Britcar 2026 - Round 1, Donington Park

Four months on from our first outing in the 2025 Britcar finale, we were back out in our G56 for the first race of the 2026 Championship, once again competing in the Trophy class.

Back for the whole season is our favourite Yorkie, Carl Garnett. Carl is not only a quick and consistent peddler, but he is also one of our good friends and it means a lot to us that he has put his faith in us for a competitive season. Carl has finished on the podium 47 times in Ginetta machinery of one kind or another, and his experience in the marque is invaluable in getting our set-up just right.

Joining Carl at late notice for this race was the amazing Finn Leslie. Competitive in TCR (and a BTCC round) last year, Finn is both spectacularly fast and cool as a cucumber behind the wheel and is surely a talent to watch. When Paul and I were 18 years old we could barely razz around a Tesco car park without having a shunt, so to see such a mature approach on such a young lad was incredible.

Friday testing went just about as well as we could have hoped, with both Finn and Carl showing the kind of pace that would put us right at the front of the class. The car set-up was spot on, and we got consistently faster as the day went on, leaving us excited for the racing to come on Saturday.

Finn converted the testing pace into a brilliant pole position in qualifying on Saturday, lapping over half a second clear of our nearest class rival. That result put our Telescope, Clearsilver Brand Marketing and Pulse Hire backed Ginetta 16th overall on the grid for the 90-minute race.

The start of the race was unfortunately messy, with three separate safety car periods effectively neutralising the race for the first 40 minutes with only a handful of racing laps completed in that time. Fortunately the cool headed Finn kept out of trouble, and even managed to swoop round the outside of a GT Class Ginetta down the Craner Curves during his stint…

During the 2^nd mandatory stop, Carl jumped in to replace Finn with 40 minutes to go, and set about consolidating our position, effectively leading the class as the only car to have completed our two mandatory stops. Once all stops were completed, Carl resumed their position at the front of the class and, after a fourth and final safety car period, Carl produced a brilliant final sprint to the finish to secure the class victory by almost 16 seconds and complete our charge forward from 16th on the grid to seventh overall, from a field of 33 starters.