to hamper him as the race developed.
Reade tucked under the rear bumper of the leader. He went on to make an impressive move around the outside at the Wilson hairpin to seize the advantage. He led the remaining laps to record his ninth victory of the season. Angliss also continued his 100% podium record since joining the series at G Fest.
Hage passed White for fourth place on the opening lap. However, a trip across the grass at Riches soon after opened the door for White to chase down Davies for third. The Ginetta veteran got ahead at the hairpin late on to record his 146th class podium finish in Ginetta racing.
Garnett secured his best result of the weekend in fifth ahead of Hage. Gary Wager (SF Racing) enjoyed a weekend high finish in eighth behind Theobald. Fleming completed the class finishers, with Sidhu unfortunately not making it to the end.
Once again the GT5 contenders enjoyed a great, close battle for the victory. Rochford shot into the lead on the first lap but soon slipped to third behind Lloyd and Garlick. As the top four ran as one pack throughout, Garlick grabbed the lead on the penultimate lap. This completed a Xentek Motorsport clean sweep for the weekend from Lloyd, Rochford and Harvey.
Full race results can be found at www.tsl-timing.com/event/232405
All three races can be watched back at https://m.youtube.com/@ginettatv/streams
The inaugural season of the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT Championship will return. The series continues with three more races at Cadwell Park in five weeks’ time (22/23 July).
