Wisbech racer Jake Giddings has secured first Avon Tyres British GT4 Championship podium of the year.

The reigning Avon Tyres British GT Championship GT4 Class champion picked up JWB Motorsport’s maiden silverware in the category in round three of the season at Rockingham.

Giddings and his team-mate Kieran Griffin started 10th on the grid for the 120-minute contest.

When Giddings took over from Griffin on 55 minutes, the 20-year-old found himself 12th and with a mountain to climb to try and break into the top five, let alone the podium placings.

Closing down the gap to the cars ahead, Jake moved into the top 10 with 45 minutes of racing left on the clock and thereafter made rapid progress.

With 15 minutes to go, the Aston Martin Evolution Academy driver held sixth place and after taking fifth shortly after he produced a great move at Deene with eight minutes left to move into fourth and edge ever closer to the unexpected podium.

Reeling in Jamie Stanley’s Ginetta G55, Giddings sized up a move after getting a terrific run through Kirby and towards Gracelands and completed the pass on the run to Tarzan Hairpin to seal third.

Giddings said: “From the start of the race I didn’t think we’d have a chance of the top five, let alone the podium, and when I joined the race from 12th I wasn’t sure what we’d be able to do. To come through to third is fantastic really and a great result for the whole team.”

In the championship standings, the JWB team-mates have climbed from ninth to fifth in the GT4 classification and have also gained a position into fourth in the Pro-Am standings.

Round four of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship season, a three-hour contest, will take place on May 31 at Silverstone.

Giddings said: “It’d be nice to capitalise on this result at Silverstone, but we can’t get carried away.

“We haven’t got any testing before then so we just need to make sure we can get a good set-up sorted in practice and build on it from there. If we aim for the top five, that’d be a good result.”