In this season’s 18-race programme, its drivers accumulated a staggering 48 Pro, Am and G40 combined podiums – including 16 victories.
Elite’s GT5 “Pro” trio of John Bennett, Will Aspin and Harley Haughton finished second, third and sixth in the Driver’s standings while Harry Mangion won the GT5 “Am” title with Karim Sekkat taking fourth.
Aspin looked to have achieved his second GT5 win of the season in Race 1, replicating his maiden GT5 triumph at the Donington track in July. Starting from the front row, he comfortably led the 12-lap race from start to finish but was ultimately disqualified for exceeding track limits in a Yellow Flag zone. In Race 2, Will repeated his domination – leading every lap in the rain from pole, also claiming the fastest race lap, to win by over six secs. The success story continued in a dry Race 3, Will having to survive intense pressure throughout plus side-on-side contact at times, to record win number three of the year – his 13th podium.
Bennett took the chequered flag third in Race 1 but after post-race penalties were applied, recorded his fifth victory of the season – from 11th on the grid – having set the fastest race lap. John led the opening lap of Race 2 from his second row start, survived a double spin in the atrociously wet conditions when placed second, recovering to 10th at the finish. In the weekend’s final race Bennett, who achieved 10 podiums this season, spun out and hit the barrier on the opening lap.
Harley Haughton touched another car in Race 1 and suffered a spin but was classified seventh. He diced furiously throughout Race 2, Harley’s efforts rewarded with his sixth top-six result of the season. The third race saw Haughton battling for fifth but a couple of spins, plus a penalty, dropped him to a 14th finish.
Harry Mangion recorded his sixth and seventh GT5 Am “poles” of the season, posted his seventh class win in Race 1 then closely followed the class winner home in Race 2 – Harry having set the fastest race lap in both. In Race 3, Mangion came home fifth in class – 13 top-threes recorded in 2021 – to secure the GT5 Am title.
Karim Sekkat, another to run foul of officials in Race 1 having led early on, finished the season off with sixth and an excellent second in Sunday’s two races – equalling his best result of the season for the fifth time this year. Meanwhile Peter Dilnot recorded a fourth place finish in the G40 Am category.
Eddie Ives, Team Owner & Manager
“It’s been another phenomenally successful year for Elite Motorsport in the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT5 Challenge with us again claiming the Teams’ title for the second consecutive year.
“To rack up almost 50 Pro, Am & G40 combined podiums in an 18-race campaign is pretty good going! Credit goes to our drivers and every team member.
“Harry came through to win the GT5 Am title despite him missing three races through no fault of his own which was a helluva an achievement. Unfortunately John and Will just came up short in terms of GT5 Pro honours.
“All in all, a great season and hats off to each of our drivers.”
