Carl Garnett has continued his fantastic start to the 2021 Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup season with a Pro Am class podium treble in the second meeting of the year at Brands Hatch (26/27 June).
Two weeks on from starting his 2021 season with a brilliant hat-trick of podium finishes at Snetterton, Garnett made the long trip south to Kent with fond memories of a double class win in the 2020 season finale around the short, fast Brands Hatch Indy circuit.
In his Telescope backed Ginetta G55, the Yorkshireman was right on the pace from the off during free practice on Friday. Topping the timesheets in the first session, he went on to end the day second fastest in class by just two thousandths of a second.
Remarkably, that same margin of time would deprive Garnett of pole position in qualifying on Saturday morning as he just got edged out by rival Colin White. That gave him the platform to challenge for the podium in the opening race and he did exactly that.
Garnett ran second throughout in his AK Motorsport Ginetta, with some Pro class drivers sitting between himself and White leaving him unable to challenge for the win. It was a case of déjà vu in race two, as once again he impressively ran in second place from start-to-finish.
The reverse grid format for the final race put the Astrolite, ValetPro, AC Database Services and Demon Tweeks backed racer fourth for the race start. Holding position on the opening lap, he then grabbed a position next time round to get onto the tail of the top two.
After biding his time, he made his move on lap six and got through to the class lead. While his advantage only lasted for a few laps as White got ahead, he stuck to the rear wing of his ultra-experienced adversary en-route to another great podium finish.
Carl Garnett:“I’m pretty happy with the weekend overall. If you told me at the start of the season that I could have six consecutive second place finishes, I’d have taken it in a heartbeat, so I’ve got no complaints about the results we’ve achieved.
“This has never been my best circuit and while there was nothing between us in qualifying, Colin [White] just had the edge over me in the races. He’s so experienced in these cars and I'm learning a lot from racing with him, and enjoying the challenge at the same time.
“My focus now is on finding that little bit extra I need to get myself onto the top step of the podium soon, and we’ll be working hard in the coming weeks to achieve that. A huge congratulations to my team-mate James Blake-Baldwin also for second place in race three; a richly deserved first overall podium finish for the team.”
Garnett now sits second in the Pro Am championship standings heading into a five week break before the next rounds of the 2021 season at Oulton Park in Cheshire (26/27 June).
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.