AND TCR IN RAIN-HIT GINETTA JUNIOR WINTER SERIES
First year car racers Dave Wooder and Connor Grady each celebrated richly deserved podium success for Total Control Racing during the four round Ginetta Junior Winter Series at Snetterton 300 Circuit over the weekend, 7th/8th November – although the Wednesbury squad was somewhat frustrated to have missed out on challenging for the championship title.
Going into the rain-affected opening day of the race meeting on the back-foot after missing wet weather testing, Wooder and Grady still went on to conclude the hotly contested campaign fourth and sixth in the driver standings respectively.
Grady was the first to chalk-up the first outright podium of his debut year in cars with an excellent third place in round one on Saturday morning, while Wooder matched the result in the series’ final contest on Sunday.
“It’s great to have been on the podium with both Connor and Dave, but we should have been fighting for the championship really this weekend”, said TCR team principal Lee Brookes, “We went into it thinking we could do it but we ended up on the back-foot on Saturday in the rain as we didn’t test in the wet. So we had to make changes during qualifying and races, which is never ideal.
“Both lads did really well though, Connor showed some really good pace and it was great to see him on the podium for the first time. Dave proved his pace and should really have been on for the title, it didn’t work out in the end but they both showed what they can do and made great progress.”
Qualifying on Saturday took place on a wet track and Wooder ended up with the seventh fastest time, with Grady also qualifying in the top 10. While the former unfortunately slipped to 12th on a busy opening lap to round one, Grady enjoyed an excellent start to climb through into the top six.
With track conditions remaining very challenging, the TCR duo impressed and by the end of lap two Grady had gained another place to move into the top five while Wooder was up into ninth position and recovering strongly.
Edging closer to the cars ahead, Grady had the pace to challenge for the podium and on the penultimate lap the first year car racer leapt into the top three. Maintaining third place to the flag at the end of lap six, Grady deservingly secured his maiden Ginetta podium after a fantastic drive.
After a tight battle with Billy Monger, Wooder made his way into eighth place on lap four and although slipping back behind his rival a lap later he moved up the order into seventh due to dramas for a couple of others. Holding seventh into the final lap, the TCR youngster gained two more places on the last tour to claim a hard earned top five result.
Resulting in third and fifth place grid slots for Grady and Wooder for round two on Saturday afternoon, the latter was again unfortunately caught-up in some opening lap drama which led to a drop down the order into 17th place.
Needing to mount yet another spirited fightback, Wooder did just that and had already regained four positions before the end of lap two. Breaking back into the top 10 before the conclusion of the penultimate lap, he grabbed two more places on the final tour to secure a hard-earned eighth place and impressively posted the fastest lap by some margin with a time of 2m38.385 seconds.
Grady held his top three grid placing initially but on lap three he was elbowed back to fifth in a very tight battle over the podium positions. Remaining close behind the top three scrap, Grady ultimately ended the race in fifth position.
Qualifying on Sunday morning for round three took place on a wet track once again and, despite a red flag interruption late on, Wooder secured the second fastest time with a terrific performance and only missed out on pole position by 0.181 seconds. Grady, meanwhile, qualified seventh.
Edged back to fourth on the opening lap, Wooder managed to break back into the podium placings on the second tour and remained in third position until the penultimate lap when relegated to fourth again. Then, on the last lap, the TCR racer was frustratingly shuffled down to seventh.
From the fourth row of the grid, Grady was edged back to eighth and then down to 12th position during a busy first couple of laps but he managed to work his way back into the top 10 into the second half of the race before slipping to 11th spot before the conclusion on lap six.
Wooder certainly saved the best for last in the dry final round with a superb drive from seventh on the grid to the podium – helping him seal a top four championship finish. Rocketing into the top five on lap one, he moved into fourth place the next time around as the lead quartet closed up.
Making the most of the opportunity, he sliced his way through into second position on lap four and also set fastest lap at that point. Although challenged by Lewis Brown into the last lap, and elbowed back to third as a result, Wooder maintained the placing to the flag to claim his maiden outright podium in cars and finish the race only 0.2 seconds shy of the winner in a rapid sprint to the flag.
Team-mate Grady ended the championship with a ninth position finish to secure a top six placing in the driver standings. From the sixth row of the grid, the first year Ginetta racer climbed into the top 10 on the opening lap and stayed there into the last tour when he was able to grab ninth spot.
Provisional 2015 Ginetta Junior Winter Series Standings:4th Dave Wooder, 77pts; 6th Connor Grady, 68pts
