Xentek Motorsport picked up an impressive haul of five podium finishes from the penultimate round of the 2024 Ginetta season at Donington Park this past weekend (07-08 September).
The South Yorkshire team were back to a full-strength line-up for the second visit of the season to Donington Park, with Luke and Conner Garlick joined by Callum Noble in the GT Championship, alongside the returning Phil McGarty in the GT Academy.
A weekend of tricky, changeable weather conditions started in positive fashion for the team, with the Garlick siblings and Noble all qualifying their Ginetta G56 GT Pro machines inside the top three of their classes in GT Championship qualifying.
Luke Garlick shot up to second overall at the opening corner of race one and was looking to challenge for the race lead when he unfortunately spun his car. After a short safety car period, he produced a phenomenal charge back through the field to secure a PRO class podium.
One place ahead of him was his brother Conner, who also lost ground early on before fighting back in style. Picking off three class rivals, he then impressively closed down a seven second gap to the car ahead to grab second for a double Xentek podium.
Conner went on to replicate that result with a supreme drive in race two, however there was no such joy for Luke. Challenging his main title rival for second on the opening lap, he was tagged in the rear corner at high speed and sent off into a gravel trap, ending his race on the spot.
That retirement meant Luke would have to start the final race from the back of the grid. After gaining four places on the opening lap alone, he was looking to make further progress when two cars tangled ahead which resulted in a car spinning him around whilst trying to avoid the incident.
Unfortunately, the damage sustained from the contact ended Luke’s race prematurely, bringing a tough weekend to a close. Conner was able to sign off on a high note though, completing a fantastic hat-trick of second place finishes in the PRO class.
Noble’s impressive qualifying performance sadly didn’t translate into a deserved set of results, with a parts fault and an incident ruling him out of two of the races. He was able to show his true speed in race two though, with a superb drive to second in the AM class for his second podium of the year.
McGarty enjoyed a great weekend all round in the GT Academy meanwhile. Staying out of trouble through three action-packed races, the Ginetta veteran impressively gained a total of 11 places overall as he recorded a trio of top six finishes in the GTA class.
Sarah-Jayne McKenna – Team Manager: “It was a weekend full of ups and downs at Donington Park. We’re delighted for Conner, as some bad luck has meant he's not always got the results his speed has deserved this season, so to come away with a hat-trick of podiums is brilliant and shows everyone just what he can do.
“Sadly Luke deserved more from the weekend, he had fantastic pace throughout and lost a lot of points due to things outside of his control. The move to take him out of race two was really unfair and then coming from the back in race three, he was caught up in someone else's incident.
“It was a similar story for Callum unfortunately, he certainly had the speed for podiums in all three races but incidents went against him. Phil put in a great weekend in the GT Academy, managing to stay out of trouble in some chaotic races to bring home three strong results.”
The 2024 Ginetta season comes to a close in three weeks’ time, with the final races taking place on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit over the weekend of 28/29 September.
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.
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