Sensational Debut in the GT Cup with Triple Class Win
Jolt Racing made a superb start to their 2024 GT Cup campaign with a back-to-back triple class win in their championship debut at Donington Park this past weekend (20-21 April).
Debuting in the McLaren 570S GT4 with drivers John Ingram and Rupert Williams, the team’s impressive showing means they finish the first weekend in a stellar ninth place on the Team Standings championship points board, nine points ahead of the Paddock Motorsport McLaren Artura.
Despite suffering a technical issue in the first five minutes of the session, qualifying set the tone for the weekend as the team fought back to qualify first in class around the 1.979-mile national circuit, with John Ingram setting the pace early on.
The team – established in 2022 to compete with a focus on endurance and sports car racing – took full advantage of their impressive qualifying performance to clinch a first in-class finish in Saturday morning’s 25-minute sprint race, before turning their full focus on that afternoon’s 50-minute pit-stop race.
Rupert Williams, competing in just his second-ever season of circuit racing after a successful maiden campaign in the Silverlake Citroen C1 Endurance Series with Jolt Racing in 2023, took charge at the start of the first pit-stop race with John due to jump into the car in the half-way driver change.
Rupert had a great first stint in the McLaren 570S GT4 and swiftly handed the car over to John, who was able to build on Rupert’s performance to bring the car home for a second class win for the team.
With the good weather continuing into Sunday morning, and a lot of development work having been made to the car overnight, John opted to take part in the second sprint race of the weekend, and made an impressive improvement in pace to bring the car home for a third class win.
The team had to make a tough call to retire the car and sit out of the final pit-stop race of the weekend due to a technical issue, but they vowed not to let it dampen what was an enormously successful first weekend in the championship.
Rupert Williams “Being only my second season in circuit racing and my first race in a GT car, it was fantastic to clinch three back-to-back class wins this weekend. I’ve already gained a lot of experience, and I’m making huge personal progress gaining confidence in the car”.
John Ingram “It’s been a strong and encouraging first weekend in the championship for the team. Coming into the weekend, we had limited testing in the car and have been dealing with overcoming some technical issues.”
“Despite that, it’s been not only a great development weekend for us, but also an enormously successful weekend overall, and we’ve made a lot of progress to take into the next round. We’ll be looking to carry the momentum into Brands Hatch in four weeks’ time!”
The GT Cup Championship continues next month when the series heads to Brands Hatch on 18-19 May.
Photo by James Roberts.