Brea Angliss enjoyed a fantastic end to the 2023 Ginetta Junior Championship season, securing her best qualifying and race result of the campaign during the final rounds at Donington Park this past weekend (21/22 October).
On her second outing with leading team Preptech UK, Angliss pulled together all the promise and potential she’d shown through the year so far and produced a superb weekend of consistent pace and impressive race craft to secure her biggest points haul of the season.
The 15-year-old rising star saw her preparations for the weekend hampered by torrential rainfall on Friday, which led to official testing being cancelled. Her first track action therefore came with a short 10-minute free practice session on Saturday morning ahead of qualifying.
Quickly getting acclimatised to greasy track conditions in her Ginetta G40, Angliss produced some great pace across her three flying laps to secure her best qualifying result of the season, taking 12th on the grid for the opening two races of the weekend.
Angliss made a fantastic start to race one and shot forward three places to ninth on the opening lap, however the emergence of the red flags led to a full restart. Immediately rising to tenth when the action resumed, she soon got into the thick of the action in a frenetic first race.
Working her way up to ninth in between a pair of safety car periods, the Coventry-based talent made further progress on the final lap to superbly secure her highest race result of the year in eighth position – which was later improved to seventh after a post-race penalty for another driver.
With her confidence boosted with that result, Angliss enjoyed some more exciting battles in race two on Sunday morning. Fighting it out in a multi-car battle on the fringes of the top ten, she was unfortunate to lose ground late on and came home in 14th place.
Starting from the same position for the final race of the season, Angliss made a strong start before expertly avoiding a multi-car incident ahead through the Melbourne hairpin to slot into seventh. Battling hard from there, she was unfortunate to lose out in the busy midfield action as she came home 12th.
Brea Angliss: “I’m over the moon with how this weekend went. We’ve had some tough times through the season, so for everything to come together and to be able to end the year on a high note is a fantastic feeling and a big confidence boost heading into the winter.
“Testing getting cancelled wasn’t the best preparation for the weekend, but I felt comfortable in the tricky conditions on Saturday. Preptech UK gave me a fantastic car and I was really able to push myself, make some moves and get a great finish on the board.
“The results on Sunday didn’t reflect the pace we had, I just didn’t get the luck in the close battles, but to get three clean races in and a good haul of points was great. I feel like I’ve made huge steps forward in all aspects as a driver this year, and I’m excited to see what 2024 brings.”
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.