Ravi Ramyead has taken the championship lead in the Ginetta GT Academy with a double victory in the latest rounds at Donington Park (27/28 May), with title rival Nick White scoring the other win on offer.
Ramyead (Century Motorsport) set the pace in qualifying for the second time this season on Saturday morning, lapping half a second quicker than Nick White (Raceway Motorsport). Ed Acres (Century Motorsport) was just 0.032s adrift of White, while Matt Shaw led the rookie class contenders in fourth overall.
It was a familiar sight at the front of the field through race one as Ramyead and White ran in the top two places. Ramyead seemed to have the edge on his rival, edging clear either side of a mid-race safety car period, however a moment across the grass at the Old Hairpin lost him the lead.
White took advantage to record the win, with Ramyead nursing his G56 GTA home to second. An unfortunate early issue for Acres whilst running third opened the door for Thomas Shelley (Century Motorsport) to record his second podium finish of the season.
Mackenzie Walker (Assetto Racing) produced a superb charge from the back of the grid to fourth, while rookie class victor Shaw was fifth on the road before a post-race penalty put him behind Marc Elman (SVG Motorsport). Emma Tomlinson was set for second in the rookie ranks, however a late spin dropped her behind her sisters Amy and Lucy, the latter scoring her maiden podium finish.
Ramyead made up for his race one disappointment with a dominant lights-to-flag victory in race two, having built a two second gap on lap one and maintaining it throughout. An action-packed opening lap saw White initially move up to second off the line, before being shuffled back to fourth.
Shelley shot up to second before a wide moment into Melbourne allowed Acres and White through. Those two would go on to run nose-to-tail through the remainder of the race, with Acres keeping him at bay to match his best result of the season so far.
Walker impressively fought his way through the field from the back of the grid to fourth again, partially benefitting from an incident between Shelley and Shaw that led to the latter retiring from the race. That opened the door for Emma Tomlinson to secure a maiden rookie class win, having followed home first time top-six finisher Paul Livesey (Xentek Motorsport).
Charlotte Lowe picked up her best rookie class finish to date in second ahead of Phil McGarty (Alastair Rushforth Motorsport), while Amy Tomlinson passed her sister Lucy on the penultimate lap to complete the rookie podium after an action-packed race for both.
Ramyead completed a perfect Sunday with another flawless drive in the final race of the weekend, leading every lap en-route to his fifth win of the season. Walker shot from fourth to second off the start and held the place for a long spell, before White dived past at the Melbourne hairpin.
As White continued his 100% podium record for the season so far and Walker picked up his first trophy of the season, Acres emerged from a close duel with his Century team-mate Shelley to finish fourth. The drive of the race came from Shaw, as he stormed from 12th on the grid to the rookie win in sixth.
GTA contenders Elman, Livesey and McGarty were next up, while Lowe matched her race two efforts with second in the rookie class after a close-fought battle with Lucy Tomlinson, while Emma Tomlinson completed the class finishers.
Full race results can be found at www.tsl-timing.com/event/232105
All three races can be watched back at www.youtube.com/user/ginettatv
The 2023 Ginetta GT Academy season continues this week with six races as part of the inaugural G Fest at Silverstone (02-04 June).
