Rounds nine and 10 of the Ginetta Junior Championship take place at Croft in North Yorkshire next weekend, 27th/28th June, where front-runner Matt Chapman is aiming to make his long-awaited podium breakthrough before the first half of the 2015 season draws to a close.
Although the opening four race meetings of the 15-year-old’s second year in cars have delivered mixed fortunes, the Total Control Racing driver’s pace has been clear to see and especially during the last two events at Thruxton and Oulton Park Island Circuit.
Setting the fastest lap of the weekend during round five at Thruxton in mid-May, and also taking a season-best seventh place, Matt went on to equal that result at Oulton a fortnight ago where he again displayed the sort of pace and racecraft which should have already delivered podium success.
While it is surely only a matter of time before the Oxford youngster visits the Ginetta Junior rostrum, Matt is determined to seal his first top three result at Croft – not least as the North East track is one of his favourite venues on the calendar.
Matt will arrive at Croft in 11th position in the championship and with consistently strong scores over the course of the last four races, which helped him move towards the top 10 in the standings, confidence is high of making serious inroads in relation to his closest rivals in the points table.
“I can’t wait for Croft, I really enjoy the track and we know we’re quick there so the hope is we can make a real push for our first podium”, he commented, “It’s one of my favourite circuits, it has a good mix of fast sections and more technical corners and the racing is always close. Hopefully we can repeat the pace we’ve shown already this year, but convert it into top results.
“The guys at TCR have done a great job with the car, it’s been fantastic to drive all year and we’ve just been a bit unlucky up to now. We need to nail qualifying, try and get on the first two rows, and from there we know we can run with the others at the front. If we can make a good start to the weekend, as we did in practice at Oulton, then I’m sure we can deliver some strong results.”
Pre-event testing at Croft will take place on Friday, 26th June, with an additional practice session following at 10.55 on Saturday, 27th June. Qualifying is scheduled for 14.40 with round nine getting underway at 17.55. Round 10 is timetabled to commence at 15.20 on Sunday, 28th June, and will be screened live on ITV4 with online streaming at www.itv.com/btcc
Provisional Ginetta Junior Championship Standings (after Rd8): 11th Matt Chapman, 87pts
