Chris Webster is making the move into the Ginetta GT5 Championship this season and he is looking forward to getting racing.

Chris is no stranger to racing Ginetta’s having raced in the Britcar Series in one over the last few years.

Speaking about making the move to the GT5 series, he said: “Watching the team and drivers at Academy over the last two years I have seen that the championship is brilliantly run by Ginetta; very tightly controlled giving a proper level playing field.

“The racing is very competitive and at the sharp end, produces drivers that progress to GT4 and touring car level. Whilst competitive it is also really enjoyable and you see a lot of smiles around the paddock after every race. Naturally I thought I would have a go.”

Having experience of racing in a Ginetta before Chris is not convinced that this will help him hitting the ground running when the season gets going.

He added: “Not particularly. My Ginetta that I raced in Britcar had a different engine, different suspension and different tyres and was a lot heavier. In short it feels like a different car.

Chris will be racing with Academy Motorsport again his season and the relationship that he has with Matt Nicoll-Jones is going to be a massive plus for him.

“We work brilliantly together. Matt Nicoll-Jones and I have become great friends and I fully trust his judgement and advice.

“Possibly. It can also make it harder to say some tough things if needed, but we know each other well enough to deal with that.”

We also asked Chris about racing in the Britcar Series and how he found it to be racing in what was his first season.

He said: “It was a shock to the system! Last year was my first season in any kind of racing and to be in 1.5hr races with ex-formula one drivers and former touring car drivers was quite intimidating. Having Matt as my team mate was extremely reassuring.

“The highlight definitely was the 1000km race at Silverstone GP where we had the lowest powered car on the grid of 32 and still finished 16th overall winning our class by over 4 laps. Unfortunately due to an admin catastrophe our win was unclassified but the race results tell the story.

“I will always remember that day, Matt raced a historic E-type in spa on the Saturday afternoon, drove back from Belgium overnight and took the final 1.5hr stint in our race. Epic stuff!”

The challenge now is for Chris to make the transition from Britcar to Ginetta’s and that is going to be tough as he explains.

He added: “The two don’t compare. Britcar races are 1.5hr minimum with at least one compulsory stop. Ginetta GT5 is a 20 minute sprint. The first corner is all important. In Britcar you don’t have to reach turn one first.

“The thing I most want to achieve is to enjoy it and savour the experience. A top ten finish at the end of the year would be great. A podium finish somewhere in the season would be amazing, but I am aware there will be some great drivers in the mix again this year so it will be tough to achieve.”