Carl Garnett enjoyed a seasons-best weekend in the Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 Supercup at Silverstone, producing a flawless performance to score a pair of Amateur Class podium finishes. Returning to action after missing the previous event at Knockhill, Garnett was in fine form behind the wheel of his AK Motorsport Ginetta G55 throughout the penultimate meeting of the season, with two trips to the rostrum being the highlight. With overnight rain making the track damp in places, qualifying proved to be a challenging affair with times continuing to tumble right until the end. Baulked on his fastest lap by traffic, the 43-year-old would settle for a fifth place class start for race one. The Telescope backed driver would go on to showcase his ability to dig deep in the face of adversity in the opening encounter of the weekend as he battled back from a first lap spin. Caught out by cold rear tyres, Garnett - who aligned himself with Richard Smedlety Chartered Accountants for the weekend - battled his way from the back of the grid to finish fifth in the Am category. Garnett made no mistake in race two around the 1.6-mile National layout as he powered his rear-wheel-drive machine to a second podium of the season. Moving up a spot early on, the York-based racer then benefited from time penalties for drivers in front to come home third in class. The Valet Pro, Teng Tools and AC Database Services sponsored driver went on to carry his race two momentum into the third and final race. Showing strong speed throughout, he brought the curtain down on a memorable weekend with another third place result. At the end of an action-packed weekend in the one-make series, Garnett lies fifth in the championship standings heading into the 2019 Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup season finale at Brands Hatch in two weeks’ time (12/13 October). Carl Garnett: "I’m really happy - that’s my best weekend of the season! Considering we started slowly in practice on Friday we have slowly chipped away and improved every time we’ve been in the car. “We had a difficult start to the first race but I managed to regroup and from then on we’ve shown our good pace; that is probably one of the most pleasing things - we’ve had a strong, consistent pace across all three races. “That final race was very much a war of attrition but it was just about keeping things tidy. We’ve had a fantastic weekend, picked up some silverware and champagne, and now we can turn our focus to Brands Hatch in a couple of weeks.”
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.