Lifestyle: Motoring – Ginetta’s racing club
RACE and road car manufacturer Ginetta has launched a racing club for people with limited track experience.
The Racing Drivers’ Club, which is open to anyone with a driving licence, includes one-on-one driver tuition at track days and a National B racing licence, as well as entry into a four-round racing championship, plus a number of member events.
Leeds-based Ginetta is owned by Lawrence Tomlinson who bought it in 2005. He is also the chairman of Leeds-based LNT Group, which has interests in software, construction and care homes.
Ginetta was founded in 1958 by the Suffolk-based Walklett brothers who were based in Suffolk and was later bought by enthusiasts who moved the business to Sheffield.
It now produces 200 hand-built cars a year from a 75,000 sq ft factory in Leeds. Employing around 55 staff, from car and engine designers to mechanical engineers and fabricators, the factory makes nine models: the G40 Junior, G40 Senior, G50 cup, G50 GT4, G55 Cup, G55 GT3, as well as the G40R “race car for the road” and the G60 supercar, and the 2014 Ginetta Racing Drivers’ Club car.
The factory team, Team LNT, has competed at some of the world’s most prestigious long distance and historic race meetings including the Petit Le Mans in Atlanta, Sebring Florida, Goodwood Revival, Silverstone 24 hours and the 24 Heures Du Mans, with Mr Tomlinson winning the GT2 class in 2006.
This year the driver’s club calendar includes events at Rockingham Motor Speedway, Corby; Silverstone, Northampton; Snetterton, Norfolk; and Donington Park, Derbyshire.
It recently held a track day at Oulton Park in Cheshire where TheBusinessDesk.com reader Amy Robinson tested the new Ginetta Racing Drivers’ Club car with her partner Scott Bevin. She trialled a G40 Club, alongside
instructors Adam Morgan, and British GT racer, Jamie Stanley.
The club already has an 11-strong grid, which includes Yorkshire’s Guy Redwood, founder of Simple Usability, and Peter Brook, managing director of both Oracle Finance and Lawton Brook, as well as retired airline pilot Andy Bradshaw and a team from the University of Bolton.
Mr Tomlinson said: “The Ginetta Racing Drivers Club is an all-inclusive package designed to provide drivers who have limited track experience, with everything they need to begin competing in motor racing – from their own road legal Ginetta G40R, to tuition and their National B Racing licence. We understand many people need guidance when entering the unknown, which is why our track days with tuition are the ideal place to test the water.”
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