Blake Angliss Charges Forward To Brilliant British GT Podium

Blake Angliss made a welcome return to the British GT Championship podium with a tremendous charge from the back of the grid to second in class during the penultimate round of the season at Brands Hatch this past weekend (23/24 August).

The trip south to the Kent circuit marked Angliss’ third outing since his return to the British GT grid, having previously shown promising pace at Spa-Francorchamps and Snetterton in the Mahiki Racing Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo, including mounting a class podium challenge in the latter.

A change for the Brands Hatch event saw Angliss have a new team-mate in the shape of a fellow experienced Ginetta racer and British GT podium finisher Luke Garlick. This brought with it a change of class too, as they joined the competitive Silver category.

With no pre-event testing, the Coventry-based rising star used Saturday’s free practice sessions to get back up to speed around the legendary 2.43-mile Grand Prix layout. Good progress through the two hour-long sessions left the #69 Ginetta crew particularly confident of their race pace.

Their race chances would be hampered by a nightmare qualifying session that afternoon though. After a competitive showing from Garlick in his segment, Angliss was ready to continue their challenge for a front-running grid position when he suffered a sudden tyre failure.

With the puncture sending the Ginetta spinning into the gravel trap and out of the session, he was left with no opportunity to complete any flying laps. Therefore, they would end up having to start the two-hour race on Sunday from last on the GT4 grid.

Garlick started behind the wheel and while the opening 35 minutes of the race was dominated by a pair of safety car periods, he was able to make rapid progress during the green flag running to move up to second overall in the GT4 classification.

He maintained that position through to the mid-race pitstop, with Angliss settling into the same place when he took to the track. The 22-year-old talent immediately set a quick pace in the Ginetta, pulling a huge gap to the car behind to strengthen their podium challenge.

Unfortunately, their hopes for an overall top three result were dashed when they were handed a drive-through penalty for a pitstop infringement. A Silver class rostrum remained firmly in their sights though and following another safety car period, Angliss went on the offensive.

An immediate move into Paddock Hill Bend at the restart netted the YorPower and Transend UK backed driver second place in the Silver class. He comfortably maintained that position to the chequered flag to earn a richly deserved second class podium finish of his British GT career.

Blake Angliss: “After cruelly missing out on the podium last time out at Snetterton, it’s a huge relief to pick up our first silverware of the season. The team have worked incredibly hard with the new cars over the last few events and it’s great to reward their efforts with a podium.

“We knew it would be a challenging weekend, heading in with no pre-event testing in the Ginetta. We made good progress through free practice though, which made the puncture even more frustrating in qualifying as we had the speed to finish in the top four at least.

“Credit to Luke, he’s come in and done a good job. He made great progress at the start of the race and handed the car over in a strong position. Therefore, it was gutting to receive the pitstop penalty, as without it we certainly had the pace to finish in the overall top three in GT4.

“I’m happy with the pace I showed in my stint, matching lap times of the front-running cars and pulling off some overtaking moves. Overall, we made a step forward this weekend and hopefully we can progress further and enjoy a successful end to the season at Donington Park.”

One round remains in the 2025 British GT Championship, with the season finale taking place in six weeks’ time (04/05 October) on the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit – the scene of Angliss’ maiden British GT podium finish last year.

Images from Jakob Ebrey Photography.