PSCGB: Trio of podium finishes for Gracie Mitchell at Donington Park
- LIAM REDFORD
- Apr 21
- 4 min read
Gracie Mitchell enjoyed an excellent debut weekend in Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain as she secured a trio of runner-up finishes in the CS class, adapting superbly to the highly competitive series and continuing to improve her lap times throughout the event.
Gracie Mitchell enjoyed an excellent debut weekend in Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain as she secured a trio of runner-up finishes in the CS class. Driving for Graves Motorsport, Mitchell adapted superbly to the highly competitive series as she established herself as a consistent frontrunner. Mitchell continued to improve her lap times throughout the event as she pushed closer to a breakthrough victory.
Moving into Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain, Mitchell was targeting further improvements on what has been an extremely positive start to her GT racing career to date. After stepping up from karting, Mitchell competed in the Iberian Supercars Championship in 2025 where she shared a Tockwith Motorsport prepared Ginetta G55 with Luca Staccini. The pair regularly stood on the class podium with Mitchell taking significant strides forward despite her limited circuit racing experience.
Joining the entry level CS class within Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain, this provided Mitchell with an excellent proving ground at which to develop her skills in one of the country’s premier one-make championships. Mitchell arrived into the weekend with experience of Donington Park under her belt having taken part in one round Ginetta GT Championship back in 2024. Driving for MDD, Mitchell twice finished on the Am class podium while gaining experience in mixed conditions.
After a successful programme of testing, Mitchell arrived at Donington Park for two free practice sessions on Thursday. After an off-track moment in the first session, session two ran smoothly and Mitchell was able to complete a valuable 25 laps. In a positive afternoon of running, Mitchell’s quickest time of a 1:12.379 placed her in second within the CS class while the Graves Motorsport driver had a comfortable margin to the drivers behind.
Following a positive first day, Mitchell was looking to continue this momentum into qualifying on Saturday morning. The Graves Motorsport driver was immediately on the pace as she jumped to second place within the CS class. Although Mitchell was unable to improve during the final stages of the session, Mitchell began her Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain career with an excellent second place qualifying effort. Setting a fastest lap of a 1:11.561, Gracie improved by three-quarters of a second from her best free practice time.
The opening race of the season took place on Saturday afternoon with Mitchell lining up from second within the CS class. The Graves Motorsport driver made a great start as she held second position while remaining just one second behind class leader Gabe Fairbrother. On lap two, Mitchell was close to matching the time of Fairbrother as she settled into a good rhythm.
Mitchell was quickly pulling out a sizeable gap behind her and by lap four, her margin to third place stood at a healthy seven seconds. As she continued to match Fairbrother across a number of sectors, she was not letting her teammate out of her sights as she continued to set a consistent pace. Regularly lapping in the 1:12 range, Mitchell was delivering an impressive performance on her series debut.
As the race passed halfway, Mitchell began to deal with the faster RS cars coming through and she negotiated the traffic smartly. At this point, her gap to third-placed Giancarlo Romano was now approaching 30 seconds as Mitchell secured her podium spot. After RS Am class driver Hannah Chapman battled a technical issue in the closing stages, Mitchell passed her fellow female driver. Completing her debut race in second position within the CS class, it was an encouraging start for Gracie who began her campaign with a podium result.
Race two at Donington Park took place on Sunday morning and with the grid positions based upon the second fastest times set in qualifying, Mitchell lined up from second within the CS class. Gracie made a superb start and maintained second position while CS class leader Gabe Fairbrother put the RS Am class machine of Matthew Briers between himself and Mitchell.
The Graves Motorsport was displaying excellent early-race pace and this allowed her to pull out a healthy margin over Giancarlo Romano behind. On lap three, Briers passed Fairbrother and Mitchell capitalised on this overtake by lapping quicker than the CS class leader. Mitchell’s speed through Coppice corner was especially impressive and on lap five, she set a new personal best time of a 1:11.025.
On lap seven, the safety car was deployed after the car of Briers required recovery and this allowed Mitchell to close onto the tail of Fairbrother. When the race resumed, Mitchell remained just half a second behind her teammate as she looked to apply pressure to the class leader. Nonetheless, Fairbrother was able to edge away in the closing stages and he took victory in the CS class with Mitchell securing her second podium finish with another runner-up result.
The final race of the weekend took place on Sunday afternoon and with the grid positions based upon the results from race two, Mitchell started from second within the CS class. It was another clean start from Mitchell who again held second position in the CS class through the opening lap. By the conclusion of lap two, Mitchell’s gap over third-place driver Mark McKenzie stood at over two seconds as she consolidated her podium position.
On lap four, the race entered a safety car period after Matthew Briers spun into the gravel at Redgate corner. With the race neutralised, this allowed Mitchell to close up onto the rear of class leader Fairbrother with Gracie looking to apply pressure to her teammate on the restart.
The race resumed on lap eight and Mitchell was in close pursuit of Fairbrother. Just one further lap was completed before an incident involving Lydia Walmsley and James Seale led to the race being red flagged due to extensive repairs required to the tyre barrier.
With the race unable to be resumed, Mitchell secured her third runner-up finish of the weekend at Donington Park. It was an extremely encouraging series debut for Mitchell who raced consistently as she began the year with a 100% podium record.
Mitchell will be looking to continue this form when Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain resumes at Oulton Park on the weekend of 6th/7th June.
