Massot Stars At Silverstone With Second Ginetta Junior Win Of Season

Hillspeed enjoyed a fantastically successful outing at Silverstone National Circuit over the weekend, 6th/7th October with Pepe Massot winning round 18 of the Ginetta Junior Championship and Kieran Vernon making a welcome return to the Protyre Formula Renault BARC podium.Bouncing back brilliantly from a disappointing opening race in Ginetta Junior on Saturday, in which contact left Massots car with significant damage and a lack of performance which resulted in an 11th place finish, in Sundays televised race the young Spaniard secured the second outright victory of his maiden season in cars.Qualifying third on the grid, the 16-year-old from Barcelona made a good getaway to round 18 and quickly snatched second place on the opening lap. Remaining in second until lap three, on the run into Becketts the Hillspeed rookie dived up the inside to grab the lead from Charlie Robertson.With the lead quartet split by little more than a second, Massot had to keep an eye on his mirrors for the remainder of the 11 lap encounter but he defended superbly with great maturity and skill far belying his years.On the final lap though, Andrew Watson made an attempted pass up the inside at Beckettsthere was slight contact and Massot was pushed wide. Somehow though, he was able to regain second place on the run into Brooklands and superbly took the lead back at Luffield to claim the victory by 0.3 seconds. 

Young team-mate Freddie Lee, in only his fourth race weekend in Ginetta Junior, unfortunately crashed out of race two on lap six after a small error under braking at Becketts which led to a tangle with Robertson.In round 17 though, the 15-year-old managed to secure a top 10 finishhis fifth of the seasonafter a hectic outing in which he ran as high as eighth. Lining-up 11th on the grid, Lee progressed into ninth on lap three ahead of Massot after the latter incurred his significant bodywork damage.Taking eighth on lap five, at the expense of Niall Murray who dropped back, Lee remained there until lap eight when Murray recovered his lost ground. He was then edged back to 10th on the final lap when usurped during the closing stages by William Palmer.Pepe produced an exceptional performance to win race two, said Hillspeed team principal Richard Ollerenshaw, He raced fantastically well, defended fairly and when it looked as though he might be beaten he produced a sensational second half of the final lap to winincredible. Freddie didnt get the results he wanted but its clear for us to see hes continuing to make very good progress.Vernon ends FR BARC season with a flourishSilverstone also hosted the finale of the Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship in which Kieran Vernon secured his fourth podium of the campaign to conclude the season an excellent fifth in the driver standings, despite having missed the opening three races of the year.Round 14 was the pick of the two for the Hillspeed racerqualifying on the front row, a mere 0.028 seconds shy of pole position, Vernon did unfortunately slip to third off the start and was then pushed back to fifth on lap two before mounting a determined recovery.Profiting from a lap eight tangle between Chris Middlehurst and Macaulay Walsh, Vernon sliced back by at Brooklands to take third where he remained to the conclusion on lap 21; taking the flag just 0.9 seconds behind newly crowned champion Scott Malvern. In round 13, Vernon finished seventh after a good drive through from 11th on the grid.Team-mate Struan Moore climbed from 18th on the grid in race one to a season-best 13th place on only his second weekend in single-seaters. Gaining a spot on lap one when David Wagner crashed out, Moore gradually worked his way up the order to finish just 0.9 seconds shy of the top 12.In race two, he again made good progress by slicing his way through from 24th on the grid into 17th place ahead of a number of more experienced Formula Renault BARC competitors. Moores pace was impressive in both encounters, but especially the first in which he lapped just 0.5 seconds outside the fastest lap of all.Championship newcomer Matt Rao, making his slicks and wings debut just one week on from winning the Duratec Class title in the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain, delivered an impressive account of himself in the first race on Saturday.Qualifying 21st on the grid, within 0.9 seconds of pole position, Rao made good progress early in the race and took 16th just after mid-distance where he remained to the flag. In round 14, the series rookie raced impressively from 20th on the grid to climb into the top 14 by the end of lap eight but on the 16th tour he was tagged into retirement by Max Robinson at Becketts.

It was absolutely incredible to get Kieran up there on the podium in the final round of the BARC season, especially off the back of Pepe winning such an incredible race in the Ginettas, added Ollerenshaw, Kierans had a great season, with hardly any testing hes managed to produce some fantastic results which shows his quality.Struan is getting quicker all the time and has impressed us on only his second weekend in the Renault, hes certainly a fantastic prospect for next year and Matt did everything we could have asked on his debuthe was very unlucky in race two, just one of those things unfortunately.While the Protyre Formula Renault BARC season has now concluded, rounds 19 and 20 of the Ginetta Junior Championship, the final two races of the season, will take place at Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit two weeks from now on 20th/21st October.2012 Ginetta Junior Championship Driver Standings (after Rd18inc. drop scores):4th Pepe Massot, 342; 14th Freddie Lee, 64ptsFinal 2012 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship Driver Standings (inc. drop scores):5th Kieran Vernon, 236pts; 15th Jacob Nortoft, 87pts; 25th Marcus Allen, 31pts; 28th Struan Moore, 21pts; 32nd Matt Rao, 6pts

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