CHAMPIONSHIP PENDULUM SWINGS FIRMLY IN COOK'S FAVOUR
Five wins from the last five races tells its own story for Ginetta Junior Championship with Henderson Insurance title contender Jake Cook – the TJ Motorsport racer extending his winning streak at Silverstone National Circuit this afternoon, Saturday, 29th August, to open up a healthy 33 point lead in the driver standings.
Fending off a spirited challenge from Tollbar Racing team-mates Chris Swanwick and Mitchell Hale, Cook’s seventh win of the year, coupled with a retirement for title rival Aaron Williamson and a fourth place finish for erstwhile series leader Sarah Moore, means the championship pendulum has swung firmly in his favour.
Although Cook set the pace ahead of Hale during this morning’s free practice session, in qualifying Swanwick secured a double pole position for rounds 15 and 16 with a best time of 1m13.006 seconds (80.82mph) to edge out Cook by a 10th of a second. Hale, meanwhile, was in touch with the third fastest time ahead of Moore, Austin and the returning Tom Ingram.
At the start of this afternoon’s 11-lap encounter Cook made a textbook getaway to move ahead of Swanwick on the run to Copse Corner, the pole-sitter slipping back into the clutches of Hale and Moore as the trio ran three abreast into the first turn.
Swanwick managed to hold second place but into lap two, Hale got superb drive out of Woodcote to catapult up the inside on the run to Copse and take the position. Behind, Austin was up to fifth after getting ahead of Moore while Williamson made impressive early progress by moving up into the top six from an uncharacteristically low starting slot of 10th place.
Cook tried to press home an advantage at the front and into lap three he led by eight 10ths of a second. Hale refused to let him get away though and on the following tour he lapped faster than the race leader to cut the gap to just six 10ths of a second. Meanwhile, Williamson moved past title rival Moore for fifth place – a potentially crucial move in the championship battle.
On lap five though, all of Williamson’s hard work was undone when his Muzz Racing car slowed to a hugely unfortunate retirement. Promoting Moore back into the top five, Williamson’s bad luck was good news for team-mate Jake Rattenbury who moved into sixth place.
As the race entered lap seven, Cook continued to defend the lead impressively with the top three well clear of the remainder of the pack. On the run out of Maggotts though, Hale got much better drive and into Brooklands he made his move to grab the lead for the first time.
Cook mounted a renewed challenge at the end of lap eight and after getting alongside Hale out of Luffield, the pair crossed the line into the ninth tour side-by-side with Cook edging back ahead into the lead into Copse.
Into the 11th and final lap Cook looked as though he would be able to cling onto his slim lead to take win number seven of the season, which he did. His quest was aided though by a moment for Hale which dropped the impressive youngster down to sixth place at the finish, a great shame for him after such a strong run.
Swanwick took second place with Austin making a welcome return to the podium in third, his first rostrum since round 10 at Croft. Moore ended the race in fourth ahead of Rattenbury in a season’s best fifth position.
Carl Stirling came through the order well from 13th on the grid into the top seven and headed home Ingram, Shane Stoney and Pippa Coleman, the latter enjoying an impressive return to action having been absent from the championship since a major accident at Oulton Park back in May.
Reflecting on yet another win in round 15, Cook said: “I got probably the best start I ever have today, I launched the car off the line, got ahead of Chris (Swanwick) before the first corner and defended for my life really!
“We haven’t been quite as quick as we’d hoped so far this weekend but we still managed to win the race which is obviously great. It was very hard though with the three of us all really close at the front. I did have a bit of understeer which hurt our pace a bit but in the end it’s been a really good day for us in the championship and now we have a good points cushion which is nice.”
Round 16 of the 2009 Ginetta Junior Championship with Henderson Insurance is timetabled to get underway at 14.45 tomorrow, Sunday, 30th August, and will be screened live on Freeview, cable and digital satellite channel ITV4.
Swanwick once again starts from pole position with Cook alongside him on the front row. Moore and Ingram will begin the race from the second row, ahead of Rattenbury and Hale, while Louise Richardson – who finished today’s race in 13th position – will start round 16 from seventh on the grid ahead of Williamson.
Provisional 2009 Ginetta Junior Championship with Henderson Insurance Positions (after Rd15):1st Jake Cook, 358pts; 2nd Sarah Moore, 325pts; 3rd Aaron Williamson, 318pts; 4th Alex Austin, 294pts; 5th Chris Swanwick, 246pts; 6th Mitchell Hale, 239pts
