Ginetta GT5 Challenge

Callum Pointon wins safety car dominated GT5 Challenge race one

2 Mins read

Callum Pointon has stormed to victory in the first Ginetta GT5 Challenge race of the weekend at Donington Park, but championship points leader James Kellett saw his race ended on the very first lap.

At the start, the field got round Redgate as safe and sound as possible but James Kellett saw himself and Nick Zapolski beached in the gravel trap at the Old Hairpin and the safety car was called for.

By the time both cars were extracted/moved to a safe place, near enough half the race had elapsed but when the track went green for the second time the action up and down the field was immediately intense.

Ollie Chadwick, the nearest challenger to Kellett in the points standings, looked to take as good a result as possible to close up what was a 34 point gap at the very start of the race to something a lot better. However, in his haste to pass Pointon for the lead, Luca Hirst managed to close up right behind and at the Melbourne Hairpin he claimed second.

However, his taste of the runner’s up spot didn’t last too long as he ran wide just a lap later and saw Stewart Linn claim second place and Chadwick snuck through to take up his place in the final podium position.

In the GRDC+ class Ben Hyland and Rob Keogh were going at it hammer and tongs to claim class honours and for the most part were running nose to tail.

Lap after lap they were swapping position with each having their own spell in the lead of the race, but as the chequered flag fell it was Keogh who found himself at the front at the right time to add to his dominant position at the top of the points table.

Back in the main GT5 class Pointon was maintaining his lead at the front, capitalising on the squabbling behind him to keep himself with a comfortable margin.

That was mainly because Ollie Chadwick had decided to make something happen and decided to claim second by any means necessary. That was mainly by making short work of Linn at the esses, who then slipped to fourth as Ian Robinson claimed third. Moving up to second gave Chadwick a sniff of taking victory but in the end it was too little too late and Pointon crossed the line with 1.7 seconds in hand.

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3rd Year Multimedia Journalism Student at Teesside University, interested in motorsport and writing about it as well. I'm also a qualified pilot but I don't mention that much.
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