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Our favourite images from the competitive debut of Ginetta’s ‘developmental’ G56 Cup at the 2023 Hankook 12H KUWAIT.
Photos – Nico Mombaerts
The developmental G56 Cup, an evolution of Ginetta’s GT4 sports car introduced earlier this year, made its competitive debut at the 2023 Hankook 12H KUWAIT. And, according to Ginetta CEO Lawrence Tomlinson, quite a bit of work had to be completed before the G56 could even turn a wheel in anger. “It's a brand-new car, and it’s a bit ‘LEGO’: the chassis arrived in the container and the rest of it we flew in, so the boys had to build it.”
Lawrence, a Le Mans class winner with ‘Team LNT’ in 2006, was one of three drivers confirmed for the Toro Verde-entered G56 Cup at Kuwait Motor Town. The Ginetta CEO competed alongside his son Freddie (on only the second 24H SERIES start for the latter) and Ginetta factory driver, Mike Simpson.
Toro Verde’s weekend got off to a solid start when the Ginetta qualified 2nd in
GTX and on the third row of the overall grid. The Tomlinson father-son duo maintained the position during their opening stints, shadowing class leader razoon – more than racing in the process. A niggling electrical issue however, plus ABS failure, meant the Ginetta took the class lead during the third hour.
Development work on the Ginetta concentrated primarily on driver cooling and reliability in Kuwait. Turns out the new tyre size proved crucial to Toro Verde’s race strategy too. “We’ve got a better aero package on the car, and we’ve got bigger tyres,” Lawrence Tomlinson explained. “We think we can run three hours on just one set of Hankooks, which is a pretty good saving: instead of 20 sets, you're looking at maybe eight sets for a 24-hour race.”
Though unable to match the pace of the KTM, Mike Simpson’s fastest lap – a 1m 46.903s – was only six-tenths slower than that of 992-class winner, Red Camel-Jordans.nl. A shot in the arm not just for the new aero package but also the G56’s naturally aspirated 6.2-litre V8.
Bar an oil leak in the power steering, the Ginetta G56 Cup completed its debut without major issue, and took GTX class victory 15 laps clear of the troubled razoon – more than racing. The win was a first not just for the G56 Cup, but also Toro Verde, Lawrence and Freddie Tomlinson, AND Mike Simpson, almost 10 years on from Lawrence and Mike’s series debuts at the Hankook 24H DUBAI in 2014.
