Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
This year’s champion of entry-level sportscar series Ginetta Junior will receive a £50,000 scholarship to spend on stepping up to GB4 in 2025.
Ginetta Cars and GB4’s promoter MotorSport Vision will jointly contribute to the prize fund, which is the latest sign of the two junior racing series moving closing together.
From 2008 onwards, Ginetta Junior ran on the support bill of the TOCA-organised British Touring Car Championship and therefore alongside British Formula Ford and then its replacement British Formula 4 when that was created in 2015. British F4 was where many Ginetta Junior drivers then graduated to once they were old enough to switch to single-seaters.
Last year the TOCA partnership ended and Ginetta Junior joined GB3 and the F4-spec GB4 series on British GT’s support bill. Seven Ginetta graduates have raced in GB4 since the series’ creation two years ago, and four of those have won races.
It is not just drivers making the move, as Elite Motorsport, Fox Motorsport and Preptech UK have expanded from Ginetta Junior into GB4.
“Ginetta Junior has a long history of being the junior championship where drivers serious about trying to make it to the highest level learn and put themselves on the talent map,” said MSV’s chief executive Jonathan Palmer.
“Whether they end up in Formula 1 or professional GT racing, the pedigree of the championship winners is outstanding. To reinforce that we are providing one of the biggest prize funds ever at this level, to make a substantial contribution to the budget they will need to start their single-seater career path with GB4.”