Kake Hill secured his third win of the 2010 Ginetta Junior Championship season at his home track, Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit, on Sunday, 2nd May, with a dominant lights-to-flag performance from pole position.
The Tollbar driver’s victory came as a timely response to an exclusion from the results of Saturday’s fifth round of the campaign – his fourth place finish in the first of the weekend’s encounters taken away after officials adjudged Hill to be at fault for a collision with Sarah Moore.
Heading into round six more determined than ever to win, Hill was never truly tested throughout the seven laps and although a Safety Car period in the wet conditions did reduce his initial advantage he still managed to press home a four second winning margin.
In terms of the championship battle, Hillspeed’s Tom Ingram assumed the points lead thanks to a combination of his second podium of the weekend – a fine second place finish to Hill – and also the non-scoring exclusion of his main rival from the first encounter.
Hill made a better getaway at the start than fellow front-row qualifier Louise Richardson while, behind, round five winner Jody Fannin moved into second ahead of Alex Austin, Tom Howard and Ingram – Richardson slipping down the order after a robust few corners. Fannin’s race came to a swift conclusion though on lap one following a moment on the Grand Prix loop.
Into lap two, Hill’s lead was already a very impressive 2.6 seconds with Austin now second and Howard in third, although the latter was under serious pressure from Ingram. Further behind though, contact on the exit of Clark Curve between Seb Morris, Adam Bonham and William Foster led to the deployment of the Safety Car.
At the re-start on lap five, and with the race limited to 15 minutes rather than an eight lap distance due to the pressing time constraints of the raceday schedule, Hill managed to keep Austin at bay but the latter’s hopes of a podium were dashed when he had a spin at Surtees.
This delayed Howard and allowed Ingram to move through into second place with Sarah Moore fourth, sibling David in fifth and Chris Swanwick holding sixth for Team Parker Racing. On lap six though, Richardson made her way past Swanwick and she also benefitted from contact between Sarah Moore and Howard as they diced over third position.
Ruling Howard out on the spot, Eurotech Racing’s Moore rejoined but finished in 10th position behind Jake Giddings who slipped out of the top six earlier in the race while duelling with the 2009 title winner.
Lap seven turned out to be the last of the race and heading into the final 2.3 miles of action, Hill – who set the fastest lap on the sixth tour – didn’t put a wheel wrong in the difficult conditions to claim a well deserved win.
Ingram raced hard to second place, the result giving him a 12-point championship lead over Hill, while the increasingly consistent David Moore took third ahead of Richardson after Swanwick retired on the last lap. Bonham recovered in fifth place with a strong drive ahead of Maverick Domene, Max Coates and a disappointed Austin.
Speaking after the win, Hill said: “Today was yet another great Sunday for me, I’m really happy to win again and it makes up for yesterday. It really was a battle in the conditions but my car was set-up perfectly and I managed to get a good lead and disappear. It might not have been all that spectacular for the spectators but results like this are what you need to win championships.”
New points leader Ingram added: “It was definitely a very difficult race, it was all about keeping the car on the track. The best thing I did was to try and pull a gap and stay out of trouble. It was the same for Jake (Hill), as soon as he pulled clear at the front I knew he’d stay there. Now we need to work hard to try and raise more sponsorship so we can race at Oulton Park in a few weeks.”
Third placed David Moore said: “The conditions were pretty horrendous, in the tow of people you couldn’t see a thing and I just went into corners waiting to see brake lights come on so I could judge where I was. It’s good to get another podium, the main thing is to bag points in every race and see where it goes. We’re definitely in with a chance of fighting for the championship.”
Oulton Park Island Circuit in Cheshire will host the fourth event of the Ginetta Junior Championship season five weeks from now, 5th/6th June.
Provisional 2010 Ginetta Junior Championship Positions (after Rd6):1st Tom Ingram, 157pts; 2nd Jake Hill, 145pts; 3rd David Moore, 134pts; 4th Louise Richardson. 122pts; 5th Tom Howard, 111pts; 6th Alex Austin, 110pts
