Titles decided at Donington Park in Ginettas/gb4
Mckenzie Douglass scored another two victories in the Ginetta GT Championship at Donington Park last weekend to seal the title with a round to spare. It wasn’t completely plain sailing for the Fox Motorsport driver, though, with the second of his wins coming after a clash with closest rival Luke Garlick.
Garlick had earlier been hampered by a spin in race one on a slippery circuit. Nick White used his wet tyres to lead initially while Douglass, one of many to start on slicks, was shuffled down to fourth. He climbed back to second before a mid-race safety car period, and then picked off
White on a rapidly drying circuit. Douglass eventually won by almost 20 seconds, ahead of Conner Garlick, who demoted White to third.
White again led a much wetter race two, but a three-way battle through the Craner Curves between the Garlick siblings and Douglass ended up with the champion-tobe spinning Luke Garlick into retirement. Douglass pounced on a mistake from
White to eventually move ahead and take another win.
Having served a five-place grid penalty in the final race for the earlier incident, Douglass recovered to finish second behind White, which was enough to become champion after his main rival retired again.
Chase Fernandez took a double victory in Ginetta Junior to set up a final round showdown with R Racing team-mate Ethan Jeff-hall, the stakes raised after the pair came to blows in a wild opening encounter while contesting the lead. Fox Motorsport’s Colin Cronin was passed for first on the opening lap by Marcus Saeter, but still took victory after Saeter was penalised for missing the Fogarty chicane while completing the overtake.
Fernandez prevailed in the sequel after a brilliant dice with Henry Joslyn in which the lead changed hands several times, while Jeff-hall bounced back from a 10-place grid penalty for his race-one clash to take third. The title protagonists locked horns again in the finale, with Fernandez edging Jeff-hall by just 0.6s, while Archie Clark pipped Elite Motorsport team-mate Isaac Phelps for third.
Mike Taylor won a twice red-flagged Ginetta GT Academy opener. Harry Gamble climbed from fourth to take his first win since round one in the sequel, and triumphed again in race three ahead of Taylor, who enters the final round leading the rookie class points.
Three drivers remain in contention for the GB4 crown after Donington’s three contests despite Fortec’s Linus Granfors putting himself firmly in top spot by taking his sixth win in race two – though his weekend was not without drama.
The Swede got stuck in gear off the line in race one but recovered to fourth, while Lucas Blakeley climbed from fifth to first on lap one to grab his third win. Elite’s Alisha Palmowski scored another two podium finishes to take second in the standings from Harry Burgoyne, who led home a KMR Sport 1-2 ahead of Blakeley in the reversed-grid race to record his maiden victory and help seal a third straight teams’ title for KMR.