Mark Davies heads to Knockhill this weekend, June 13/14, heading the Texaco Havoline Ginetta Championship but isn’t having it all his own way.
This year’s Texaco Havoline Ginetta Championship is proving to be as competitive as ever as the 1800cc Leeds-built cars return to Knockhill for the fifth and sixth races of the season. Mark Davies heads the title race by just 12 points from Andrew Smith but although Davies has the speed to have won more races, he has found himself making the odd error this season. Returning to racing at the end of last season, Davies looked to be the man to beat at Oulton Park, but an early spin in the season opener dropped him down the field. Although he fought back magnificently, he couldn’t shake off early leader Dominic Pettit who got ahead once more on the last lap and was ahead at the chequered flag. Mark made amends in race two but almost repeated the pattern at Rockingham: he spun away the lead of race one and won the second. Barring mistakes, he’ll be hard to beat here.
Opposition comes from Andrew Smith who bagged a win at Rockingham plus Dominic Pettit who has been an impressive graduate from the Ginetta Junior Championship to the quicker G20s this season. David Jackson’s experience of these cars is paying off this season as he has been a regular in the top six and lies third in the championship ahead of Pettit whose points tally suffered with a retirement at Rockingham when his car became a three-wheeler.
Russell McCarthy, brother of reigning champion Spencer, has had a frustrating start to his season, a non-score in the opening round after being involved in an accident blunting his challenge and a poor qualifying session at Rockingham meant that he had a lot of work to do during the two races to net a fifth and a sixth.
With the nature of Knockhill allowing no margin for error, expect some tremendously close racing this weekend. Whether Mark Davies can maintain his advantage remains to be seen but you can be sure that, even if he does, it won’t be easy.
The cars have a free practice session at 08:30 on Saturday June 13 and qualify at 13:05. Both races will be on Sunday June 14 at 11:15 and 15:05.
