PERFECT ROCKINGHAM WEEKEND FOR CARNABY CLOSES UP TITLE RACETollbar Racing’s Thomas Carnaby is just five points shy of the top of the 2008 Ginetta Junior Championship standings after what can only be described as a perfect weekend for him at Rockingham in Northamptonshire.Taking his second win on the bounce during the sixth round of the season on Sunday, 13th April, Carnaby also posted the fastest lap of the race and started from pole position to make it a clean sweep. Added to an identical maximum score on Saturday during round five, he is now within striking distance of Cadwell Park dominator Dino Zamparelli.“I’d been to Rockingham just once before and Tollbar, as a team, were very quick”, said Carnaby, “I’ve always loved circuits that are fast and Rockingham plays to what I like. I knew this weekend could be one of the best we’d had and after going well in practice we kept it up in qualifying by taking pole position for both races and then the two wins.“It’s been good, I’ve really been wanting this kind of result so I’m very happy. I don’t want to be at all unrealistic but if we can keep going like this then I’d like to think we can fight for the top three in the championship – that’s what I’d like!”At the start of Sunday’s race, it was second placed Zamparelli who looked set to nose into the lead on the approach to Turn One but a missed gear saw him lose a fistful of places. Carnaby, meanwhile, made the most of the opportunity and he rapidly scurried away at the front to open up a substantial early lead.Behind the two leaders, the rest of the starting order looked slightly different than planned due to third-placed qualifier George Richardson pulling out ahead of the race following on from his contact with the Rockingham Oval wall during Saturday’s outing.Alice Powell made a good getaway from fifth on the grid and at Deene Hairpin on the first lap she was embroiled in a tight scrap for second place with the even faster starting Aaron Williamson, who rose from eighth.Williamson edged ahead out of Deene but later in the lap at Tarzan, Powell made her move up the inside and after drifting wide on the exit, contact with Williamson resulted in the latter retiring from the race.Into lap two, the round five victor already held an advantage of more than three seconds over the pursuing pack, headed by Josh Hill with Alice Powell in third and Zamparelli in fourth place.As Zamparelli nipped past Powell through Turn One on lap three, so Hill took the opportunity to push as he attempted to close the gap to Carnaby which had grown to over four seconds. By the end of the lap though, championship leader Zamparelli had made his move by taking second place at the Brook Chicane.The battle for runner-up honours allowed Carnaby to only increase his already huge lead. Hill moved into second position at Yentwood but then Zamparelli fought back and with three laps remaining he began to stamp his authority by moving ahead. Third placed Hill then came under attack from Powell and Jake Farndon, the latter managing to get through into fourth with Powell in fifth, Daniel Lloyd in sixth and Dominic Pettit in seventh place.Problems for Powell on lap seven saw her fall back down the order but she still managed to finish in eighth place. On the same lap, Pettit got ahead of Lloyd into Tarzan.The close fight between Hill and Farndon raged on to the end with the pair split by less than four 10ths of a second at the chequered flag. On the eighth and final lap of the 1.94-mile track, the pair raced side-by-side from Deene to Yentwood and then, into Tarzan, Hill put his car up the inside.This meant he was on the outside for Brook Chicane though and so Farndon was able to get the drive he wanted out of the final corner to just edge out his rival for the last podium place – the result ensuring the rostrum was identical to that of Saturday’s race.Pettit finished fifth, Lloyd in sixth and Nick Ponting was seventh ahead of the recovering Powell. Carnaby’s winning margin, meanwhile, was an impressive 7.570 secondsRounds seven and eight of the 2008 Ginetta Junior Championship will take place three weeks from now on 3rd/4th May at Leicestershire’s Donington Park National Circuit.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