Carl Garnett has continued his incredible run of victories in the Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup with another triple success at Croft this past weekend (10/11 October), making it a record-equalling eight consecutive Am class wins. Garnett was full of confidence heading into his home event on the calendar, with the York based racer having sensationally taken a clean sweep of wins in the previous two meetings at Oulton Park and Thruxton behind the wheel of his Telescope backed Ginetta G55. Friday’s two free practice sessions took place in changeable weather conditions, which proved beneficial for qualifying the next morning. Rain began to fall as they started the session and worsened as time wore on, meaning posting a quick lap early was crucial. Garnett did exactly that to end the session with the second fastest lap time in the Am class, though a grid penalty for the provisional pole-sitter meant that he would in fact start the opening race of the weekend from the head of the class. Immediately showing great speed in tricky conditions, the 44 year old edged away from his class rivals in the early stages and impressively battled with, and overtook, drivers in the Pro and Pro Am classes. A faultless drive earned him a lights-to-flag class win by over 11 seconds. In the first of two races televised live on ITV4 on Sunday, Garnett saw contact on the opening lap drop him back to third in class. He fought back tremendously though and was into the class lead by the end of lap five, before going on to pull over three seconds clear for another victory. The reverse grid for race three put Garnett fourth in class at the start. A brilliant opening lap saw him rise to second, before the top four in class ran in close formation for a long spell. A wide moment for the leader late on opened the door for him to come through to complete his win hat-trick. That result means the Astrolite, Valet Pro and AC Database Services backed racer has equalled the all-time record for the most consecutive class wins in the GT4 SuperCup, and also moves him only 13 points shy of the championship lead heading into the final two meetings of the season. Carl Garnett: “What an amazing weekend! Oulton Park and Thruxton were great, but I never expected our winning run to continue, let alone take another hat-trick. The AK Motorsport team did a brilliant job with the car though and that put me in the position to enjoy the success. “We knew our pace was good from free practice and qualifying, but the team absolutely nailed the set-up for the mixed conditions in race one and it all built from there. It was far from easy though, with the contact in race two and then the reverse grid coming into the mix in the final race. “To equal the championship record for most consecutive class wins is incredible, as is the fact that I’m now right in the title battle. We were over 100 points behind after the second weekend, so to now have a shot at the gold with five races remaining is an exciting opportunity.” The 2020 Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup season now heads into its penultimate meeting of the season in two weeks’ time with a trip to Snetterton in Norfolk (24/25 October).
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.