Racing update: The latest on the Ginetta GT5 Championship from Leasing Gorilla sponsored Sam Harvey
Leasing Gorilla is sponsoring 17-year-old rookie racer Sam Harvey in his debut for the 2022 Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT5 Challenge. As the season nears the climax next month, here’s the latest from Sam…
Weekend 6: Brands Hatch, Kent – Penultimate race of the season & best points to date
The penultimate weekend of the championship gave me the opportunity to race at the iconic Brands Hatch.
Tough practice sessions & qualifying - Friday practice was on the smaller Indy circuit due to noise constraints which meant less time to learn the main track. There were also challenges from a partial engine rebuild meaning that I could only use 80% throttle for the first two practice sessions.
By the final practice we experienced a full-on deluge! Most drivers opted to skip the session, but I headed out to get more wet conditions experience and was delighted to put in a full clean run.
Saturday morning qualifying was tricky as the car developed some gearbox issues, all good learnings for me on the discipline of racing!
Race one – Given the tough qualifying, I was pleased to start on the grid in P11. After a great start, I enjoyed an exciting midfield battle which became the theme of the weekend. Swapping places with two other drivers on several occasions was great fun and I was happy with an 11th place finish.
Race two - From 12th position on the grid, I got a great start which took me past a couple of the quicker pro-drivers and up the pack. Some drama unfolded in front of me which led to a safety car and one of the other cars got the jump on me at the re-start, one to learn from! That gave me a final race position of 11th.
Race three - A long wait for this one as we were last out at 6pm. I started from P12 and enjoyed some great battles, swapping places throughout. Then more drama unfolded ahead, yellow flags turned into red with two laps to go - just as I was catching the car in front. That was frustrating as I was so close to a best finish of 9th but knowing I could have made the overtake meant I was content matching my season best of 10th place.
Championship standings to date
The weekend provided my biggest points of the season so far and positions me in 13th place in the overall championship standings. We now have a few weeks to train ahead of the last meet at Donington Park on the 15th and 16th of October and I’m planning to finish my first race season on a high!
Thanks again to Leasing Gorilla for all the continued support.
