Carl Garnett continued his sensational podium record in the 2021 Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup with a brilliant top three hat-trick in the penultimate meeting of the season at Donington Park (09/10 October). With confidence high following his long-awaited first wins of the season at home circuit Croft last time out, the Yorkshireman was excited by the challenge facing him at Donington Park as he took on the largest and most competitive Pro Am class entry of the season. Following a productive day of testing on Thursday, Garnett kicked off Saturday in strong fashion with the third fastest time in qualifying. With just two tenths of a second splitting the drivers from second to fifth, he was anticipating some close racing over the weekend. In his Telescope backed Ginetta G55 GT4, Garnett made a quick start to move up to second position off the line in race one. Holding position through the opening laps, he would unfortunately lose a spot after having to back off to avoid a spinning car in front of him. Going on to take third at the finish, he went one better on Sunday morning. A great opening lap saw him rise to the class lead in his AK Motorsport machine, however some front end damage sustained soon after made it a tough race from there. Garnett battled hard with regular competitor Colin White for the lead, however he ended up having to settle for second at the chequered flag. That meant the York based racer had to start fifth on the partial reverse grid for the final race of the weekend, which was televised live on ITV4. The Astrolite, ValetPro, AC Database Services and Demon Tweeks supported driver impressively fought his way to third on the opening lap. Whilst he lost a spot soon after, he fought back in the second half of the race to record his 19th podium finish of the season. Garnett now heads into the 2021 Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup season finale at Brands Hatch (23/24 October) with an outside chance of winning the Pro Am title, though he will need to overturn an 87 point deficit with a maximum of 109 points left to race for. Carl Garnett: “It’s been a really enjoyable weekend of racing. It was the toughest Pro Am entry of the season and I certainly wasn’t expecting to come away with three podiums, so I’m delighted to have achieved that to continue our great season so far. “We got off to a strong start with our pace on Thursday and made a good step forward for qualifying. While the races didn’t always go my way, it was a weekend of good, close, fun racing and AK Motorsport did a fantastic job with the car throughout. “I’m pleased that I’m still in title contention heading into the final three races at Brands Hatch, though I know my chances of winning are slim. Colin [White] has been a formidable opponent this season and hopefully we’ll end the year with some more fun battles on track.”
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.
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