Archie Clark and Robert Cronin took a race win each as the second half of the 2025 Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT Championship season got underway at Snetterton (12-13 July).
Qualifying
Championship leader Archie Clark (MDD Racing) got his weekend off to the perfect start, storming to the top of the timesheets in the dying seconds in qualifying to secure a double pole position. His last lap heroics deprived the quickest PRO AM runner Harry Gamble (Elite Motorsport) top spot by 0.112s.
Robert Cronin (Elite Motorsport) was only 0.002s further back in third, with the same fine margin splitting fellow PRO contenders Hadley Simpson (Xentek Motorsport) and Jack Collins (E3 Sport) in fourth and fifth respectively. Ali Juffali (Elite Motorsport) was quickest of the AM drivers in eighth overall.
Race One
Clark led the field away from pole for the 20-minute sprint race, however he came under immediate pressure from Gamble on the run to Riches. Gamble tried to challenge around the outside but run wide over the grass, leaving him to fight back from 12th place as the race developed.
Cronin slotted into second and the top two immediately broke clear of the chasing pack. A tense duel played out between them throughout the race, however Cronin couldn’t get close enough to mount an overtaking challenge as Clark went on to secure his fifth win of the season so far.
Simpson held third in the early stages ahead of Collins and a fast-starting Nick White (Raceway Motorsport), who gained three places to fifth on the opening lap. Behind, Mckenzie Douglass (Fox Motorsport) fell to eighth on lap one but quickly fought back past Luke Shaw (Raceway Motorsport) and Alex Duncan (Xentek Motorsport).
Soaking up pressure from behind throughout, Simpson went on to complete the overall PRO podium in third. Douglass pulled off great moves on Nick White and Collins to finish fourth on the road, however a couple of time penalties dropped him to ninth in the classified result.
Nick White therefore took the PRO AM class win in fourth, but only just after some wheel-to-wheel action with Gamble in the closing laps. Bouncing back from his lap one frustration, Gamble produced a determined drive to climb back up the order to fifth overall on the road.
Post-race though, Gamble was one of three drivers handed five second time penalties for ‘gaining an unfair advantage’ due to an infringement prior to the race start. That demoted him to eighth on the final result, though he remained on the PRO AM podium.
Cameron Pratt Thompson (SVG Motorsport) was also on a charge through the race, battling through from 17th after a grid place penalty to an eventual finish of fifth. Collins was unfortunate to lose some ground late on as he finished sixth ahead of PRO AM podium-finisher Duncan.
Issues for AM pole-sitter Juffali and early leader Shaw opened the door for James Townsend (SVG Motorsport) to pick up his first win of the campaign. Colin White (CWS Engineering) came home second in class, with Juffali third on the road before a track limits penalty gave Shaw the podium.
Amy Tomlinson (Raceway Motorsport) finished up fifth in class ahead of Fox Motorsport pair James Rolling and Oliver Fordham, while an incident-packed race for Emma Tomlinson (DTO Motorsport) and Dominic Paul (Triple M Motorsport) dropped them to the back of the field in the end.
Race Two
The 40-minute endurance race followed on Sunday, with the drivers each required to complete a mandatory pitstop. Clark and Cronin led away from the front-row of the grid, while Douglass shot around the outside of Pratt Thompson through Riches for third.
A difficult opening lap saw Pratt Thompson slip back to eighth, with Simpson moving up to fourth briefly before a wide moment at Hamilton on lap two led to him spinning out of the race. This led to a safety car period to allow for the retrieval of his car.
At the restart, Nick White was the driver on the move as he passed Collins into Palmer on lap six and then Douglass through Brundle two laps later. Those overtakes came just before the pitstop window opened, with leader Clark, Douglass and Collins being the first to dive into the pit lane.
Clark’s pitstop proved to the longest of the leading pack and that proved costly, as once everyone had stopped he had fallen from the lead of the race to seventh. Cronin seized the advantage from White, while Gamble was the main beneficiary in the pitstops as he rose from sixth to third.
Those three stayed in position through to the chequered flag, with Cronin securing his second overall win of the campaign. White took the PRO AM honours in second ahead of his class rival, while Collins soaked up a lot of pressure from Pratt Thompson in the closing laps to finish fourth.
Clark pulled off a late move on Douglass into Williams to finish sixth on the road, however five-second time penalties for both Clark and Pratt Thompson meant the revised result had Douglass in fifth ahead of Pratt Thompson, AM class winner Juffali and Clark. Shaw and Paul rounded out the overall top ten as they completed the AM podium.
Emma Tomlinson finished up fourth in the AM ranks ahead of Townsend, who took advantage of the safety car period to recover from a lap one spin and fight forward to fifth in class. Amy Tomlinson, Rolling and Fordham completed the finishers, while Duncan was on course for a PRO AM podium until a mechanical problem on the last lap.
Full race results can be found at www.tsl-timing.com/event/252805
Both races can be watched back at www.youtube.com/user/ginettatv
The Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT Championship will return to action next month with the penultimate round of the 2025 season at Brands Hatch in Kent (23-24 August).
