Tollbar Racing’s Jake Hill moved back to the top of the 2010 Ginetta Junior Championship points table at Rockingham in Northamptonshire, Sunday, 25th April, thanks to a thoroughly dominant victory during the fourth round of the season.
Securing pole position for both of this weekend’s eight-lap encounters, the Kent 16-year-old missed out on the chance of aiming for a double win when an unfortunate spin on the opening lap of round three ruled him out of contention.
Fully making amends today though, Hill delivered a superb lights-to-flag performance to record his second victory of the campaign and, in doing so, move seven points clear of TJ Motorsport’s Louise Richardson and Hillspeed’s Tom Ingram in the title race.
“Yesterday was a bit disappointing but today was an amazing finish to the weekend”, said Hill, “The car has been working really well all weekend, big thanks to the guys at Tollbar, and I’m delighted I was able to get the win today. It’s fantastic to be on the top step of the podium again.”
Ingram and Richardson each enjoyed a successful weekend but their podium battle during today’s encounter was settled in the Clerk of the Course’s office when Ingram was adjudged to have gained an unfair advantage when passing Richardson for third place at Brook Chicane on the last lap.
Although Ingram visited the podium for the second time this year, he was later pushed back to fourth place by virtue of a four second time penalty. For Richardson, the result reversal marked her second podium of the weekend in what is quickly becoming a very impressive season.
Ahead of both was Alex Austin, the FML driver taking his second runner-up finish of the year with a fine drive from the third row of the grid. Racing strongly throughout, Austin – like Hill – was another to make amends for an unfortunate, and ultimately costly, spin during Saturday’s race.
Commenting, he said: “Yesterday was a bit unlucky, I should have had a podium then but after the spin I had to fight through from the back. I wanted to make up for that today and get a podium so I’m very happy to have done so.”
At the start of round four, Richardson made the best getaway in her Teenage Cancer Trust liveried Ginetta G40 from the outside of the front row but Hill held on to the lead on the inside of Turn One to seize the advantage heading to Deene Hairpin for the first time. From that point on, the race leader never looked back and opened up an eventual winning margin of almost five seconds.
Richardson lost second place to Austin at Chapman Curve on the opening lap while Ingram ran in fourth ahead of Chris Swanwick. On lap two, David Moore produced a good move under braking at Deene to grab fifth place but he and Swanwick made contact while dicing for position at Pif-Paf just three corners later, delaying both drivers. Moore bore the brunt of it, rejoining in 17th place.
While Hill extended his lead lap after lap and Austin, Richardson, Ingram, Jody Fannin and Tom Howard battled for the remaining podium places, Seb Morris – the youngest driver in the series – produced by far his best performance yet. Running as high as seventh position, the 14-year-old finished the race a fantastic eighth, just seven 10ths of a second behind the recovering Swanwick.
During the final couple of laps the fight over second position intensified with Ingram mounting a charge, posting the fastest lap of the race and new lap record of 1m38.832 seconds, and Austin working hard to keep hold of the runner-up spot.
Through Turn One of the oval on the final tour, Austin had to defend from Richardson which in turn gave Ingram the chance to close in through Yentwood and Pif-Paf. As the pair behind slowed each other up, Austin pulled clear to seal second place.
The fight for the last podium spot all came down to the final corner, Brook Chicane, where Ingram attempted a pass up the inside. As the Hillspeed driver made his way through into third, Richardson pitched into a spin at the exit but recovered in fourth position. Post-race though, the placings were reversed with Fannin next up in fifth and Howard sixth.
David Moore, championship leader after Saturday’s race, could only manage 13th position after an eventful encounter while older sibling Sarah – the reigning Ginetta Junior Champion – was just outside the top 10 in 11th place behind Jake Giddings and Adam Bonham.
Ginetta Junior Championship drivers and teams will be quickly back in action just a week from now, 1st/2nd May, at Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit in Kent for the fifth and sixth rounds of 2010.
Provisional 2010 Ginetta Junior Championship Positions (after Rd4):1st Jake Hill, 107pts; =2nd Tom Ingram & Louise Richardson, 100pts; 4th Alex Austin, 96pts; 5th David Moore, 86pts; 6th Tom Howard, 81pts
