Reigning Ginetta GT5 Challenge Team champions Elite Motorsport has extended its advantage in this year’s standings after an impressive tally of nine podiums including two wins at Brands Hatch last weekend (22-23 May). Elite’s drivers are placed second (Will Aspin) and third (John Bennett) in the GT5 Pro Driver’s Championship while Harry Mangion continues to lead the Am standings.
John Bennett took the chequered flag first in Race 1 on Saturday. Taking the lead on the opening lap, he led every lap to the finish but a very late post-race 0.333secs time penalty, for allegedly overtaking under a yellow flag period, dropped the Thruxton race winner to second. A determined Bennett comfortably claimed Race 2 honours early on Sunday afternoon but Race 3 pole-starting Bennett, crashed out of second-place on the fourth lap as a sudden, brief rain shower made the track treacherously greasy causing a Safety Car period.
Will Aspin started Race 1 in fourth, his highest grid position to date, and was just 0.244secs adrift of the winner in the amended results after 10-laps having set the race’s fastest lap around the 2.43-mile GP track. Will netted second-place in Race 2 – and fastest lap again – coming out on top of a hectic battle for the runner-up position. Will finished the day with a fighting second place, recovering from fifth from a front row start, missing out on a maiden GT5 victory by 0.192secs after a one-lap “shoot-out” as the race resumed.
Harley Haughton qualified an excellent eighth for Race 1, recovered having lost places on the opening lap after being pushed wide at Druids and lay eighth on the penultimate lap but found himself shuffled back to a 12th place class finish while battling for fifth on the final lap. Harley netted his best result of the season with a well-earned fifth-place in Race 2 then completed a notable weekend with sixth.
Harry Mangion missed out on Am “pole” in the dying moments of qualifying but recorded P3 in Race 1 – less than one second behind the class winner – having recovered from fourth place after contact on lap one. Harry won Race 2, plus class fastest lap, and rounded off the day with third-place, the prolonged Safety Car period preventing Mangion from recovering from a poor start from “pole”.
Karim Sekkat recorded fourth and eighth places in the Am class in Races 1 & 2 then fifth in the final race of the day. Peter Dilnot, having missed the opening Thruxton races, finished third in the G40 class in Race 1, suffered two excursions at Surtees in race 2 and finished fourth the Race 3. The next Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT5 Challenge/Ginetta G40 Cup races will be held at Silverstone (GP) over 26-27 June.
Eddie Ives, Team Owner & Manager:
“We’re looking super strong in GT5s this season and extended our Team’s advantage in the points table. Josh Steed has crept into the Driver’s Championship lead, taking over from John [Bennett], who slipped to third after his Race 3 off, but Will [Aspin] is only six-points adrift of Steed in second place while Harry [Mangion] continues to lead the Am category.
“John won Race 1 on the road but was adjudged to have taken the lead at the same time as the Safety Car boards came out indicating no overtaking. It was a small misjudgement by John and a bit unlucky but rules are rules. He led home an Elite 1-2 ahead of Will in Race 2 but then was unfortunate to go off caused by the brief rain shower in the final race of the day.
“Will was in brilliant form all weekend with three podiums and two fastest laps – an exceptional performance especially in the final race. His first win looks to be just around the corner. Harley had a much better weekend than Thruxton. He was unfortunate in Race 1 when he dropped down the order to an unrepresentative placing but bounced back in tremendous style in Race 2 with fifth, showing really good pace again in Race 3 with another top-10.
“Harry was close to a win in Race 1 then did so in Race 2 but was thwarted in getting to the very front of the Am field in Race 3 due to the restricted number of racing laps. Karim enjoyed better fortune in Race 3 while Peter did well in his first GT40 races with us.”
