Xentek Motorsport have enjoyed a fantastic start to their 2024 Ginetta season as Luke Garlick and Conner Garlick shared four podium finishes between them in the GT Pro class of the GT Championship at Oulton Park (30 March-01 April).
Kicking off their 11th consecutive season of Ginetta racing as part of British GT’s traditional Easter weekend curtain-raiser at Oulton Park, the South Yorkshire team were battling it out in both the GT Championship and GT Academy.
While Conner returned for his second season in the headline class of the GT Championship, having been a race-winner in his debut campaign, his younger brother Luke has stepped up to GT Pro for the first time as the reigning Ginetta GT5 Challenge champion.
Qualifying set the tone for a close-fought weekend between the siblings, with only a tenth of a second separating them as Luke edged out Conner for third on the grid. Luke ran in that position throughout race one for a debut podium, with Conner finishing fifth after some great wheel-to-wheel action.
As heavy rain fell on Easter Monday, Luke enjoyed a great start to race two and snatched second place through the first corner. He eventually slipped back to third though and had Conner right on his tail, with a thrilling climax seeing the team-mates run side-by-side over the finish line.
Conner ended up taking the final podium position by just 35 thousandths of a second from Luke. They both ended the event with a smile on their face though, as great drives in the final race saw them share the podium in second and third respectively.
Xentek’s entry into the GT Academy meanwhile came with Phil McGarty, who was kicking off his tenth consecutive season of one-make Ginetta racing. Back for his second year in the GT Academy, he started the weekend strongly by qualifying sixth in class.
A good start to the opening race saw him climb up three places to 12th overall at one stage as he picked up a top six class finish. Further progress forward in race two secured him an overall top ten result and fourth in class, before a podium challenge in the final race sadly ended with a DNF.
Christopher Richards – Team Principal: “We’re delighted to see both Conner and Luke pick up a couple of podium finishes this weekend. They worked hard in pre-season to get in the position to challenge for silverware and they both drove very well in both the wet and dry conditions this weekend.
“We’re confident both of them will build on these performances and be up there battling for race wins in the near future. Phil meanwhile put in some great drives to fight forwards in the races and was extremely unlucky not to end up on the podium in the final race.”
The 2024 Ginetta season continues later this month with the second round of the GT Championship and GT Academy taking place on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit over the weekend of 27-28 April.
Images from Jakob Ebrey Photography.