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We did the bloody treble!

After bad luck in previous years at Snetterton - not just for me but also for my brother in his racing career - I was determined to swing things in our favour this time around.

This almost certainly was NOT the way it started. Within 15mins of leaving Wolf Motorsport HQ on Thursday afternoon, a wheel fell off one of the trailers on the M25, resulting in the motorway being shut in the anticlockwise direction. Soz if you were caught up in that...

We then had to drop off one trailer at Snetterton, set up the awning and head back to Brands Hatch to pick up the car. The boys and girls drove though the night, finally getting back to Snetterton as the sun had risen on Friday morning. Oh yeah - and we were the first session out. So, a brief sleep and 30 coffees later, we were ready to rock and roll.

Then, the driveshaft popped out within five laps in FP1. You can see where I am going with the Snetterton run of bad luck, can’t you?!

ANYWAY, we got to work, fine-tuning the setup and fixing any problems. A very successful FP2 put us 2nd and we could see a light at the end of the tunnel.

We never looked back, grabbing a double pole position by the slimmest of margins. One tenth covered the top 3.
In race one, I managed to hold off an attack to lead into turn one, then had to fight through the tricky conditions as it started to rain mid race. It is never fun being the first one to arrive at a fast corner, with rain covering the windscreen, hoping you still have enough heat in the tyre to see you through. We got it done though and grabbed win no1 of the weekend!

Race two was a tad simpler, pulling a small gap on the cars behind I could try and stoke it home whilst trying to save a bit of tyre life. Win no2!

Race three was not as plain sailing, my start was not the best and I lost out into turn one. Settling down in second place for a lap, I soon mounted a challenge on the leader.

About 4 laps in, I could see him struggling with his tyres and when he got sideways out of the last corner, I made a play for the inside line into turn one and was shown the door, similarly covered off as we headed into the hairpin at turn two. Luckily, this left me the grippier side of the track to brake on, and I braked as late as I possibly could, carryinh enough momentum to swing right around the outside and taking the lead into turn three. We managed to maintain the lead to the end of the race! Win no3.

A fantastic result, and one the whole team can be immensely proud of. From where we started at the beginning of the weekend, to grabbing a double pole and all three wins, it really is no mean feat.

Now we head to what they call the mini Nürburgring: Cadwell Park. I have no idea what it is going to be like taking a Ginetta round there, many spare pairs of underwear will be brought.

You can catch up on all last weekend's racing below.

Catch ya later,
Luke

Silverstone Review

That was an intense two weeks, with Donington closely followed by Silverstone a few days later. A mad 10 races in just over one week. The Wolf Motorsport team have been relentless, keeping the car well prepped and ready to go, even throwing in a gearbox change late on Wednesday night.

Ginetta put on a great festival weekend, it was wicked to see the old Senna Toleman F1 car along with the Le Mans Ginettas out on track. We hit the track on Friday for 3 races and one qualifying session. 

There were a few guest drivers in the mix this weekend to spice things up. Unfortunately, this meant they weren’t restricted to championship tyres. We were never really going to have the ultimate pace over this weekend, so the game plan was to bag as many points as possible.

I won’t get into every race, as it would be like writing a novel and I haven’t got the skill to keep you gripped for 900 pages of Silverstone… 

As I said, the credit for this weekend goes fully to Wolf Motorsport for keeping the car quick all weekend. We were always there in the mix for podiums. When others dropped away, we were there to pick up the points.

My highlight of the weekend was wheel-to-wheel racing with the Ginetta legend Colin White. We traded places and a small amount of paint work over the weekend. Nothing left on the track and smiles all round, it was great to be involved in. 

We have now reached the half way point of the Ginetta GT Pro season, it’s been a great first half of the year. Let’s keep the competitive pressure on into the next race at Snetterton next weekend. 

Big thank you to all our partners who have helped us get to this point, here's to the next half of the season.

Re Beverages 
IPC Consultants 
LM Automotive
Alex Reade Motorsport
Armco
26-Bit 
Champion RV

Catch ya then 
Luke

A fantastic weekend in Northampton. With limited running due to the budgetary issues, we had a productive Friday which was interrupted with intermittent weather.

We still were slightly on the back foot going into qualifying. The heavens had opened and the track was filled with puddles of standing water.
We qualified P3 which we were happy with all things considered. The race later that day was cancelled due to rain getting heavier and heavier all day.

Race two, lining up P3 we got a great launch straight into P2 challenging for the lead into the first corner. Closely following the leader into turn two, the car in front suddenly decelerated going into one of the fastest corners on the track.
It turns out the brake lights were not working on the car and we touched mid-corner resulting in a half spin from the car in front and some minor damage on the front of our car.

The safety car came out for an accident that happened behind. After a few laps behind the safety car, we got the race underway. Pulling a nice gap to the chasing pack, we brought the car home for our 4th win of the season!

Honestly, the Grand Prix circuit was fantastic to drive on. We are heading back to Silverstone in just under a month for the Ginetta festival. Which will include 5 races! Seems a bit mad being truthful, more like go kart heats! But we will be there ready to attack all 5 races.

First off we have Donington Park in 3 weeks.
Hope to see some of you there.

Wow… what a top performance from the whole team at Wolf Motorsport.
I’ll rewind quickly… we only collected the car one week before the first meeting and had a mountain to climb before the car was in a fit state.
The rules per Saturday morning qualifying, are that you now needed two fast laps on the board. Your fastest sets your position in race one and the latter in race two.

We managed to get one good lap in before a brake problem occurred, stumping our attempt at two consecutive laps. Our fastest was on the money and good enough for pole, but the second lap I couldn’t quite get it together and managed P2.

Race one looked fairly plain sailing from the TV but in the cockpit it was far from it. The brake problem had come back and by the end of lap two I could barely touch the brake pedal without the car locking up. Fortunately, it was manageable (not judging by the state of my pants after the race) and we held on to secure our first win of the season, and our first in the new Ginetta G56.

Fast forward two days later: race two. It’s chucking it down. As I lined up in P2, I selected first gear with my foot fully down on the clutch pedal and the car jolted forward. I knew immediately that I was going to be slapped with a 10 second penalty. The only remedy for this was to drive qualifying laps flat out for the whole race. After 20mins we won by 10.042 meaning we actually won by 0.042 of a second! Mad.

We'd had a dry race, then a wet race. Why not a wet and dry race just to spice things up?! Race three was tricky trying to select the correct tyre for the conditions, I think we changed from dries to wets 2 or 3 times before committing to slicks.

Starting on the wet side of the grid saw a poor getaway and I slotted into P2 out of the first corner, the track was still wet and we were all trying hard to get temperature in the tyres. I put some pressure on the driver in front and he made a small mistake out of the first chicane and I got alone side and out-braked him into the next corner.

The rest of the race was really just trying to keep the car on the road! We did just that and picked up our 3rd win of the weekend.

The whole team at Wolf Motorsport grafted hard all weekend to give me a car capable to be up the sharp end. I can’t wait to take the new Ginetta out on the Grand Prix circuit at Silverstone in a few weeks' time.