Richardson Racing made it seven wins for the season after another impressive weekend on track in the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT5 Challenge at Silverstone.
The Corby-based team headed into the weekend looking to build on a strong showing at Donington Park a week earlier, where Josh Malin had added to his tally of wins to close on the points lead, and rookie Blake Angliss had picked up three solid results on his car racing debut.
Friday testing saw Josh post the fourth fastest time with Blake in 13th having managed to set a best time little more than a second off the pace ahead of only second race weekend.
The pair were able to carry that solid form into Saturday morning’s qualifying session, where Josh posted the third quickest time behind title rivals Jonny Wilkinson and James Taylor, although a grid penalty for Wilkinson meant Josh would start the opening race from the front row.
Blake meanwhile was a hugely impressive seventh quickest to secure a place on the fourth row of the grid, having set a lap just half a second off Josh’s best.
When the lights went out, Josh was able to fight his way ahead of Taylor to secure the lead on the opening lap and would never be headed from that point on, keeping his rival at bay through the early stages before easing away to take victory by nearly five seconds.
Josh also posted the fastest lap of the race for good measure, with his sixth win of the season being enough to move him into the championship lead.
Blake would find himself in the heart of the action in the midfield having dropped to ninth on the opening lap and looked set to miss out on the top ten after being shuffled down the order to eleventh on the 14th lap.
However, a strong finish from the car racing rookie saw him fight his way back up into ninth in the closing laps to secure a new personal best result.
Lining up from third on the grid again for the second race of the weekend, Josh held his position off the start before making a move on Taylor for second and then set about closing in on leader Wilkinson ahead.
Going into Becketts on the seventh lap, Josh was able to make his move for the lead and once in front, was able to ease away from the battle that developed for second place behind – picking up the fastest lap once again and extending his points lead to seven.
Starting from seventh on the grid, Blake held station in the opening laps before moving up into sixth on the third lap. From there, he would lap quickly and consistently for the remainder of the race as he improved on his earlier result to continue his impressive start to his time in the series.
The team now returns to Silverstone in November for the season finale on the full GP layout.
Blake Angliss, #84 Ginetta G40 GT5, said:
“I’ve made a massive improvement compared to my debut, and I’m really pleased with how things have gone. Each time we have gone out I’ve improved and got quicker, and I’m chuffed with P6 to end the weekend; I didn’t expect that.
“Coming into the weekend I already knew the circuit as I’d driven here before and I also didn’t have the nerves that I had on my debut, so I could just focus on my driving. I was able to push my limits a bit more and have picked up two really good top ten finishes as a result. It’s a great thing to now build on when we come back to Silverstone for the final rounds.”
Josh Malin, #90 Ginetta G40 GT5, said:
“I’m absolutely ecstatic. Coming into the weekend it was so tight in the points and qualifying was really close, but we were in a good position for the races and I was more than up for the fight. To come through and win them both is brilliant, and it’s good that we’ve been able to take the lead in the standings with just one round left to go.
“It certainly wasn’t easy in the races because you have to deal with the tow round here, but once I was in front, I drove a defensive race when I needed to and then broke away when the chance was there. It got a bit frantic in the car at times when I was having to watch the mirrors but we got the end reward, and this has been a job well done.”