Reigning Ginetta Junior Winter Series Champion Seb Morris ensured his main season title bid got off to the best possible start at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit today, Sunday, 3rd April, with two outstanding race wins giving him a provisional 15 point advantage over fellow front-runner Tom Howard.
Starting the new season as he concluded his 2010 programme, the Hillspeed 15-year-old impressed as did double podium finisher Howard – who battled through after a difficult qualifying run – and round one pole-sitter Jake Giddings, the latter missing out on a second rostrum in race two.
The FML driver wasn’t able to convert pole position into victory in the opener although he did give Morris a sterner test in round two, until he disappointingly spun off the circuit on the final lap of the race while pushing hard. Howard’s experience in Ginetta Junior paid dividends as he avoided trouble and came through to finish third and second for Tollbar in the two encounters while his team-mate, William Foster, secured his first podium in round two with a fine drive.
Away from the silverware, rookie Charlie Robertson – the youngest driver on the grid having only turned 14-years-of-age in January – made a huge impact with fourth and sixth place finishes along with the fastest lap in both races. The HHC driver also became, quite possibly, the youngest lap record holder in the country thanks to his time of 56.072 seconds (76.95mph) in race two.
In terms of the championship though, Morris put his stamp on things during the curtain-raiser to the 2011 season. He said: “It’s fantastic to win the first two races and to be leading the championship, everything worked out really well this weekend and we got just the start to the season we wanted.”
Action-packed Juniors star at Brands...No sooner had round one started than red flags were shown due to a multi-car tangle which resulted in half a dozen drivers coming to grief. While Morris scorched into the lead ahead of Giddings, contact between Myles Collins and Niall Murray triggered a chain reaction with Collins spearing into the barriers and Struan Moore, Eric Morris, Michael Day and Sennan Fielding all being caught out.
At the re-start, which Moore, Fielding and Collins were unable to take, Morris had to try and do it all again but Giddings made the best getaway at the second time of asking and led through Paddock Hill Bend on the inside. Foster rounded the first turn in third ahead of Brad Bailey and the two changed places into Surtees when Foster lost ground after attempting to pass second placed Morris.
Having rebuffed Foster’s move, Morris then served up a great pass at McLaren to take the lead and he proceeded to pull away. Bailey continued to hold third place but a spin soon followed on lap three at McLaren after receiving a helping hand from Foster as they diced. Howard therefore came into play in fourth ahead of Ginetta Junior Ireland Champion Murray and George Gamble.
Murray ran wide on lap five at Clearways, which dropped him to eighth, so this enabled rapid rookie Robertson to move into the top half dozen. At the front the gap started to grow between Morris and Giddings and also from the latter to Howard in third.In the end, Morris won by over three seconds with Giddings a further second to the good over Howard, the third placed finisher keeping at bay the spirited trio of Robertson, Foster and Gamble – Gamble did cross the line ahead of his two rivals in fourth but he received a post-race time penalty for passing under yellow flags.Speaking after round one, Giddings said: “I was frustrated at the start but at the re-start I made a better job of my getaway. I’m pretty happy with second place, I just want to try and get as many podiums as possible, enjoy them, and see what it does for the championship as the season goes on.”
Howard doubles-up as Foster secures first podium...For round two, Giddings led away from the outside of the front row ahead of pole-sitter Morris with Howard in third thanks to a great start from the third row. Giddings and Morris ran nose-to-tail with the leader defending his position well and his young rival constantly seeking a way by.
Another incident at Paddock Hill Bend though, involving the luckless Moore and Eric Morris among others, resulted in the Safety Car returning to the track. Giddings continued to hold the lead at the re-start with Morris and Howard edging ever closer and with no places changing it allowed Foster, Max Coates, Robertson and Gamble to latch on to the leading group.
Morris finally made his breakthrough on lap 10 with a good pass into Surtees and although Giddings hit back almost immediately at the start of lap 11, Morris regained the lead into the 14th tour. From that point on he managed to hold the advantage but Giddings’ hopes of a second podium went awry on the final lap with an unfortunate excursion into the gravel at Paddock.
Howard therefore took second place to lift him into second in the championship with Foster third, Coates fourth, Gamble fifth and Robertson sixth. Scholarship winner Fielding finished a lonely seventh, five seconds clear of Murray who recovered well after an early spin.
“It’s been good, two podiums this weekend is what we wanted so I’m happy with that”, said Howard, “It was tough in qualifying, I tend to over-drive too much and that costs me time, so I need to work on that to make things easier for myself in the races. Mike Flounders (Tollbar Racing team principal) is working with me to improve that though so I’m sure it’ll improve during the year.”
Foster added: “I’m very happy to be on the podium, that’s been the aim for the last two years so to get there is a great feeling – I can’t believe it really! Hopefully we’ll manage to get the finance to do the whole season and push for the championship.”
Donington Park in Leicestershire will host the second event of the 2011 season, rounds three and four, a fortnight from now over the weekend 16th/17th April.
Provisional 2011 Ginetta Junior Championship Positions (after Rd2):1st Seb Morris, 71pts; 2nd Tom Howard, 56pts; 3rd William Foster, 46pts; 4th Charlie Robertson, 42pts; 5th George Gamble, 38pts; 6th Max Coates, 34pts-
