Ginetta Junior Championship leader Seb Morris increased his advantage at the top of the standings with a maximum haul of points from round three of the season at Donington Park, Saturday, 16th April, by taking an impressive third victory on the trot.
Although never headed throughout the first of the weekend’s two races in the East Midlands, the Hillspeed 15-year-old did have to work to maintain his unbeaten start to 2011 with an early Safety Car period wiping out the three second lead he had built over the first three laps.
Managing to pull away from his pursuers once again though when the action resumed on lap seven, Morris went on to take a controlled win by just over two seconds to increase his points tally to 108 – the Welsh teenager some 36 points clear of closest challenger Charlie Robertson.
The HHC Motorsport rookie, at just 14 years and three months the youngest driver competing at present as part of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship package, starred on only his second weekend in cars with a fabulous runner-up spot.
Qualifying on the front-row alongside Morris, and missing out on a maiden pole position by just 0.043 seconds, Scotsman Robertson marked himself out as a future race winner in the making with a terrific performance ahead of a number of much more experienced rivals – backing up a superb debut at Brands Hatch just a fortnight ago.
Another star performer was third placed finisher Niall Murray, the reigning Ginetta Junior Ireland Champion and brother of former touring car racer Eoin. Qualifying strongly with the third fastest time, the 16-year-old Irishman came through an action-packed battle for the final podium spot to take a deserved third place for Beacon Racing.
Speaking on his intact winning streak and bolstered series lead, Morris said: “It’s always the aim to try and win so to take another one is great. I just had to stay calm, especially after the Safety Car, remain cool and keep my head. The team did a good job setting up the car, hopefully we can carry this through to tomorrow and go for another win.”
Delight for Morris, Robertson and Murray...despair for GiddingsAt the start of the scheduled 11-lapper, pole-sitter Morris and Robertson made even getaways with Morris just holding on to the lead through Redgate by keeping a tight inside line. Through the first turn Murray managed to make his way past Robertson into second place but as they squabbled, it enabled the series leader to pull out a significant early advantage.
Some 1.6 seconds clear of second placed Murray at the start of lap two, Morris appeared to be well in control while Robertson managed to hold on to third despite a few small errors which caused him to run wide on a couple of occasions. Tollbar’s Williams Foster held fourth ahead of George Gamble for TJ Motorsport and Tollbar’s Tom Howard.
Another moment dropped Robertson to fourth behind Gamble on the second tour but worse was to follow for Howard and Ginetta Scholarship Winner Sennan Fielding, the pair ending their respective races in the gravel at the chicane.
This resulted in a three-lap Safety Car period, negating the three second-plus lead Morris had carved out. At the re-start on lap seven the leader made no mistakes but, just behind, Murray ran wide exiting Redgate which enabled Robertson and Gamble to move through in that order.
Robertson ran within 0.7 seconds of Morris into lap eight after posting the fastest lap of the race but the championship pace-setter grabbed the new lap record two laps later with a time of 1m23.875 seconds (84.94mph) to press home his lead.
With the top two unchanged to the finish – which came by way of a red flag stoppage at the start of lap 13 due to Brad Bailey going off at the chicane – the fight for third increased in ferocity with Murray eventually winning out ahead of Foster, Gamble and privateer Max Coates.
Fellow privateer Finlay Ractliffe took seventh on his return to the category, having missed the Brands Hatch event, to head home the trio of Michael Day, Patrick McClughan and Jake Giddings. For FML driver Giddings, the 10th place finish came at the end of a torrid couple of days.
With all manner of gremlins limiting his practice and qualifying running, he fought through superbly from 18th place on the grid to rise into the top five by lap 10 but a late-race spin out of the chicane dropped him back down the order to cap off a thoroughly frustrating start to the weekend.
Second placed finisher Robertson said: “It’s been really good, I’ve made some small mistakes but that’s mainly down to my inexperience. I think getting a second place on only my second ever race weekend in cars is really good. I managed to convert qualifying into a good result and hopefully I can do the same tomorrow.”
Fellow rostrum debutant Murray added: “It’s brilliant to be on the podium here, our hopes weren’t set too high being our first season in the championship but we do plan on trying to get at least one win. To be on the podium in the third race of the year is great. I’m confident I can get a win, I know it’s going to come. We start fifth tomorrow so we’ll see how it goes.”
Round four of the 2011 Ginetta Junior Championship will take place at 12.15 Sunday, 17th April, and will be screened live on Freeview, digital satellite and cable channel ITV4, on the ITV4 HD channel and online at itv.com/touringcars
Provisional 2011 Ginetta Junior Championship Positions (after Rd3):1st Seb Morris, 108pts; 2nd Charlie Robertson, 72pts; 3rd William Foster, 62pts; 4th Tom Howard, 56pts; 5th Max Coates, 52pts; 6th George Gamble, 49pts
