Qualifying produced a huge surprise when debutant Dailly planted his TCR car on pole position, pipping Nat Hodgkiss (Race Car Consultants) to the top spot by just over a tenth of a second. It would be the latter’s best qualifying result of the season, as was third place for Mikey Doble (Xentek Motorsport).
Multiple race-winner John Bennett (Elite Motorsport) took fourth ahead of Kriklywi (Race Car Consultants) but would drop to ninth with a five-place grid penalty, while championship leader Josh Steed (Xentek Motorsport) could only round out the top five on the grid.
The first of two races in North Yorkshire took place later that Saturday afternoon, and a strong getaway by front row starter Hodgkiss gave him the early advantage heading into Clervaux ahead of Dailly and a chasing Kriklywi.
Danish driver Kriklywi began a surge towards the front of the field. After disposing of Dailly under braking for the final hairpin for second, he closed the gap back to leader Hodgkiss and swiftly pounced on a wide moment for his team-mate at the first corner to grab a lead he would not surrender, sealing his maiden win.
A safety car interruption ended with a late shoot-out for the remaining places, with a final lap puncture for Dailly opening the door for Hodgkiss to get ahead at Tower Bend to finish runner-up ahead of Connor Grady (Alastair Rushforth Motorsport). A post-race 0.7s track limits penalty for Hodgkiss pushed him back to third though, Grady promoted to second.
Steed grabbed fourth spot to extend his championship lead over Bennett, who finished sixth behind Doble. Will Aspin (Elite Motorsport) secured seventh ahead of Aidan Hills (Hills Motorsport) and the TCR duo of Haytham Qarajouli and Will Rochford rounding out the top 10.
In race two the following day, Dailly made sure of a good start in front of the ITV4 cameras and held onto his pole position advantage to lead Kriklywi around the opening lap of the race before the safety car was called.
An expertly-driven defensive drive followed until the race was red-flagged in the closing stages, Dailly converting pole into his maiden victory in just his second GT5 Challenge start. Kriklywi pressured his rival until the very end as he completed a best ever weekend in the series.
Steed joined the fight and was only denied second spot by the stoppage, but he still extended his championship lead to 89 points heading into the season finale.
Doble was next up in a close fourth place having run third early on before a lunge from Steed swapped the spots. Fifth went to Bennett ahead of Hodgkiss, the top 10 rounded out by Grady, Hills and the Elite Motorsport duo of Harley Haughton and Aspin.
Ignazio Zanon (Raceway Motorsport) fought off the attentions of Owen Hizzey (SVG Motorsport) in the battle for 11th. Rory McKean unfortunately finished a lap adrift in 13th after some early trouble, while Will Orton (Alastair Rushforth Motorsport) scored a best finish of 13th in race one.
The Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT5 Challenge returns to the British GT Championship package next for the final meeting of the season at Donington Park GP (16/17 October).
Full race results for the weekend can be found here: https://www.tsl-timing.com/eve…
Find out more about the championship’s title sponsor, Protyre Motorsport, at: https://www.protyre.co.uk/
