First year racing driver Oli Basey-Fisher wrapped-up his maiden season of action in the Ginetta Junior Championship with two consistently strong race performances at a rain-lashed Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit over the weekend, 20th/21st October, to end the year as the fourth-best rookie.
Making the step into car racing after winning last years Silverstone Ginetta Junior Scholarship, the 17-year-old has enjoyed an impressive maiden campaignone which delivered an outright podium finish on his first weekend in the championship and several other top five results along the way.
Posting ninth and eighth place results in two incredibly challenging outings this past weekend, the final rounds of the 2012 season, the Century Logistics-backed driver consolidated ninth position overall in the main standings and ended the season only 13 points adrift of the outright top eight.
Its been a great year, Ive had some good strong points, a podium and some top fives, and Ive really enjoyed every bit of the season, said Oli, I cant thank Ginetta enough for the Scholarship prize, I really have thoroughly enjoyed this year and wouldnt take it back for the world.
Were not sure what next year will hold yet, we just need to see if we can get the budget to move on and see if things pan out as wed like. This is motor racing though so until any deals are done, you never quite know whats going to happen!
Oli, who resides in Great Finborough in Suffolk, was seventh in pre-event testingwhich signalled his first ever run on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit. He was similarly strong in free practice on Saturday with the ninth quickest time and then repeated that performance in qualifying, taking ninth on the grid and lapping as the third fastest Rookie.
Slipping to 10th on lap one of the first encounter, the Tollbar Racing with WIRED driver passed William Palmer for ninth on lap three and remained there to the finish in a outing which proved very uneventfulOli finishing as fourth-best rookie and also posting a best lap just 0.7 seconds shy of the fastest of all.
Qualifying didnt quite go to plan unfortunately, I just didnt get the lap in I needed to and I lost three laps because of running wide so that wasnt good, explained Oli, I lost my rhythm a bit and never got the lap out of the car I knew I was capable of.
That made the weekend a lot harder than it needed to be. I got stuck behind Will [Palmer] in the first race but when I got by him on lap three Id lost a lot of ground to the others. Our times were promising though and by the end of the race I was almost with the next group.
In round 20 on Sunday, which took place in persistent rain and offered a stern test, Oli climbed into seventh place on the opening lap but went slightly wide at Graham Hill Bend while being hassled by the car of Pepe Massot on lap two. Dropping to eighth, the Tollbar racer hit back to take seventh but was then usurped by Palmer on the fourth tour.
However, Palmers advantage was short-lived when he crashed out in the gravel while pushing hard on lap five. Oli therefore moved back to seventh, prior to the appearance of the Safety Car, and when racing resumed for a final lap sprint he remained there to the finish.
Weve had interesting conditions all weekend, it was soaking wet on Friday, then dry on Saturday and wet again on Sunday, said Oli, Testing started off very promising, I just tried to find my feet in the first session and then in the second session I was sixth quickest so that was good.
Starting eighth in race two, I struggled a bit in the conditions as it was really tricky and there was quite a lot of understeer in the car. It was really greasy, we struggled for grip everywheregetting to the end and keeping the car in one piece ended up being half the aim!
Final 2012 Ginetta Junior Championship Driver Standings:9th Oli Basey-Fisher, 261pts
