HHC Motorsport made another step towards its first win of the season in the Ginetta Junior Championship as it celebrated a podium finish at Oulton Park.

The team, running three cars in the Junior series for the first time this season, enjoyed a career-equalling best of second place for Charlie Robertson, 10th for Mikey Day and 11th for new team driver Patrick McClughan.

Charlie qualified fourth for the opening race but made a great start and latched on to the tail of George Gamble who was running second. Charlie confidently caught and passed George Gamble at the hairpin but by then, race-leader Seb Morris was well clear leaving Charlie in second place, setting the second fastest lap of the race in his chase. Third on the grid for race two, Charlie’s race – and car- took a hit at Cascades when he was clipped by a rival and spun off. With wet tyres fitted, Charlie mastered the wet-but-drying conditions to fight up to fourth place on his Oulton Park debut.

Mikey, another Oulton Park rookie, lined up 12th for race one and made an excellent start to run in seventh place, against more experienced drivers. Eventually, though, experience told and Mikey was forced wide, allowing the pack to slip past him for position and he was 14th at the flag. He raced hard in the second event, up from 12th on the grid to run in the top six using his stock car experience with some fantastic ‘round the out side manovers’ and keeping a train of cars at bay, but contact from a pushy competitor allowed the pack to wriggle by and Mikey took 10th place.

Paddy joined the team for Oulton Park and brought with him his existing car and data. The first time Paddy had driven the HHC Motorsport set up and me the team was on the Friday practice and a combination of a shortened first session and a inherited gremlin with Paddy’s new car ment it was all to do in quali and the races.

Paddy ran sixth in qualifying before others banged in a quicker lap at the very end of the session. He started 10th, an impressive effort, and finished 11th after a hard forght debut run with HHC Motorsport. Race two was frustrating, though, as contact with another car forced Paddy into the pits for damage to be repaired. Once on track, though, he flew and set the third fastest lap of the race, but too much time had been lost in the pits for him to challenge for honours.

Team principal Charlie Kemp said: “The pace we have demonstrated this weekend is very impressive and to take away a podium finish is a great result. Two of our drivers where new to Oulton Park and the other was new to the team. What is most encouraging is that all the drivers are making big leaps forward, in pace, ability and ultimately mastering what it takes to put together a winning race weekend this season.”