Brea Angliss showed fighting spirit throughout the Donington weekend to claim two solid results in the Ginetta Junior Championship despite a number of challenges thrown her way; setting her fastest lap of the meeting during the final race underlines her potential, as she will be hoping to build upon this at Silverstone this week.
Brea Angliss continued her progress in the Ginetta Junior Championship with a character building weekend at Donington Park. Driving for Breakell Racing, Brea achieved a best finish of 13th coming in both races one and three, while also fighting mechanical gremlins during the event. Angliss and the team did a great job to overcome the issues and ensure she collected valuable championship points.
Brea’s car racing debut came in November 2022 where she competed for Alistair Rushforth Motorsport in the Ginetta Junior Winter Series, a weekend-long event taking place on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit. Angliss completed all four races without incident, with a pair of 12th place results her best showing. This experienced stood her in good stead ahead of a full campaign in the 2023 Ginetta Junior Championship. Prior to Donington, Brea sat 15th in the championship standings with her best result coming in the opening race at Oulton Park where she finished 10th.
To begin her weekend, Brea took part in Friday’s test sessions to gain familiarity with the technical Donington Park Grand Prix layout, switching to Breakell Racing for this meeting. The fastest time from Angliss was set in the first session of the day with her 1:58.100 placing her in 20th. Mechanical issues prevented Brea from taking part in the later sessions, but this practice was still valuable heading into the weekend.
Qualifying took place on Saturday morning with drivers given three timed laps in order to set their fastest times. Brea improved throughout the session with her fastest time coming on her third lap, placing her in 19th. Track limits continued to be monitored closely and Angliss did a great job to remain within the boundaries of the circuit, meaning her second fastest time was 17th fastest.
Brea started race one of the weekend from the pitlane but this allowed her to avoid any incidents in the opening stages of the race. By the end of lap two, Angliss had moved up to 17th and broke into the top-15 by lap seven. Her lap times remained consistent despite a few gremlins still preventing her from matching the times set in testing. Nevertheless, Brea did a great job in keeping the car clean and avoiding trouble, moving up to 13th by lap ten and holding this position to the flag, collecting valuable championship points.
Brea was due to line up 17th on the grid for race two and was aiming to make further progress, however she was unable to take the start with the team working hard to ensure her Ginetta G40 was ready for the final race of the weekend.
A superb job by the Breakell Racing team allowed Angliss to line up 18th for the final race of the weekend. Brea rewarded the team by making a fantastic start, gaining five positions on the opening lap to move into 13th. After dropping back to 16th at the end of lap three, Angliss settled in behind Harry Moss and begun setting fast sector times. This resulted in Brea setting her fastest lap of the weekend on lap six, before incidents ahead elevated her to 13th on lap seven. She was able to hold this position in the closing stages to record her second 13th place result of the weekend, a nice reward following a challenging weekend.
“It’s hard not to be gutted with how the weekend has gone" – Angliss commented. "I never really got a chance to get properly going and have some consistent running, but I tried to maximise what track time I did get and picked up a couple of decent race finishes in the end."
“I want to say a huge thank you to the Breakell Racing team for all their hard work", she continued. "The issues coming up with the car all stemmed from the past and weren’t their fault at all, but they were committed to solving them one-by-one and did a great job."
Brea showed fantastic character throughout the weekend to claim two solid results despite a number of challenges thrown her way. Setting her fastest lap of the meeting during the final race underlines the potential she has, with Angliss hoping to build upon this when the Ginetta Junior Championship drivers return to the track in less than one week with the inaugural Ginetta G-Fest. Taking place at Silverstone, drivers will tackle six races, two on the Grand Prix circuit and four on the National layout, providing further opportunities for progress.
“I really hope that’s all my bad luck for the season out of the way and we can enjoy some positive outings now. Silverstone next is a circuit I’ve raced on before, so with that experience under my belt I’m confident I can go there and pick up some good results.”