Robertson and Gamble share Ginetta Junior wins at Croft

‏Charlie Robertson and George Gamble took a win apiece at Croft in North Yorkshire on Sunday, 19th June, during two highly entertaining Ginetta Junior Championship races – Robertson quite possibly becoming the youngest ever winner of a car race in the UK.Aged 14 years and five months, the HHC Motorsport driver finished second to fellow first year rookie Gamble during round nine but bagged his maiden victory with an impressive drive in round 10 to move up to third in the championship standings. Robertson also set the new lap record in race one.Commenting on his breakthrough win, Robertson said: “This has been my ultimate goal as the year has gone on. We’ve been building up to it, we’ve had a few second places, but now we’ve taken the first win so I’m really happy. The car has been really, really good all weekend so a big thank you to the team for that.”Gamble and Robertson fought tooth and nail during the closing stages of the first of the day’s races, the latter managing to grab the lead at the Jim Clark Esses on the final lap before an unfortunate spin at the very next corner, Barcroft, dropped him back to second place. Gamble’s victory, over four seconds clear in the end, marked his second of the season – and fifth podium on the trot.Championship leader Seb Morris, meanwhile, heads into the summer break comfortable at the top of the driver standings with an 88 point cushion over nearest pursuer Gamble. Despite a pair of uncharacteristically low grid slots for both races this weekend, Morris underlined his pace and class with hard-fought fourth and fifth place finishes.Second win of season for GambleRound nine started on a drying track with Gamble making the best getaway from the outside of the front row to move ahead of pole-sitter Robertson. Brad Bailey, who had qualified an excellent third, looked to try and pass Robertson up the inside into Clervaux but he glanced the kerbs and rotated into a spin. His moment also caught-out Niall Murray, Jake Giddings and Oliver Chadwick.Into lap two, Gamble’s lead was an impressive 1.6 seconds from Robertson while Morris had sliced through the order like a hot knife through butter – rising from 11th place at the start to third. William Foster held fourth ahead of Max Coates, Sennan Fielding and the recovered Giddings. At the chicane though, a moment involving Fielding and Giddings dropped both down the order.By lap four the top two were nose-to-tail with Robertson swarming all over the back of Gamble’s Ginetta G40 but at the end of that same tour, third placed Morris was the one looking to make inroads as he attempted to take second position at the hairpin.Momentarily edging alongside Robertson out of the final corner, the latter had the line for Clervaux into lap five and so retained second. This battle enabled Gamble to increase his advantage again at the front but Robertson once again closed him down as he broke clear of Morris who was by this point coming under pressure himself from Foster.Pairing off into individual two-car battles, Robertson set the fastest lap and new lap record on the seventh tour before serving up a stunning pass for the lead at the Jim Clark Esses on the eighth and final lap – but that was undone with a spin mere yards later.Gamble took the win in the end by 4.6 seconds from Robertson with Foster seeing off Morris for third place, the championship leader run out onto the grass at Tower on the last lap. He took fourth some seven seconds clear of Coates while Tom Howard rounded out the top six.Speaking on his victory, Gamble said: “It’s fantastic to be on the top step of the podium again, our second win of the year is great. I only set out to be the top rookie after every race so to get another win is more than we had hoped for.”Robertson ends first half of season with debut winRound 10 looked likely to be another fight between Robertson and Gamble but the surprise at the start was a rocket-ship getaway by Howard from fourth on the grid. Surging bravely around the outside of the front-row starters through Clervaux, the Tollbar driver grabbed the lead and remained there until lap five when Robertson got by on the brakes at Tower Bend.Behind the top two, round nine winner Gamble dropped out of contention fairly early on so the fight for third ensued between Foster and Murray. Further back in the fight for fifth place, Giddings and Morris were in close company but contact led to a spin for Morris and a drop down the order, from which he battled back brilliantly to take a superb top five finish.Howard tried to stay with race leader Robertson as the pair continued to press on but more contact occurred further back when Gamble was turned around out of fifth place by Giddings at the hairpin – Bailey also got caught up in the melee.Into the closing stages of the race, Robertson managed the gap to Howard well to secure a superb and very well deserved first victory with second place for Howard, just 1.5 seconds adrift, marking his fourth podium of the year.Foster took third place once more to notch-up a good double podium for the weekend with Murray only a shade behind in fourth ahead of Morris. Sixth place, meanwhile, went to Myles Collins – the result matching his previous best of the season – while seventh for Struan Moore marked a career best for the Jersey driver who had never seen Croft prior to Saturday morning’s free practice.There are now seven long weeks to wait until the next instalment of Ginetta Junior Championship action with rounds 11 and 12 of the season taking place at Snetterton in Norfolk over the weekend 6th/7th August.Provisional 2011 Ginetta Junior Championship Positions (after Rd10):1st Seb Morris, 318pts; 2nd George Gamble, 230pts; 3rd Charlie Robertson, 211pts; 4th William Foster, 207pts; 5th Tom Howard, 185pts; 6th Max Coates, 171pts

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