The fourth round of the Pro-Tyre Ginetta GT5 Challenge was held on the iconic 3.66 mile Silverstone GP circuit this weekend. With track capacity being increased over normal, the GT5 cars were joined by the G40 Cup cars, similar looking but at least 10 seconds a lap slower, resulting in a field of over 50 cars taking place, and a very crowded track.

With Friday testing having gone well, Princes Risborough ace Geri Nicosia was confident, but in a 20 minute qualifying session on Saturday punctuated by two red flag stoppages, it was difficult to get a clear lap and Nicosia was disappointed to finish 11th, his worst performance in two years. It was also noticeable that the car was not as quick through the speed traps as most of his rivals, in an effort to resolve this, Nicosia’s team, Optimum Motorsport carried out an engine change ready for the first race on Sunday morning.

A steady start saw Nicosia gaining places, he was soon up to eighth place but it was apparent the car was no quicker than on Saturday,

Nicosia overtook one rival three times on the first lap for the other car simply to power past on the next straight. He was still confident of a top five finish when he got caught up in someone else’s incident and spun round, dropping him back to 15th place. A sterling drive saw Nicosia limit the damage to his championship hopes by moving back up to 10th place, alas the gap to the next car was too big to close in the available laps.

With the team still unhappy with the car, the gearbox and differential were replaced as the next attempt to resolve the high speed woes. It was to little avail, Nicosia moved from 10th to fifth but then was simply out-powered by the car behind.

Nicosia maintained station in sixth before a late charge – he had better conserved his tyres than some rivals - saw him move into fourth place on the final lap, and finish just half a second shy of that last podium place. Post-race, the third place finisher was penalised for a driving infringement and the ensuing time penalty dropped him behind Nicosia, protecting the latter’s record of at least a podium at every round this season.

Nicosia has fallen to third in the championship as rivals Kellett and Stoney shared the spoils with a win and second place each. Nicosia said: “I can’t fault the effort from our team, they are throwing everything at the car but technical issues are hurting us and we should have been winning these races."

Championship positions: Kellett 285, Stoney 235, Nicosia 207, Toth-Jones 167 with eight races to go.

Next time out, Round five is at Spa, Belgium on July 21/22