Earlier this month Donington Park saw the inaugural round for the brand new GT4 Retro Challenge championship. The new series aims to provide a competitive home for Gen 1 GT4 cars (2008-2018) to continue racing, although will allow other appropriate cars on a case by case basis with BOP amendment.
Organised as a joint venture between AMR Heritage customer team Stratton Motorsport and John Jackson of Vector Motorsport, the first event saw a beautifully prepared grid of multiple Aston Martin Vantages and a guest Ginetta G55 racing alongside the always popular Bernie’s V8s and MSVR line up.
The series will run a four round calendar in its first year, consisting of compact one day events with the option of further Friday testing. Race durations are 45 minutes with mandatory pit stops to give the option of drivers either running as a pairing or individually, in a similar manner to the GT Cup series. The championship aims to appeal to the owner-driver market and will be enforcing driving standards rigorously to create an environment for close but clean and fair racing. Equally however Retro GT4 Challenge may offer an interesting alternative option for those on the GT career ladder wanting useful track time at a more affordable rate than with cutting edge contemporary machinery.
Though the grid for the first event was small there was some great racing on display, and the evocative line-up of cars all drew interest from a knowledgeable crowd keen to learn about their recent racing provenance. The race was won by Paul Whight as a solo driver effort, who was engaged with a battle for the lead with the guest Ginetta G55 Supercup car of Grahame and Richard Tilley right up until the penultimate lap; proving that even with a smaller grid it only takes two cars to make a race!
Series co-ordinator John Jackson had the following to say after the opening round at Donington Park:
The atmosphere for the first round was great, and we were even blessed with some good weather! It was fantastic to see how close the race ended up being, with only a few seconds separating the top two after 45 minutes and pit stops. We can’t wait for the second round at Snetterton in only a few weeks time and hope to see more people come and join us on the grid.
If there's one thing we've learned from our involvement with historic single seaters, it's that there is a real appetite in the UK motorsport community to provide outlets for previous generations of race cars to continue racing, instead of gathering dust in workshops. While these Gen 1 cars have a number of prestigious endurance events to race in across Europe, domestic options to keep them running competitively on a sensible budget have been lacking until now. As the grid continues to grow Retro GT4 Challenge will offer a fantastic opportunity for either skilled amateur or aspiring pro drivers to learn and enjoy racing in near contemporary GT4 machinery, and we look forward to seeing the series progress over the course of the season.
Remaining rounds of the season are as follows, with entries now open ahead of Snetterton for eligible car owner/drivers or those who wish to hire a full package through Stratton Motorsport.
29 June - Snetterton
17 August - Oulton Park
14 September - Brands Hatch (Indy)
Please see the series website for more information regarding forthcoming races and details on how to enter.
All photos by Sprite Photography
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