Ginetta Junior Championship

JOSH IS KING OF THE HILL AT DONINGTONCar racing rookie Josh Hill dominated Ginetta Junior Championship qualifying at Donington Park National Circuit yesterday afternoon, Saturday, 3rd May, to secure his first ever pole position start in only his fourth race meeting.Lapping the Midlands venue in 1m 28.093 seconds (79.98mph) to qualify at the head of the grid for round seven, the Tollbar Racing sensation also earned pole for round eight with his second fastest time, 1m 28.308 seconds.Coupling his blinding pace with tremendous consistency to outpace his rivals by around four 10ths of a second in each instance, the 17-year-old motor racing newcomer – son of 1996 Formula One World Champion Damon Hill – was almost speechless after realising he had achieved not one, but two pole positions.“I’m really delighted, I didn’t expect to be on pole at all”, said Hill, “To have taken both pole positions is brilliant! I think it was just a case of everything falling into place at the right sort of time, it didn’t happen in practice but it happened in qualifying which is obviously when you need it!“I’m just going to go for it tomorrow, I’ll try my best to be first but we’ll have to wait and see how it finishes. I’m enjoying the championship but I didn’t expect to be fourth in the standings at this stage. If I can stay in the top five by the end of the season I’ll be very happy with that.”Lining up alongside Hill on the front row of the grid for the first of tomorrow’s races will be round two race winner George Richardson who, after a very difficult and luckless weekend at Rockingham last time out, will be aiming to get his season back on track.Lapping with a best time of 1m 28.433 seconds (79.67mph), Richardson was 0.340 seconds shy of the pole time but almost two 10ths of a second clear of championship leader Dino Zamparelli in third, his quickest a lap of 1m 28.611 seconds (79.51mph) on his penultimate run.Double Rockingham race winner Thomas Carnaby ended the 15-minute qualifying session just seven 1,000ths of a second further back with the fourth fastest time, 1m 28.618 seconds (79.51mph), while Aaron Williamson did a good job to finish in fifth, just ahead of Alice Powell in sixth.The fourth row of the grid will be headed by Daniel Lloyd, the BRDC Stars of Tomorrow scholarship winner’s best effort of the year, with Jake Farndon alongside him and Fergus Walkinshaw and Simon Austin rounding out the top 10 starters.Round eight will see Hill joined at the head of the grid by Zamparelli with Richardson and Carnaby sharing row two. Williamson and Walkinshaw comprise the third row, Dominic Pettit and Lloyd make up row four and the top 10 is completed by Farndon in ninth and Casey Watson 10th on the grid.

Supporting the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship, the Ginetta Juniors will race in front of a huge crowd at Donington Park tomorrow, Sunday, 4th May, with the first of the two races likely to be screened as-live on Freeview, cable and digital satellite channel ITV4 at some point during the five hour BTCC broadcast which begins at 12.30.Round seven of the Ginetta Junior Championship will take place at approximately 10.30 with round eight scheduled to follow at 17.25.Provisional 2008 Ginetta Junior Championship Positions (after Rd6)1st Dino Zamparelli, 178pts; 2nd Thomas Carnaby, 173pts; 3rd Jake Farndon, 112pts; 4th Josh Hill, 108pts; 5th Daniel Lloyd, 99pts; 6th Casey Watson, 90pts


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