Breakell Racing have enjoyed a fantastic start to their 2023 Ginetta race season, securing no less than podium finishes on the opening weekend of the Ginetta GT Championship.
The team made the short trip south to Oulton Park in Cheshire for the Ginetta curtain-raiser, and played a starring role in the inaugural round of Ginetta’s latest one-make series, the GT Championship, over the Easter bank holiday weekend (08-10 April).
A new look driver line-up saw Ruben Hage, Carl Garnett and Karim Sekkat racing for the team for the first time. Hage and Garnett were behind the wheel of new Ginetta G56 GTP cars, while Sekkat was racing a familiar car in the G40 GT5.
After showing promising pace straight out of the blocks in pre-season testing, Hage and Garnett carried that speed into the opening event as they superbly qualified third and fourth fastest overall. It was Garnett who got the jump at the start of race one, with a superb launch propelling him up to second place.
The former Ginetta GT4 SuperCup racer produced a faultless drive from there to keep his pursuers behind and record his first overall Ginetta podium finish. He went on to repeat the trick in race two on Monday morning, another rocket launch taking from fourth to a podium finish in second.
Luck proved to be against Hage in the opening two races. After being unfairly shoved onto the grass when challenging for the final podium spot on the last lap of race one, he then finished third on the road in the next outing before receiving a false start time penalty.
Following those two fourth place results, the GT5 Challenge graduate got his moment in the spotlight with a stunning charge to second place in the closer, with just a red flag stoppage denying him a shot at the win. Garnett meanwhile finished fourth to sign off his best ever Ginetta weekend.
Sekkat meanwhile has taken on the challenge of stepping up from the GT5 Am class, in which he’s enjoyed great success in recent years, to compete in the Pro ranks this season. Showing good progress with his pace across the opening event, his determined to succeed was rewarded with a podium finish in the final race.
James Breakell - Team Principal: “I don’t think we could have asked for anything more from this weekend. To have all three drivers finish on the podium, and have a genuine chance at overall race wins with Carl and Ruben, is truly a fantastic way to start the year.
“Carl will tell you himself he never expected to be picking up podiums after a year away from racing, but he was brilliant across the races. Ruben had some misfortune but showed his class to everyone in race three, while Karim just kept on improving every race and deserved his silverware too.”