It was a milestone weekend for the championship with the introduction of the new Ginetta G56 GT4. The honour of the first pole position in the new era went the way of Kellett (Rosland Gold Racing by Century Motorsport), who topped the timesheets by three tenths of a second.
2021 championship runner-up Josh Rattican (Elite Motorsport) secured a front row start alongside him, while series stalwart Reece Somerfield (Breakell Racing) scored his best qualifying result in third. Tom Emson (Elite Motorsport) and Aston Millar (DTO Motorsport) rounded out the top five.
Three drivers scored their maiden GT4 SuperCup class pole positions meanwhile. Darren Leung (Assetto Motorsport) pipped Colin White (CWS Racing) by 0.066s in G56 Am, while Blake Angliss (Rosland Gold Racing by Century Motorsport) and James Townsend (Fox Motorsport) topped G55 Pro and Am respectively.
Kellett converted his pole position into a dominant win in the opening race on Saturday afternoon. Storming away to a 2.5 second lead on lap one alone, he’d stretched his advantage to six seconds before a mid-race safety car. After a perfect restart, he edged away again to victory.
An issue for fellow front-row starter Rattican early on opened the door for Somerfield to secure his first top three result since 2019 ahead of newcomer Millar in his debut race. Those results also marked first ever podiums in the championship for Breakell Racing and DTO Motorsport.
As Henry Dawes (Century Motorsport) secured fourth overall, an action-packed race behind saw G56’s and G55’s battling it out. The lead G55 pair came through to overall top six finishes, as Luke Reade (Wolf Motorsport) took the Pro class win from James Taylor (Team HARD).
Class pole-sitter Angliss lost ground off the line, but went on to complete the podium in eighth overall. Ahead of him at the chequered flag was Leung, who took the G56 Am honours ahead of Mike Brown (Ultimate Speed Racing) and Wes Pearce (Breakell Racing).
The hotly contested G55 Am class was set to go the way of pole-sitter Townsend, however a moment at Graham Hill Bend dropped him out of the podium places. Daniel Morris (Simon Green Motorsport) therefore took the win from Ian Duggan (Fox Motorsport) and Luke Warr (Race Car Consultants).
It was a case of déjà vu at the front of the field in race two on Sunday morning, as Kellett once again produced a commanding lights to flag win. Behind, early pressure from Millar paid off as he grabbed second from Somerfield as both joined Kellett in making it two podiums from two races.
The drives of the race came from Rattican and Emson, as they scythed their way through from the back of the grid after race one retirements. They gained 14 and 12 places respectively to reach the top six behind Dawes, with Emson celebrating his 50th race in the championship.
Leung fended off a late challenge from White to win the G56 Am class again, the latter having fought through from 17th on the grid to eighth, while an impressive drive from Angliss saw him move up from third in class on the grid to secure the G55 Pro victory from Reade.
In the G55 pack, Duggan secured the Am honours, having run closely with Pro’s Taylor and Conner Garlick (Xentek Motorsport). James Townsend made it a Fox one-two in the Am’s ahead of Morris, Garry Townsend (Assetto Motorsport) and Sam Callahan (Breakell Racing).
The number six was drawn out of the bowl for the race three reverse grid, putting Emson on pole in front of the live ITV television cameras. He led the field through Paddock Hill for the first time, however a wide moment a couple of corners later dropped him behind Somerfield.
He fought back on lap two though, with Rattican, Kellett and Millar also making their way past Somerfield. The man on the move then was Kellett, who picked off Rattican and Emson to lead by the end of lap four, before pulling five seconds clear at the front.
A safety car period slashed his advantage, but he successfully negotiated the restart and led to the chequered flag. That win makes him only the fifth driver ever to record three wins in a weekend, following in the footsteps of Tom Sharp, Tom Ingram, Tom Wrigley and Carl Boardley.
Emson ran second for a long spell before a wide moment opened the door for Millar and Rattican to get ahead. Those two switched places late on as Rattican took his first podium of the season in second, whilst Millar completed an impressive debut podium hat-trick behind.
The top five was completed by Emson and Somerfield, while sixth overall was the G55 Pro victor Angliss. He doubled up his win tally for the day after fighting his way back past Taylor, while Nick Halstead (Fox Motorsport) got his first class podium in third.
Duggan and James Townsend made it another Fox one-two in the G55 Am class ahead of Morris, while Pearce bounced back from a tough second race to sign off his debut weekend with the G56 Am victory ahead of Brown and Leung.
Full race results from the weekend are available here: https://www.tsl-timing.com/event/221903
There’s now a four week break before the next rounds of the Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup at Oulton Park in Cheshire over the weekend of 11/12 June.
