One of the standout achievements for Ginetta alumni came for Tom Ingram. He secured his first British Touring Car Championship drivers’ title this year. The three-time Ginetta champion excelled with six race wins across the campaign to secure a hugely popular win. He’d previously finished runner-up in 2018.
Jake Hill, Ingram’s chief rival for the 2010 Junior title, was a contender for the BTCC crown right down to the final race of the season. He ended up a career-best third in the points. In another ultra-competitive BTCC season, Adam Morgan, George Gamble and Dan Lloyd were other race-winners with Ginetta experience.
On the championship’s support package, the Porsche Carrera Cup GB was filled with Ginetta alumni excelling. There was a lockout of the top five places in the final standings! 2017 Junior rookie champion Kiern Jewiss took the title ahead of Adam Smalley, Will Martin, Gus Burton and Theo Edgerton.
Fellow alumni Jake Giddings and Josh Malin also scored podium finishes in the Porsche’s. Jack Mitchell, Max Coates, Dan Zelos and Lewis Brown were front-runners in the MINI Challenge. Georgi Dimitrov was a three-time race-winner in the F4 British Championship.
At the top of the single-seater pyramid meanwhile, 2014 Junior rookie champion Lando Norris has continued to be a front-running force in Formula 1 with McLaren, scoring a podium finish earlier in the year at Imola and five other top six results so far.
On the next rungs down the ladder, fellow Junior alumni Enzo Fittipaldi and Olli Caldwell have impressed in FIA Formula Two. , 2019 rookie champion Zak O’Sullivan secured FIA Formula Three silverware. He has been signed to the Williams F1 Driver Academy.
Ginetta graduates have been excelling in the W Series since its launch in 2020. This year has been no exception. 2013 Junior scholar Jamie Chadwick won five of the seven races to take her third consecutive drivers’ title. Alice Powell and Abbi Pulling were also podium finishers.
Over in America, Devlin DeFrancesco became the first ever Ginetta alumni to race in IndyCar. The Canadian-Italian driver took a best result of 12th in his rookie year with Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport, while he was also part of the LMP2 winning team in the 24 Hours of Daytona.
Louis Foster has IndyCar aspirations of his own after a brilliant first year racing stateside. The 2018 Junior runner-up was victorious in the Indy Pro 2000 Championship. He will now step up to Indy Lights, one level below IndyCar on the US single-seater ladder, next season with Andretti Autosport.
Back on these shores, fellow Junior graduate Luke Browning secured his second major UK single-seater title, taking five race wins on his way to glory in the GB3 Championship to add to his 2020 F4 British Championship success.
2020 Junior champion Tom Lebbon was a four-time race-winner. He came third in the GB3 standings, one place ahead of Callum Voisin. Last year’s GT5 Challenge runner-up John Bennett and 2019 Junior champion James Hedley were also podium-finishers in the series.
Their various successes mean that Chadwick, Foster and Browning have been selected as finalists for the 2022 Autosport BRDC Award. The coveted award and its prize of a Formula 1 test having been won by Ginetta graduates on four of the last six occasions.
Across in GT racing, a sensational record continued in the British GT Championship as 2011 Junior scholarship winner Sennan Fielding secured the GT4 class title. It’s now eleven seasons in a row that the GT4 crown has been won by at least one Ginetta graduate.
Five drivers stepped up straight from Juniors into the British GT4 class this year; Josh Miller, Seb Hopkins, Tom Edgar, Freddie Tomlinson and Joe Wheeler. Miller was a title contender as part of British GT’s youngest ever winning driver pairing, while Hopkins and Edgar also picked up silverware.
2020 GT4 SuperCup champion Will Burns was another GT4 race-winner. Current GT4 SuperCup racers Nick Halstead and Darren Leung took overall GT3 wins at Spa-Francorchamps and Donington Park respectively.
At the top of the GT racing ladder, three Ginetta alumni have starred in the GTE Am class of the FIA World Endurance Championship. Former GT4 SuperCup talent David Pittard has won one race. He also and lies second in the class standings heading into the Bahrain finale later this month. Sebastian Priaulx is a double-race winner and fellow Junior alumni Charlie Fagg has also scored a podium result.
In prototype’s, 2017 Junior champion Tom Gamble was an LMP2 race-winner in the European Le Mans Series for a second consecutive season. Two more ex-Juniors in Sophia Floersch and Bailey Voisin also enjoying podium finishes in LMP2 and LMP3 respectively.
Other title successes this season saw 2019 GT4 SuperCup victor Harry King secure the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux honours. Ex-Junior ace Haytham Qarajouli won the Ligier European Series JS2 R crown.
Steph Bush – Ginetta Championships Manager:
“Each season we enjoy seeing our former drivers going on to accomplish some fantastic achievements in motorsport. This year has been no exception with some milestone championship wins and other notable successes.
“We’re incredibly proud to see graduates enjoying great results in championships all over the world, across GT racing, touring cars, single-seaters and prototypes. It’s a testament to our motorsport ladder and our continued philosophy of promoting young talent.”
