Carl Garnett built on his impressive track record at Thruxton, the fastest circuit in the UK, with a hat-trick of second place class finishes in the Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup this past weekend (28/29 August). Returning to the scene of a fantastic pole position and triple Am class win last year, Garnett was eager to get back to the top step of the podium this time around and build on his superb run of 10 Pro Am class top three results in the opening 11 races of the 2021 campaign. Garnett and the AK Motorsport team worked on a number of set up options on their Ginetta G55 during the official free practice sessions on Friday, with strong progress and competitive lap times leaving the Yorkshireman in a positive mood heading into the weekend. That all culminated in a standout qualifying performance, with Garnett securing his second pole position of the season by a huge margin of six tenths of a second. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to take full advantage though with a tough start to the opening race. A wide moment at the final chicane dropped him to third in class, but a strong recovery drive from there netted him second at the finish. Starting from the same position for race two on Sunday morning, he went on to add another podium finish to his tally. In his Telescope, Astrolite, ValetPro, AC Database Services and Demon Tweeks backed car, Garnett enjoyed an upturn in his pace as he impressively held second position from start to finish in front of the live ITV4 television cameras. The partial reverse grid placed Garnett fourth on the grid for race three, which was also broadcast live on ITV4. The York based racer moved up to third on lap two and then gained another spot soon after, going on to hold second position to the chequered flag. Carl Garnett: “It’s mixed feelings at the end of the weekend. I’m delighted to walk away with a pole position and three more podium finishes under my belt, however that’s mixed with some frustration that my pace in the races didn’t match that of qualifying. “Qualifying was perfect – one run to get the lap time in and then save the tyres for the races, which is important with the level of degradation here. Unfortunately I couldn’t keep that level of pace in the races though and second place was the best I could achieve in each race. “It was a difficult weekend then, but to end a tough one with three podiums isn’t too bad at all. We’ll be working hard between now and the next round to find some better race pace, so hopefully I can be back battling for class wins. “A huge congratulations to my team-mate James Blake-Baldwin for his brilliant race win in the final race of the weekend, both his and the AK Motorsport team’s first overall success in the championship. They’ve all worked really hard this season and richly deserve the success.” Following the near 500 mile round trip to Thruxton, Garnett will enjoy a much shorter journey to the next rounds as he competes at his local circuit, Croft, over the weekend of 18/19 September.
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.