Newly-crowned British GT4 champions Will Tregurtha and Stuart Middleton have hailed 2017 as their best season yet after completing a record-breaking debut campaign at Donington Park.
The HHC duo once again overcame a pitstop success penalty on Sunday to seal their seventh podium of the year and become the youngest crew in terms of combined age ever to win a British GT title. At 35 years and 160 days the duo beat the previous record held by Jamie Chadwick and Ross Gunn who were 167 days their senior when they won the GT4 crown in 2015.
It’s been a remarkable year for the 17-year-olds who graduated from Ginetta Juniors as champion and runner-up with a HHC squad also making its British GT4 debut. Their dominance was confirmed by the combination’s single Ginetta G55 entry also sealing the Teams’ championship, while Tregurtha and Middleton completed an unprecedented clean sweep by plundering the Silver Cup crown, too.
What’s more, their 50-point winning margin is the most since Jody Fannin and Warren Hughes won all but two races in a 2012 campaign featuring far fewer GT4 entries.
Tregurtha, who made it back-to-back championships after winning Ginetta Juniors 12 months ago, believes 2017 has been his best season to date.
“At the start of the year I said I really wanted to win the championship and now here we are!” he said. “We’ve hardly done any testing all year, so to do what we have is so good and I can’t thank everyone enough. It’s such a fantastic result for HHC, they’ve been there every step of the way, and my family and sponsors Enlighten. I have to say a huge thank you as well to Stuart, he’s an incredible team-mate.
“Right from the first race when we got on the podium, we were so happy with that and we’ve just been learning and learning ever since – and still learning in [Sunday’s] race. It’s been really, really good and the best year of racing I’ve ever had. In three years of racing cars, to go from Ginetta Juniors to then winning Ginetta Junior, and now winning British GT4 in my first season, it’s unbelievable.”
Meanwhile, his co-driver Middleton might yet add another title to his name this year after increasing his Sunoco Whelen Challenge lead at Donington. He must now wait until the end of October before discovering whether he’ll be competing in January’s Daytona 24 Hours.
“Where do I start? Wow! What a year it’s been, it’s flown by,” he said. “I’ve had so much fun driving in the British GT4 Championship - what an amazing championship it is. We’ve definitely got the result we wanted, massive thank you to HHC Motorsport for all their work. The guys there do an outstanding job and I’ve got an awesome team-mate in Will, he’s rapid every time he gets in the car.
“What a team, what a car - we really couldn’t have asked for any more and especially in our first season. We were quite surprised at the pace we had from the outset this year, we just seemed to adapt to this Ginetta G55 like we’d driven it before. It’s been an absolutely awesome season and I’m so grateful to my family and sponsors for all of their support.
“As for winning the Sunoco Challenge and racing at Daytona, well it’s something you can only dream about! I didn’t think about it at the start of the year and I’ve not followed it too closely either. It was only when the chance of winning became a strong possibility that I began keeping an eye on the points. I’m just chuffed to be in with a chance. The pressure’s now on Stuart Moseley [Middleton’s only rival] to achieve the results over his final two Radical rounds, and who knows: it might even be settled this weekend.”