in the Texaco Havoline Ginetta Championship

Mark Davies enjoyed a successful weekend with a win and a second place at Knockhill to secure the lead of the Texaco Havoline Ginetta Championship yesterday, June 14.

Qualifying

Dominic Pettit bagged pole position, just nine-thousandths of a second quicker than Mark Davies at the end of qualifying. Andrew Smith and Freddie Hetherington locked out row two, Cheshire driver Hetherington celebrating his best qualifying effort, ahead of Alex Dziurzynski and David Jackson. Regular front-runner Julian Barratt could do no better than seventh fastest whilst tyre dramas put Sean Huyton, on his Knockhill debut, to the back of the grid.

Race one

Dominic Pettit made the best getaway as the lights went out for race, his Dominant Motorsport-run car leading from Mark Davies (Optimum Motorsport) and Julian Barratt’s Reflex Racing car. As Barratt challenged for a place at the Hairpin on the opening lap he ran wide and lost time, allowing Davies to concentrate on attacking Pettit for the race lead. Barratt’s error caused him to fall down the order as David Jackson (Optimum Motorsport) moved up to third chased by Andrew Smith (Optimum Motorsport). Having fallen to fifth, the recovering Barratt found himself defending from Alex Dziurzynski.

Davies made a challenge for the lead crossing the start and finish line and, as the two squabbled, the Jackson and Smith fight tagged itself onto them making it a four-way fight for honours. Behind them, a superb battle raged for fifth place as Freddie Hetherington (Optimum Motorsport), Barratt and Dziurzynski slugged it out.

However, the face of the race was soon changed dramatically as a number of drivers were penalised for corner cutting. With Knockhill having a number of low kerbs at the entrance and exit if corners, a number of drivers were using them as part of the racing line and after excessive use were deemed to be gaining an advantage.

Race leader Pettit was one of those drivers to be penalised and was forced to serve a drive through penalty allowing Davies up into the lead from Smith and Jackson with a charging Barratt desperate to get back on to terms with the leading trio. Pettit’s race was to go from bad to worse as he was also pinged for speeding in the pit lane when he served his drive-through penalty and dropped even further down the field. He resumed in seventh but gained a top six finish on the last lap when Barratt retired. He took the flag behind the smoky car of Sean Huyton (Academy Motorsport) who had worked up from the rear of the grid after tyre problems in qualifying.

For Davies, it was a third win of the season with Andrew Smith and David Jackson rounding out the podium finishers.

Race two

Pettit had a chance to turn the tables later in the day in the second race. Davies led off the line, with Pettit slotting behind for second place ahead of Jackson and Smith. Dominic made his move at the Hairpin at the end of the opening lap and moved into the lead, as further back, Julian Barratt secured fifth from Alex Dziurzynski. As Barratt shook off the former Volkswagen racer, Freddie Hetherington took up the fight and stayed glued to Barratt who had set the fastest lap of the early part of the race.

At the front, Pettit and Davies traded the lead with Barratt doing his utmost to close on Smith for third place, but the top three were building up a secure lead over Barratt and the chasing pack.

The fourth placed battle involved Barratt, Jackson and Hetherington, with the impressive George Murrells (Techlightenment) catching up as well. Before long he was in the midst of the pack, attacking Barratt who, in turn, had slipped behind Jackson once more.

By half distance, Davies was on the tail of Pettit and applying pressure as Smith was catching thanks to the leaders holding each other up. He couldn’t sustain the pace, however, and fell back as the leaders continued their private duel. Starting the last lap, Pettit and Davies were together, but Dominic hung on for a second win of the season by a narrow margin from Davies and Smith.

George Murrells’ fine showing came to an early end when he retired after a clash with Freddie Hetherington for fourth place at the Hairpin, allowing David Jackson to take the place despite the attentions of Huyton and Hetherington who worked their way onto his tail.