Blake Angliss was the class of the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT Championship field during the second day of the G Fest action at Silverstone (03 June) as he secured his first two overall race victories in Ginetta racing.
After Ruben Hage had dominated proceedings on the Grand Prix circuit on Friday, it was his Breakell Racing team-mate Angliss who set the pace as the field moved across to the shorter National layout for the weekend’s action.
Angliss took pole position in qualifying by six hundredths of a second from Hage, as Callum Davies (SVG Motorsport) and Carl Garnett (Breakell Racing) secured second row starts. Will Rochford (TCR) and Bal Sidhu (Xentek Motorsport) secured the GT5 Pro and Am poles respectively for the second day in a row.
Angliss converted his pole position into a dominant lights-to-flag victory in the opening race of the day. The GT4 SuperCup graduate initially built a gap to Hage, before a puncture sent the latter to the pitlane, leaving the leader untroubled en-route to a four second success.
A fast start for Garnett promoted him to third before Hage’s issue moved him up to second to match his best result of the season so far. It ended up being a Breakell Racing lockout of the podium after a superb drive up the order from Harley Haughton.
The 2022 GT5 Challenge title contender was a last-minute entry for the weekend and after driving the Ginetta G56 GTP for the first time in qualifying, he fought through from seventh on the grid and made a decisive move on Davies three laps from the finish.
From an uncharacteristic sixth on the grid, championship leader Luke Reade (Wolf Motorsport) went on to finish fifth behind Davies. Colin White (CWS 4×4) completed the top six ahead of Conner Garlick (Xentek Motorsport), Liona Theobald (SVG Motorsport) and SF Racing duo Gary Wager and Shawn Fleming, with Hage 11th after his pitstop.
Nat Hodgkiss (Race Car Consultants) grabbed the GT5 Pro lead on the opening lap and after heading a four-car battle in the early stages, he was joined by Luke Garlick (Xentek Motorsport) in breaking clear of the pack as they finished one-two.
Ella Lloyd (Xentek Motorsport) was in the podium scrap before some bonnet damage dropped her back to seventh in class at the finish. Her team-mate Sam Harvey took advantage to finish third, with Rochford dropping from pole to fourth ahead of Paolo Santi (Raceway Motorsport) and Karim Sekkat (Breakell Racing).
Angliss produced a perfect replica of his earlier performance to complete his double win in the afternoon’s encounter by five seconds. Hage was his closest challenger in the first half of the race, before Reade worked his way past.
The man on the move again was Haughton however, going from seventh on the grid to fourth at mid-distance and then ahead of Hage for third. Reade was the next driver in his sights and after hunting him down, a move into Copse late on end netted him second.
Reade still picked up his second podium of G Fest in third, while a tremendous late charge from Ginetta stalwart White secured him fourth at the expense of Hage and Garnett. Davies, Wager and Fleming completed the GTP class runners, with Conner Garlick retiring with a tyre issue.
Rochford started from the GT5 Pro pole position but was shuffled back to fourth on the opening lap, as Hodgkiss took control of the race and completed a double win for the day. Xentek team-mates Luke Garlick, Lloyd and Harvey began battling for second behind him, however they collided on track.
As Garlick dropped back to fifth and the other two retired in the pitlane, Rochford ended up second and Sekkat secured his first podium of the event in third after a close battle with Santi. Lexie Belk (Privateer) was sixth in GT5 Pro, while Sidhu completed a double win for the day in GT5 Am.
Full race results can be found at www.tsl-timing.com/event/232221
All three races can be watched back as part of the G Fest coverage: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5gDHWtnNzM
The Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT Championship drivers will now contest their sixth and seventh races of G Fest tomorrow (04 June), once again on the Silverstone National layout.
