Nick White has taken the championship lead in the Ginetta GT Academy 2023 with a double victory at Snetterton. Jon Kearney also secured his maiden win in the series this past weekend (17/18 June).
For the fourth time this season it was Ravi Ramyead (Century Motorsport) who secured a double pole position in qualifying, lapping half a second fastest than his chief title rival White (Raceway Motorsport). Leading rookie contender Matt Shaw was an impressive third overall.
The opening race began with White pulling off a smart switchback move through the first corner to take the lead from Ramyead, who in turn just fended off a fast-starting Kearney (Raceway Motorsport) to maintain second.
The top two broke clear from the pack and commenced a duel for the win, however their efforts were curtailed by the emergence of the safety car. Ultimately the race would go on to end under yellows, as the marshals retrieved the cars of Kearney and Shaw following an incident whilst battling for third.
Marc Elman (SVG Motorsport) was the main beneficiary as he secured a great podium finish, while Emma Tomlinson was a seasons’ best fourth overall as she secured the rookie class win ahead of her sister Lucy.
Michael Orant impressively completed the podium on his championship debut, with GTA contenders Paul Livesey (Xentek Motorsport) and Phil McGarty (Alastair Rushforth Motorsport) next up ahead of rookies Amy Tomlinson and Charlotte Lowe.
While Ramyead was on pole for race two, a fast-starting White led the field into Riches for the first time as Thomas Shelley (Century Motorsport) jumped Kearney for third. It was a familiar story at the front of the field in the early stages as the top two ran closely and edged clear of the field.
It all changed at Agostini on lap five however as Ramyead tagged the rear of White and spun him round, dropping him to fourth. The title contender quickly fought his way back part Kearney and Shelley though, before a bizarre moment at the Wilson hairpin.
White span on his own through the corner and as Shelley tried to overtake Kearney, he was left unsighted and hit the side of White. Whilst Shelley had to retire for the second race in a row, White continued in third as Ramyead went on to take a clear victory from Kearney.
Post-race however, Ramyead was penalised with a one place penalty for his incident with White. That therefore promoted Kearney to his maiden GTA class victory, with Ramyead classified second in the final result ahead of White.
Elman finished fourth overall, whilst an impressive defensive display from Emma Tomlinson saw her keep Shaw at bay in the closing laps to double her rookie win tally for behind. Lucy Tomlinson completed the class podium, splitting the GTA duo of Livesey and McGarty in the final result.
Kearney started the final race of the weekend from pole position and converted it into the early lead, as behind White snatched second from Ramyead coming out of the Wilson hairpin. Those two gave chase to the leader, before a dramatic moment on lap five saw Ramyead spin at Agostini.
White therefore was free to focus solely on attacking the leader and secured the race victory with a smart move around the outside at Brundle on the final lap. That result continued his phenomenal 100% podium record for the season so far and secured him the points advantage with nine races to go.
Ramyead finished third in the GTA class on the road after passing Elman during his recovery drive, however a five second time penalty for track limits infringements put him back a place and promoted the ever-improving Elman to his third podium of the season so far.
Emma Tomlinson’s quest for a hat-trick of rookie class wins came to a halt with a spin at the Wilson hairpin, promoting class championship leader Shaw to his 11th win of the season in third overall. Emma recovered to second in class and sixth overall ahead of McGarty and Livesey, while Amy Tomlinson netted her first rookie podium of the weekend.
Full Snetterton 2023 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
Following racing at Snetterton, the 2023 Ginetta GT Academy season will resume after a five week summer break. It’ll be back with three races at Cadwell Park (22/23 July).
