Ginetta Chairman goes head over heals for the marque

Chairman of LNT Group, owners of the Ginetta marque went above and beyond the call of duty in testing a car out for himself last weekend, 15-17th April 2005.

Lawrence Tomlinson made a guest appearance in a Celebrity car, racing in the opening round of the AVO Ginetta Championship on Easter Monday alongside Scott Stringfellow and ex-Boyzone Shane Lynch.

Tomlinson was battling down the field for position before a collision forced the Le Mans Series driver to test his Ginetta’s strength to its maximum.

“I saw someone had spun in front of me at the left of the track,” said Tomlinson “but as I came up the right hand side, he came across the track and I hit the rear of his car.”

The impact catapulted Tomlinson’s ‘Austin Powers’ union-jack liveried car into the air. The landing wasn’t so smooth either. The right front dug into the grass and sent the car into a barrel roll – flipping over several times.

“The Engine was down on power so I kept my foot down all the way to keep momentum towards Esso and avoid being passed, thinking I would avoid the spinning car in front of me. As it turned out, that gave me maximum propulsion into the air. I basically hit the other car flat out on the fastest part of the circuit” said Tomlinson.

Fortunately due to the robustness of the Ginetta, Tomlinson walked away from the scene unhurt.

“Everybody knows what fun cars they are to drive and what good value they are to race. I got to test the strength and safety aspect for myself” continued the boss of LNT Automotive. “I’m impressed, there are few cars that I could have had such a massive impact in and walked away from.”

watch some in-car footage of the accident here