Charlie Robertson made a welcome return to the Ginetta Junior Championship podium during rounds nine and 10 of the season at Croft in North Yorkshire on Sunday, 24th June, to consolidate his top three placing in the driver standings.Signing-off the first half of the campaign with third in race one and the runner-up spot in the second encounter, the Whyteleafe driver goes into the seven week summer sojourn just 21 points shy of the championship lead.“I’m really pleased with the weekend, we’ve taken some good points in the championship and a third and a second isn’t bad at all”, said Charlie, “We’re exactly halfway through the season, there are 10 races to go and it’s still all to play for.”Although light rain midway through qualifying on Saturday, 23rd June, affected a lap which looked to be good enough for pole position, Charlie wasn’t all that disappointed with fourth and third place starts and knew he had the pace to be a serious contender in each of the weekend’s races.Holding position at the start of round nine, the 15-year-old was challenged around the outside into the first corner, Clervaux, but he managed to see-off the threat and set about pressuring title rival Niall Murray for third.Latching onto the tail of the Irishman, Charlie was well placed on lap two to mount an attack and after getting a fantastic run through Barcroft he pounced at Sunny In to claim the place. With just under a couple of seconds to make up on the leaders, the Investigo and Ria Capital Markets-backed racer zeroed in and by lap five the top four were pretty much nose-to-tail.At Clervaux the next time around, Charlie sliced inside Pepe Massot for second but he caught the kerbs fairly heavily which unsettled the car and dropped him to fourth. The podium wasn’t lost though as the HHC Motorsport driver produced a classic cut-back at Tower, putting him in an ideal position to get a run on Murray for third into the daunting Jim Clark Esses.Producing an outstanding pass through the flat-out left-right sequence, Charlie sealed the position into Sunny In but on lap eight, the last of the race, a late dive by Murray into the hairpin knocked Charlie’s car wide and demoted him to fourth. Post-race though, the order was reversed by officials who rightly deemed Murray had gained an unfair advantage.The Caterham School pupil made another good start in round 10 and held third place until lap five when he was able to edge past Murray for second. During the last four laps, Charlie set about reeling in leader Sennan Fielding and on the final tour there was nothing between them as they headed into the complex for the last time. Fielding just had enough in hand though to edge it by 0.4 seconds.“With one more lap I think we could have had Sennan [Fielding] as I caught him up really quickly on the last lap”, said Charlie, “There’s nothing to be disappointed about though this weekend really, two podiums is good and keeps us in the championship top three which is important.”Snetterton in Norfolk will host rounds 11 and 12 of the Ginetta Junior Championship, the start of the second half of the 2012 season, seven weeks from now over the weekend 11th/12th August.2012 Ginetta Junior Championship Driver Standings (after Rd10):3rd Charlie Robertson, 241pts

Click here for the Official Charlie Robertson web site - designed and built by Racecar