Carl Garnett has recorded the first race victories of motorsport career so far after taking a superb pair of Am class successes during the latest rounds of the Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup at Oulton Park this past weekend (22/23 August). Tackling his third race meeting in four weekends to start the 2020 season, Garnett bounced back from a luckless start to the campaign with a brilliant performance in Cheshire behind the wheel of his AK Motorsport prepared Ginetta G55 GT4. After showing great progress during Friday’s free practice sessions as he lapped the Oulton Park circuit in the wet for the first time in his Ginetta, he made further improvements on a drying circuit in qualifying the next day to post the third fastest time in the Am class. The Telescope-backed driver made immediate progress at the start of race one later that day. Moving up to second on the opening lap, he latched onto the rear bumper of the leader and pressured him into a mistake heading through Cascades next time around. Storming past into the lead, Garnett got his head down and set the fastest class lap of the race as he broke away from the pack. A composed, consistent drive to the finish saw him build his lead to over five seconds at the chequered flag for a dominant maiden success. That result put him on the class pole position for the second and final race of the weekend, which took place live on ITV4 on Sunday afternoon. A great start saw him maintain the lead through the opening laps as he mixed it with drivers from the higher classes. Keeping his nose clean in some close competition, Garnett kept his head down and pounded in consistent lap times throughout. While his class rivals closed in during the latter stages, a faultless drive completed his dream double victory for the weekend. Carl Garnett: “I’m really pleased to have taken my first wins in the Ginetta GT4 SuperCup, and my first in motorsport as a whole. After suffering some terrible luck across the first two weekends of the season, this is exactly what we needed. “It was a difficult start on Friday as I hadn’t driven my Ginetta here in the wet before, but we worked hard and kept progressing in every session. Our pace in the first race was brilliant and after getting into the lead, I was able to put in some consistent times to build my lead. “It was trickier in the second race as I got in amongst the Pro and Pro Am drivers in the early stages, but I let them past and focused on my race. To come home with another win felt fantastic and it’s a big confidence boost heading into the next rounds of the championship.” The Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup now heads into a four week break before returning to action at the fastest circuit in the UK, Thruxton, over the weekend of September 19/20.
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.