The name Ginetta is not alien to the Australian GT Championship, however to date it has been the domain of the GT Sports class with the mighty G50 GT4, but that is all about to change with the pending arrival of the first Ginetta G55 GT3.
After graduating from the GT Sports class at the start of the 2014 Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli, 2013 GT Sports race winner Michael Hovey joined the ranks of the GT Trophy class in the ex-Craig Baird Porsche Type 997 Cup Car, but whilst he finished the most recent round at Townsville on the podium, the Queenslander admitted that he wanted more.
“Townsville was a great experience, and running inside the top ten was a real treat,” Hovey recounted. “But it was partly gifted by the failure to finish by two of the Audi R8s that dominate the Trophy Class, and unless they strike trouble I’m not really in with a shot in the Porsche. “I loved my time in the Ginetta last year and really enjoyed the GT4 version of the make. We’d always said that the Ginetta would be a great car with a quicker engine and a bit more aero, and here it is, complete with a Ginetta V8 engine that has very close links to the current V8 Supercar engine.
“Before Townsville I was starting to think about what to do for next season and started doing some research. Steve Williams at Ginetta Cars Australia had been pushing for the GT3 from as early as 12 months ago, but we didn’t really know a lot about it, so we did some research and together with Ginetta Chairman Lawrence Tomlinson in the UK, agreed to a deal.
“It’s fantastic for us, because they’re going to invest in the program too, because there’s quite a few Ginettas coming out to Australia now, including a couple of V8-powered G50Z’s that have just landed. Ginetta will provide both support and technical assistance as part of the arrangement, and will fly Ginetta factory crew out to assist us.”
Make no mistake, the V6-powered G50 may not be an outright race winner, but the G55 GT3 is a serious outright car, in fact just a few weeks ago, a G55 GT3 ran against a crop of current-spec GT3 cars in a 3-Hour race in the French VdeV Series at Dijon and won outright. Competition included a string of Porsche GT3-R’s, an Audi R8 LMS, an SLS AMG and a Ferrari 458..!
“Look, a quicker car doesn’t mean I’m in with a chance to make the podium on debut, but we’ll have a car quick enough to mix it with the other Championship cars, and if I have a chance to run around the pace of the ‘gentleman drivers’ then I’ll be very happy. We might also look at ‘inviting’ an outright driver too, just to show what the car can achieve..”
The G55 GT3 that Hovey has purchased is being prepared for sea-freight travel to Australia, and he expects that it may debut at Highlands for the final round of the championship.
“The car has been updated to the right specification for Australia, and will be run by McElrea Racing – just as my Porsche is now – and whilst I’m keen to get behind the wheel as quickly as I can, we want to make sure it’s right. If all the planets align, the car might be here by the penultimate round at Sandown, but we’re not rushing it, and the Porsche has been coming along well, but I’d dearly like to run it at Highlands in preparation for the 2015 season and possibly the Bathurst 12-Hour.
“It’s an exciting time, and I’m really looking forward to getting back into a Ginetta and mixing it with the ‘big boys’!”