Carl Garnett has closed out his first season in the Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup with a fourth Am Class podium finish of the campaign during the season finale at Brands Hatch this past weekend (12/13 October). Coming off the back of his most successful showing of the year last time out at Silverstone, where he claimed a pair of podium finishes, the AK Motorsport driver was keen to sign off his maiden campaign in the one-make series in style. Getting to grips with the challenging Grand Prix layout of the Kent venue during Friday’s practice sessions, the 43-year-old set a best time of 1:42.276 to secure eighth on the grid in the Am Class for race one. The weather continued to worsen as the opening encounter of the weekend got underway, however that didn’t deter the Telescope backed driver from taking on a starring role. Running as high as sixth for a majority of the 10-lap race, the Mazda MX5 convert put in a fantastic performance in tough conditions to emerge from a close-fought contest in fourth place. Race two around the challenging 2.43-mile circuit saw Garnett clinch his fourth class podium of the season as he battled to a richly deserved third place. As others struggled to master the ever-changing conditions, he showed his class behind the wheel of his Teng Tools, Valet Pro and AC Database Services backed Ginetta G55 GT4 to pick his way through the order and ultimately round out the rostrum. The York based racer went on to narrowly miss out on a second podium of the weekend in the championship finale, ultimately finishing fifth in front of the live ITV4 television cameras. Despite suffering a power steering failure in the opening stages, the Am ace muscled his rear-wheel-drive machine to the chequered flag to bring the curtain down on his first year in the series on a high note. Carl Garnett: “I’m really happy to finish my first season in the championship with another podium this past weekend. The weather made it pretty tricky at times but it was all an education at the end of the day. “I had a power steering failure at the start of race three; had we not I think we could have been on for another podium in that one. We’ve had a solid weekend as a whole and we’ve ended on a high which everyone can be proud of. A massive thank you to AK Motorsport for all their hard work and support this year. “Looking back on the season as a whole we have had a fantastic year and it will serve as good foundation to move forward next year. We will work hard on getting a budget together and the aim is to come back and be regular front runners in the Am class.”
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.