Blake Angliss continued his strong start to his maiden season in the Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup with a pair of top ten finishes during the second meeting of the year at Brands Hatch this past weekend (26/27 June).
Two weeks on from an impressive championship debut at Snetterton, in which he scored a best finish of fifth, Angliss was in a buoyant mood as he headed into his first ever race meeting at the world-famous Brands Hatch circuit in Kent.
Friday’s two free practice sessions gave Angliss the chance to get to grips with the short, fast Indy layout in his Transend-backed Ginetta G55, with the Century Motorsport ace making great progress across the day to finish inside the top ten.
Angliss continued to improve in qualifying the next morning, with a best effort of 48.646s putting him ninth on the grid. With only two tenths of a second separating him from fourth place, he knew it was going to be an incredibly close-fought three races over the weekend.
The Coventry based racer started the opening race strongly and got into some early battles as he tried to make progress. Surviving a quick trip through a gravel trap before a safety car period, when the action restarted a composed drive to the finish secured him an eighth place result.
Race two completed the day’s action on Saturday, with an unfortunately tough start to proceedings seeing Angliss fall back to 12th overall. Seemingly unable to match the pace of his rivals, a subdued race ended with an 11th place result.
The Haigh Group, Splodge Hygiene, Lifeline and Icom backed driver was determined to end the weekend on a high as he competed in the final race on Sunday. Competing live on ITV3, he enjoyed an upturn in pace as he battled it out for a return to the top ten.
Angliss’ eye-catching blue and yellow livery once again caught the eye of the television cameras as he became embroiled in an entertaining three way battle in the midfield. Fighting up to eighth at one stage, he eventually took the chequered flag in ninth position.
Blake Angliss: “It was a tough weekend, but I’m satisfied to come away with three more strong race finishes. Friday was all about learning the circuit – it might be short, but it’s tricky to master in these cars – and I went into the weekend in a decent position.
“My lap didn’t really come together in qualifying and I feel that set the tone for the races too. I battled hard, learnt a lot about racing these cars and we made a good improvement for race three, even if the result didn’t reflect my pace. I’m ready to work my way up the grid next time out.”
Angliss now has to wait five weeks before returning to Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup action, as he heads to Cheshire for a first ever visit to Oulton Park.
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.