This was always going to be a far from straightforward year for Ginetta, a stalwart of the UK national racing scene.
The Yorkshire manufacturer not only revamped its portfolio of series for 2023 (axing the GT4 Supercup and merging the GT5 Challenge into a new GT championship), but it also ended its 15-season association with British Touring Car organiser TOCA and committed to running solely at British GT events. Such wide-sweeping changes inevitably bring challenges, even without them coinciding with a cost-of-living crisis that has resulted in many organisers seeing a reduction in entries. It is therefore no surprise Ginetta numbers have been down, too.
Even ignoring last month’s Cadwell Park G Fest event that attracted just 33 cars across the three championships – something Ginetta fully expected given the trepidation with which some view the Lincolnshire venue – the figures, on the surface, still do not make for great reading.
Ginetta Junior has averaged 19 cars, down 17% on last year, while GT Academy fields have plummeted, falling from 28 to 15 this season so far. Then the fledgling GT Championship has attracted 16 drivers on average. It is a far cry from the Ginetta numbers just a few years ago – take the pre-pandemic statistics from 2019, when there were 90 drivers as the cumulative average across the four categories operating back then, spearheaded by 29 in the GT5 Challenge.
However, dig a little deeper into this year’s grid sizes and there are some reasons for optimism. Take the Ginetta Junior figures. Only three drivers have remained from last season, with many of the rest either progressing up the racing ladder or now being too old to continue in the junior ranks.
Therefore, an impressive 17 rookies have joined the series in 2023 and, if a decent percentage stick around for a sophomore campaign, then next year is looking brighter. Similarly, with the GT Pro division of the GT championship, it is worth bearing in mind this is a new series and it can take time for momentum to build.
“GT Pro is picking up nicely,” says Ginetta’s head of motorsport Mike Simpson. “We’ve got a lot of cars in build and we’re testing a few clients per week on average.”
Source: Autosport