On the TOCA package, the season started with every race bar one being won by current or former Ginetta drivers across all the championships on the opening weekend at Brands Hatch. That set the tone for a season in which alumni drivers scored almost 50 race wins and over 130 podium finishes.
It’s in the MINI Challenge where we’ve seen a Ginetta graduate win an overall title this season. After a thrilling title duel that went down to their final race of the season, Dan Zelos emerged with the title by just seven points from fellow ex-Junior Max Bird.
There were impressively four Ginetta alumni in the top five places in the MINI championship standings. Alongside the top two, 2017 GT5 Challenge champion Lewis Brown and GT4 SuperCup podium finisher Max Coates were also multiple race-winners.
In the BTCC itself, the top two from the 2010 Juniors, Tom Ingram and Jake Hill, went into the final rounds in contention for the drivers’ title. Joining them as race-winners this year were previous GT4 SuperCup champions Adam Morgan and Tom Oliphant, plus former Junior stars Senna Proctor and Aiden Moffat.
In the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, there were four Ginetta Junior graduates in the championship top five. Lorcan Hanafin won four races as he took the title battle down the final race, while his 2019 adversary Will Martin and 2017 rookie champion Kiern Jewiss also won races – the latter securing Porsche’s own rookie crown.
2020 Carrera Cup GB champion and 2019 GT4 SuperCup victor Harry King won three races of his own, while outgoing GT5 Challenge champion Josh Malin notched a couple of podium finishes. Ryan Ratcliffe, a Junior racer back in 2010, won the Pro Am title meanwhile.
In the F4 British Championship, 2019 Junior champion James Hedley was picked up a top five championship finish. Fellow Junior graduates Georgi Dimitrov and Zak Taylor joined him as race-winners, while ex-GT5 Challenge star Abbi Pulling scored podiums in both British F4 and W Series this year.
Away from the TOCA package, a sensational campaign for 2019 Junior rookie champion Zak O’Sullivan saw him enjoy a dominant GB3 Championship title success and a finalist berth for the coveted Autosport BRDC Award. Roman Bilinski also impressed in the series with three race wins.
O’Sullivan’s predecessor to the Junior rookie crown, Louis Foster, has also earned an Autosport BRDC Award nomination after starring in Europe this season, finishing runner-up in Euroformula Open. In the W Series meanwhile, two former Juniors battled it out for the title, with ex-scholar Jamie Chadwick becoming a two-time champion ahead of Alice Powell.
Back in the UK and the top two in the 2020 GT4 SuperCup standings, Will Burns and Gus Burton, joined forces to dominate the GT4 class in the British GT Championship. That continues a record of that title being won by at least one Ginetta graduate every season since 2012.
2017 GT4 SuperCup vice-champion Ben Green enjoyed title success this year in the DTM Trophy, with 2016 Junior champion Will Tregurtha finishing runner-up, while former Juniors Bailey Voisin and Charlie Fagg teamed up to win the GT4 European Series crown.
It isn’t just the Carrera Cup GB in which Junior alumni have enjoyed Porsche success this year. Theo Edgerton won the Sprint Challenge GB title, whilst across the pond, Seb Priaulx is on course to become the inaugural Porsche Carrera Cup North America champion.
2016 Juniors champion Stuart Middleton and rookie champion Daniel Harper finished as runners up in the Italian GT Endurance Championship and Nürburgring Endurance Series respectively.
Middleton’s successor to the title, Tom Gamble, finished runner up in the European Le Mans Series’ LMP2 class, as former Junior quartet Sophia Floersch, Andrew Watson, Jody Fannin and Tom Gamble all contested the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Ashley Gallagher – Ginetta Motorsport Manager: “A big part of our philosophy here at Ginetta is promoting young talent and giving them the foundations to go on and enjoy successful careers. This year in particular feels like a very successful one for our alumni talents.
“We’ve seen drivers make their mark across the TOCA package, win titles in the leading single-seater and GT championships in the UK, and enjoy huge success across Europe and beyond. With the level of talent we’ve had on our own grids in 2021, we’re confident this will continue for many years to come.”
