Charlie Digby and Jamie Caudle secured their maiden Ginetta GT Academy victories during an entertaining 2025 season opener at Donington Park (05/06 April).
Qualifying
The opening pole position of the season went the way of championship debutant Digby (MDD Racing). Contesting his first Ginetta event in almost seven years, the former GT5 Challenge podium-finisher set a rapid pace to secure top spot on the timesheets by four tenths of a second.
Fellow GTA class contenders Alex Deighton (Paradine by Xentek) and Jamie Caudle (E3 Sport) completed the top three overall, while Shiv Sapra (Paradine by Xentek) impressed as the quickest of the rookies in fourth. 2024 front-runner James Nicholas (E3 Sport) rounded out the top five.
Race One
Digby converted pole into his first-ever Ginetta victory in an action-packed opening race. After the original start was red-flagged due to an unfortunate incident for Louis Darling (MDD Racing) at the chicane, the race restarted with Digby fending off Deighton into Redgate.
A spin for Sapra into the gravel behind led to a short safety car period. When the action resumed, Caudle was immediately on the offensive and passed Deighton for second at Melbourne. Digby was two seconds clear at that stage, leaving Caudle to settle for second.
Deighton fended off late pressure from Nicholas to secure a podium on his Ginetta debut, while one of the drives of the race came from Sam Shrimpton (W2R). From 11th at the full race restart, the PalmerSport Ginetta scholarship winner charged forward to sixth in just a single lap.
A move on Mike West (E3 Sport) after the safety car secured him an eventual finish of fifth and with it the rookie class victory, with West completing the top six. Joe Edge (W2R) was on course for seventh on his debut until an unfortunate incident with Peter Thompson (W2R) on the last lap.
Paul Livesey (MDD Racing) and Phil McGarty (Xentek Motorsport) took advantage to move up to seventh and eighth respectively. Nick Ponting (W2R) impressed on his return to Ginetta racing to finish ninth ahead of E3 Sport pair Robin Grimwood and reigning GTA champion Julian Wantling.
Allan Wright (W2R) benefitted from the late drama to move up to second in the rookies, with Edge recovering to third in class behind. Lucie Hodgson was in the group battling for the top six early on before an unfortunate moment lost her ground, leaving her 14th at the finish ahead of her W2R team-mate Damien Duffy.
Race Two
Caudle started the second race of the weekend from pole position courtesy of posting the best second-fastest time in qualifying. He fended off a challenge from Digby into the first corner to maintain his advantage, while Livesey moved ahead of Sapra for third on the opening lap.
Deighton and Nicholas made early progress into the top six from eighth and tenth on the grid respectively, before both working their way past Sapra at Redgate on lap three. Next time round, a spin for Livesey from third left him stranded at the Old Hairpin and he was collected by the unfortunate West.
After a short safety car period, the action resumed with Caudle leading from Digby, Deighton, Nicholas and Sapra. Darling took the restart in sixth, but a moment into Redgate sadly ended his race in the gravel trap, promoting Ponting into the top six ahead of Wantling.
At the front, Digby made a challenge for the lead down the inside into Mcleans but ran wide on the exit, allowing Caudle back through. That gave the leader a gap at the front and he held it to the chequered flag for his maiden GT Academy win, with Digby coming home second.
Nicholas worked his way past Deighton late on to complete the GTA top three, with Sapra holding the rookie advantage throughout for his maiden class win in fifth. Wantling put in a charging drive from 14th on the grid to finish sixth, having enjoyed a close tussle with Shrimpton in the closing laps.
Thompson bounced back from late race one drama to put in a brilliant drive from 19th on the grid to ninth overall behind Ponting, while Grimwood made late progress to grab the final spot in the top ten. Edge finished third of the rookies on the road, however he was disqualified post-race for a safety car infringement, promoting Wright to the class podium.
Race Three
With the race two result setting the grid for the final encounter, Caudle and Digby lined up on the front row on Sunday afternoon. The pole-sitter maintained the lead through Redgate for the first time, with Nicholas slotting into third as Ponting shot from eighth to fourth in the opening few corners.
Caudle’s advantage was short-lived however as Digby dived down the inside into Melbourne on lap two and secured the lead. Nicholas followed him through for second, but Caudle hit back at Redgate next time round to regain the position.
As those two continued to battle behind, Digby enjoyed a comfortable run to his second win of the weekend. After almost making a move stick into Melbourne on lap five, Nicholas successfully picked off Caudle at Mcleans on the next lap to secure second place at the chequered flag.
Ponting signed off his impressive return to Ginetta racing with a fourth-place finish ahead of Deighton, while Shrimpton secured his second rookie class win of the weekend in sixth overall. Wantling was next up ahead of Sapra, who doubled his rookie podium tally for the day.
Thompson and Livesey were the two big movers of the race, climbing up from 14th and 17th on the grid respectively to complete the top ten. McGarty was in the thick of the action on his way to 11th, while Darling signed off a tricky debut weekend with a hard-fought 12th place finish and rookie podium.
Ben Cooke (W2R) was another driver to have ended a mixed weekend on a high note in 13th ahead of E3 Sport pair West and Grimwood. Edge finished fourth of the rookies in 16th overall, with his W2R stablemates Hodgson, Wright and Duffy completing the race finishers.
In the Chairmans Cup, a class for drivers over the age of 45, Deighton took a clean sweep of class victories across the three races. Wantling and Thompson celebrated double podium finishes, with West and Livesey also taking home class trophies.
Full race results can be found at https://www.tsl-timing.com/event/251405
All three races can be watched back at www.youtube.com/user/ginettatv
The 2025 Ginetta GT Academy season continues later this month (26/27 April) with two races on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit.
