GC: Series Donington Park summary

Murrells takes Ginetta Challenge title

George Murrells claimed the Ginetta Challenge at Donington Park on Sunday after a season-long duel with Andy Richardson. Stuart Pearson and Sean Huyton were the Ginetta G20 class winners, Pearson taking his maiden win of his career.

Race One

David Mayes started race one from pole position in his G40, the new model running in its own class for the final two races of the season. Alongside the former Caterham champion was newly-crowned Ginetta Junior champion Tom Ingram in a similar G40 but Ingram's car was running to a different specification and was 30 kilos heavier than Mayes' car. Ingram was just half a second slower, while Ginetta returnee Richard Sykes lined up his G40 third on the grid.

The best of the G20s was championship leader George Murrells (Optimum Motorsport) who was fourth overall ahead of Sean Huyton (Academy Motorsport) and Andy Richardson.

There was drama at the first corner of the race when a number of cars made contact and Murrells came off worse. The championship leader was spun around and he suffered damage in the incident that meant that he had to pit at the end of the opening lap to remove a flapping bonnet. He rejoined flat last but fought back up to 11th place by the end of the race. The G20 race was led by Richardson who had built up a slender advantage over Huyton but with just three laps remaining, Richardson struck trouble. His gearbox began to play up and he was forced to run with just third gear and his pace was reduced as a result. He became vulnerable to the charging Stuart Pearson who wriggled past to score his first-ever win. Richardson survived to take second from Huyton, while Mark Wania (Academy Motorsport) and Brian Murphy (Teamtrain) both had excellent races to bag fourth and fifth places respectively.

Murrells maintained the championship lead by just 11 points with one race to go.

In the G40 category, Mayes (Reflex Racing) led from start to finish in his lighter model, with Ingram (Ginetta Cars) chasing after him in his first senior race.

Race Two

Mayes started race two on the G40 pole from Ingram, with the G20s, released 15 seconds after the closed cars, being headed by Murrells and Huyton. To win the championship, Richardson needed to win with Murrells fourth or lower.

Murrells and Huyton led away with Huyton challenging for the lead. Murrells gave the Ormskirk man racing room and Huyton sneaked by into the lead while Murrells hung on to second, confident in the knowledge that Richardson was still behind him. That order remained to the flag with Murrells shadowing Huyton but never challenging for the race lead for fear of an incident that would cost him points. Richardson was a lonely third ahead of a superb battle for fourth place between Stuart Pearson, Mark Wania and Harry Whale (Academy Motorsport). There were place changes on every lap and it was Pearson who prevailed to take fourth ahead of Wania and Whale.

The G40 class was won by Mayes to secure a double success while Ingram chased him home ahead of HHC Motorsport's pairing of Richard Sykes and Tom Boston.

Murrells' second place confirmed him as the Ginetta Challenge champion from Richardson and Huyton. The full end-of-season standings will be confirmed shortly.

-source: ginettacars.com