Blake Angliss made a surprise British GT comeback at Spa-Francorchamps, stepping up from his reserve driver role with Mahiki Racing to contest the championship’s flagship three-hour enduro.
Round 5 of the 2025 campaign saw Mahiki debut its newly acquired fleet of Ginetta G56 GT4 Evos, the first time the team had run the cars since making a mid-season switch from the Lotus Emira GT4.
Angliss, who joined the squad in a reserve capacity at the start of the season, was promoted to a race seat after a late shake-up in the team’s line-up ahead of the Spa weekend. His appearance marked both his first British GT start since last season and his first-ever race at the Belgian circuit.
“It’s been good working with the team,” he told DSC at Snetterton. “I actually started off as a ‘grid girl’, then I was a lollipop man at Oulton Park! So I’ve done almost every role apart from the engineering side. It’s been great to see all the different aspects, it’s not just the driving.
“Then obviously I got the call about a week and a half before Spa: ‘Can you do Spa and the rest of the season?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, count me in, let’s go!’”
The Ginetta connection is a natural fit. Angliss was vice-champion in the 2022 Ginetta GT4 SuperCup, the final year of the G55, and has spent most of his racing career in the manufacturer’s ladder system. His 2024 season began with a four-race stint in Paddock Motorsport’s McLaren Artura GT4 before stepping aside mid-season.
Mahiki, which entered British GT in 2024 with two Lotus GT4 entries, has scaled up to a three-car operation for 2025 and committed to the Ginetta platform after struggling to get results with the Emira. The switch required significant coordination, Ginetta delivered the cars directly to Spa and provided full trackside engineering support.
Angliss shared the #69 Ginetta with Steven Lake, one of the team’s Am drivers. Due to the late arrival of the car on Thursday evening, Angliss lost valuable running during Friday’s paid test session.
“I hadn’t been in a race car for nearly a year, and I’d never raced at Spa before,” he said. “I got five laps in on Friday, and they still wanted me to take Eau Rouge flat! But it’s a Ginetta, the platform is familiar. We just needed to dial in the setup.
“We’ve had a few teething issues, which is expected with a brand-new car. But we’re learning what works and what doesn’t, and hopefully with more seat time, we’ll get there.”
Angliss and Lake finished as the top Mahiki pairing, coming home sixth in the GT4 class, ahead of the sister #88 and the retired #84 Ginettas.
Despite the limited track time for the British GT runners at Spa, Angliss felt able to soak up the experience.
“On the sim, Eau Rouge feels flat, no big deal,” he said. “But in real life, it felt like going up Mount Everest. You drop down and then shoot straight back up, it was wild.
“I’d never even been to Spa before, not even as a spectator. Just seeing the place, the forests, the hills, it’s beautiful. A proper old-school track.”
Spa is one of just two 180-minute endurance races on the British GT calendar, the other being Silverstone. The remaining endurance rounds, at Brands Hatch and Donington Park, run at 120 minutes.
Following Spa, Angliss returned for Mahiki at the sweltering Snetterton sprint round. Sprint weekends feature two 60-minute races, with each driver’s qualifying time determining their grid position — unlike enduros, which use a combined average.
“It’s really nice to get the chance to show what I can do,” Angliss said. “Steve’s a solid driver, no doubt, but now I can say, ‘This is what I bring to the table.’
“The big goal this year was just to get back out in the car. Being a reserve driver, it’s just nice to be racing again.”
While Mahiki’s #84 and #88 entries have both claimed GT4 podiums this year, Angliss and Lake are still chasing their first top-three finish, but the momentum is building.
Meanwhile, the GT4 title fight is intensifying between the #90 Optimum Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 (Marc Warren/Jack Brown) and the #71 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 Evo (Ravi Ramyead/Charlie Robertson). The #90 crew grabbed their fourth win of the season at Snetterton, with the #71 pairing now sitting on three.
Angliss, however, is targeting results in the Pro-Am subcategory, and is hopeful that a breakthrough is close.
“Realistically, we’re not in the championship hunt, but if we can get on the GT4 Pro-Am podium, that’d be brilliant,” he said. “Warren and Brown are rapid. Ravi and Charlie are too, it’s a tall order to beat them.
“But we’re in the mix for that third podium spot. If we can get that, or even hassle the Silver Ams and front-running Pro-Ams, then I’d call that a successful weekend.”
Images courtesy of JEP/SRO
