Race Report: Croft

Croft in North Yorkshre played host to the latest chapter of the 2021 Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup and Ginetta GT5 Challenge seasons this past weekend (18/19 September).

As both Millers Oils and Ginetta celebrated their local event on the calendar, a huge crowd packed into the Darlington venue for a thrilling two days of action from the British Touring Car Championship and its group of support series.

It was a big weekend in the GT4 SuperCup title battle, as chief challenger Tom Hibbert scored a crucial pair of race victories to narrow Adam Smalley’s championship lead to just six points heading into the final two meetings of the campaign.

As Hibbert made it six wins for the year, Smalley enjoyed a strong weekend as well with a hat-trick of podium finishes. The other race victory went the way of Josh Rattican, with the Sheffield racer scoring a second win of his maiden GT4 SuperCup season so far as part of his own podium treble.

Another Yorkshire local to enjoy success was Carl Garnett, who converted the Pro Am pole position into a long-awaited first two class wins of the season. A win and second place for Colin White though maintains his healthy lead at the top of the class standings.

Carlito Miracco also impressed as he continued his record of scoring a podium finish at every meeting so far this year with second in the final race, while James Blake-Baldwin narrowly missed out on a podium of his own with a trio of fourth place results.

The GT5 Challenge made its second outing alongside the BTCC this year for their penultimate meeting of the season, and it proved to be a weekend of firsts. On his series debut, Steven Dailly made a huge impression with pole position and a race victory.

Magnus Kriklywi joined him in scoring a maiden Ginetta race win, alongside second behind Dailly in race two. Nat Hodgkiss was another to enjoy a breakthrough result as he took a first podium finish in the opener alongside Connor Grady.

Josh Steed picked up a podium as well to ensure he holds a good 75 point championship lead over John Bennett and Will Aspin heading into the GT5 Challenge season finale at Donington Park next month (16/17 October), alongside the British GT Championship.

In the meantime, Ginetta are back on track next weekend (25/26 September) as the Juniors and GT Academy compete at Silverstone alongside the BTCC, with the Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup returning to the track at Donington Park with the Juniors in three weeks’ time (09/10 October).

Find out more about Millers Oils’ technical partnership with Ginetta: https://www.millersoils.co.uk/ginetta-cars-extends-technical-partnership-with-millers-oils-to-2024/