Carl Garnett fought his way to a top five finish as he continued his strong start to the 2023 Ginetta GT Championship season at Silverstone this past weekend (06/07 May). After scoring a stunning double podium finish on his return to racing during the season opener at Oulton Park last month, Garnett was full of confidence heading into his first ever race outing on the full Silverstone Grand Prix circuit. The York-based driver got up to speed on the long 3.6-mile layout during official testing on Wednesday and Friday, making great progress in his Breakell Racing-prepared Ginetta G56 GTP to ensure he was ready to hit the ground running in qualifying on Saturday. Unfortunately, persistent rainfall that morning put Garnett on the back foot with no previous experience in the car in fully wet conditions. He adapted quickly though and put in a competitive performance to secure fifth on the grid for the weekend’s two races. The opening race of the weekend was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, however worsening weather across the afternoon resulted in the race being amongst a number of sessions cancelled due to large quantities of standing water on the circuit. Fortunately, the weather improved overnight and Garnett got the opportunity to take to the track for race two in his Telescope, AC Database Services and Demon Tweeks backed Ginetta. He enjoyed a great start to the race, shooting up two places off the line to third. He then gained another position as he avoided an incident ahead at Maggotts, putting him second as the safety car came out. When the action resumed, he kept tabs with the race leader for a couple of laps before an attempted move from the driver behind resulted in contact. Receiving damage to the rear corner of his Ginetta, Garnett faced an uphill battle from there with the handling being affected. Despite his best defensive efforts, he would eventually slip to fifth position at the chequered flag. Carl Garnett: “It’s been a bit of a frustrating weekend. I really enjoyed learning the circuit in testing and made good progress, so it was a shame that I struggled to get to grips with the wet conditions in qualifying which is something to work on moving forwards “It was great to finally get to race on Sunday and I couldn’t be happier with how it started, getting up to second and keeping up with the leader in the opening laps. Sadly, while battling to keep position we sustained some damage and the car wasn’t the same from there, so at least I could get some decent points in fifth.”
Garnett will next be in Ginetta GT Championship action on the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit over the weekend of 27/28 May.
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.
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