Avon Tyres British GT Championship racer Jake Giddings concluded a challenging, and at times highly frustrating, 2015 campaign with a competitive top six GT4 Class finish during the final round of the season at Donington Park Grand Prix Circuit on Sunday, 13th September.

Enabling the Wisbech driver and team-mate Kieran Griffin to end their first season together in the prestigious category sixth in the Pro-Am title battle, the duo also finished the year 10th in the overall GT4 standings. In the entrant championship, meanwhile, their JWBird Motorsport squad ended its maiden season in British GT in eighth position.

With unidentified power issues having blighted the mid part of their campaign, Jake and Kieran finally had an opportunity to return to the sort of form and performance they displayed earlier in the season with their No.47 Aston Martin V8 Vantage back to its best this weekend.

Running with a new ECU and control module, the car didn’t miss a beat and the team-mates made good progress from 10th on the GT4 grid to finish inside the top six at the Leicestershire venue in a dramatic championship finale.

“We’re all pleased we got the power back this weekend and the car was working as it should for the first time in a few races”, reflected Jake, “Even though qualifying didn’t work out too bad, it wasn’t ideal starting in 10th. The race went quite well for both of us though really and sixth wasn’t a bad result to end the year with to be honest.

“It’s been frustrating with the power issue over the last few rounds, not that it was anyone’s fault, but at least we got one good last run before the season finished! It’s been a big jump for Kieran and the team this year into a championship as competitive as British GT, but it’s been a strong season overall and everyone has worked incredibly hard – big thank you to everyone for all they’ve done.”

In a red flag interrupted opening qualifying session on Saturday, 12th September, Kieran delivered one of his best performances of the season to post a fastest time of 1m40.492 seconds (89.10mph) on his last lap of the session to secure 10th position at that point.

During the second run, Jake took to the wheel of the Aston Martin and lapped with a quickest time of 1m37.137 seconds (92.18mph) in eighth – just 0.5 seconds shy of the fastest lap of all – equating to 10th on the GT4 grid on combined times.

Kieran took the opening stint of Sunday’s race and held position off the start, albeit running ninth of the points scorers with an invitation class Porsche further up the order. Under pressure from David Pattison’s Ginetta 10 laps into the race, the JWBird racer remained ahead and then took two places in reasonably quick succession as a result of dramas for others.

Following a Safety Car period around the half-hour mark, Kieran was edged back to eighth and then ninth just before the pit window opened after 50 minutes of racing. Remaining on track as others served their stops, he pitted to hand over the No.47 Aston Martin to Jake from fourth in GT4 with around 55 minutes gone.

Joining the race in 10th position, but with the class leader yet to stop, Jake immediately moved into ninth and when all of the pit visits had been completed the Aston ran in seventh place. As the faster GT3 cars lapped the GT4 runners, the gaps between the GT4 contenders fluctuated and although edged back to eighth with around 45 minutes to run he swiftly hit back.

Moving into seventh position again, the former GT4 Champion then moved up into the top six when the Ginetta of Jamie Stanley served a penalty in the pits with around 10 minutes to go. In the end, after a total of 71 laps, Jake took the chequered flag in sixth position and just 0.4 seconds shy of fifth placed Aleksander Schjerpen and Fredrik Blomstedt in their Ginetta G55.

“I’m not sure what we’ll be doing next year yet”, added the Finesse Paving & Civil Engineering, Cowley Road Garage and Toppesfield-sponsored racer, “I think we’ll do the Dubai [24 Hour] race with Kieran in January, but we’re unsure where we’ll be next season. We’ll see over the winter what Kieran wants to do and take things from there.”

Final Avon Tyres British GT Championship GT4 Driver Standings:

10th Jake Giddings/Kieran Griffin, 67.5pts

Final Avon Tyres British GT Championship GT4 Pro-Am Driver Standings:

6th Jake Giddings/Kieran Griffin, 98pts

Final Avon Tyres British GT Championship GT4 Team Standings:

8th JWBird Motorsport, 64.5pts