It was another triple header for the Ginetta Junior field at Rockingham. Championship contenders Stuart Middleton and Will Tregurtha took the first two wins of the weekend, with Elite Motorsport taking the win in race three.
Race One
Tregurtha had dominated qualifying, taking pole position by more than half a second, whilst championship rival Stuart Middleton would be starting race one back in fourth but he wouldn’t be there for long. Eight laps doesn’t give the teenagers a lot of time to make their way up through the field, so Middleton would have to move fast.
A poor start for Tregurtha dropped him out of the lead of the race as second place starter Lewis Brown jumped into the lead of the race. Middleton was also on the move. It took the Douglas Motorsport driver less than half a lap to get up into second and he was only two tenths of a second behind Brown as they crossed the line for the first time.
Brown wouldn’t stay in the lead for long, with Middleton sweeping past him on the second lap and Tregurtha moving back past the HHC Motorsport driver on the third lap.
Middleton couldn’t shake his challengers, with Tregurtha and Brown sticking to the back of his Ginetta all race. Towards the end of the eight laps, Seb Priaulx joined the chasers, but Middleton defended well, taking his sixth win of the season.
Race Two
With tornadoes and thunderstorms causing chaos at Rockingham Saturday afternoon, the second Ginetta junior race was postponed until Sunday morning.
Middleton’s race one win put him on pole for race two with Tregurtha alongside him. The battle from race one was briefly paused as Lewis Brown moved past Tregurtha on the opening lap but the championship leader didn’t take long to take the place back.
As Tregurtha slipped past Middleton and into the lead of the race, Brown lost out to Seb Perez. The top three pulled away from the rest of the pack whilst Harry King moved into the “best of the rest” spot.
Middleton couldn’t keep Tregurtha under the same amount of pressure as the championship leader had put on him in race one, falling further and further away from the HHC Motorsport driver as he was forced to defend against Perez. Perez couldn’t find a way past Middleton and would have to settle for third, his second podium of the season.
Race Three
It was a partially reversed grid for the final race of the weekend, which put Elite Motorsport’s Tom Wood on pole with team mate Harry King alongside him.
King managed to get past his team mate off of the line and slowly began to pull away from Wood, who had Perez to fight against. Middleton, who started fifth, pulled out all the stops on the opening lap to try and gain an advantage. The Douglas Motorsports driver attempted a move around the outside of the pack at Deene, but couldn’t pull it off and dropped to the back of the field after a spin.
Perez snatched second from the Elite Motorsport driver on the second lap, only for Wood to take the place back a few laps later. The Elite Motorsport drivers both began to pull away from the rest of the field, and the main battle was a three way fight for third place. Brown and Tregurtha caught up with Perez and the trio swapped places during the second half of the race, but it was Perez who would take the final step of the podium.
King eventually crossed the line to take the win. It’s his second win but his first time on the top step of the overall podium.
Tregurtha now has a fifty five point lead over Middleton, who has a gap of over eighty points to third place driver Brown.
Results
Race One
1 – Stuart Middleton – Douglas Motorsport
2 – Will Tregurtha – HHC Motorsport
3 – Lewis Brown – HHC Motorsport
4 – Seb Priaulx – JHR Deveopments
5 – Seb Perez – JHR Developments
6 – Harry King – Elite Motorsport
7 – Dave Wooder – Total Control Racing
8 – Kyle Hornby – JHR Develipments
9 – Connor Grady – Total Control Racing
10 – Max Bird – Total Control Racing
11 – Charlie Fagg – HHC Motorsport
12 – Tom Wood – Elite Motorsport
13 – Geri Nicosia – JHR Developments
14 – Daniel Harper – Douglas Motorsport
15 – Greg Johnson – Rob Boston Racing
16 – Jordan Collard – Total Control Racing
17 – Charlie Digby – HHC Motorsport
18 – Connor O’Brien – Optimum Motorsport
19 – Jenson Dineen – JHR Developments
Race Two
1 – Will Tregurtha – HHC Motorsport
2 – Stuart Middleton – Douglas Motorsport
3 – Seb Perez – JHR Developments
4 – Lewis Brown – HHC Motorsport
5 – Harry King – Elite Motorsport
6 – Tom Wood – Elite Motorsport
7 – Daniel Harper – Douglas Motorsport
8 – Geri Nicosia – JHR Developments
9 – Connor Grady – Total Control Racing
10 – Charlie Fagg – HHC Motorsport
11 – Jordan Collard – Total Control Racing
12 – Kyle Hornby – JHR Develipments
13 – Max Bird – Total Control Racing
14 – Greg Johnson – Rob Boston Racing
15 – Dave Wooder – Total Control Racing
16 – Seb Priaulx – JHR Deveopments
17 – Charlie Digby – HHC Motorsport
18 – Connor O’Brien – Optimum Motorsport
19 – Jenson Dineen – JHR Developments – DNF
Race Three
1 – Harry King – Elite Motorsport
2 – Tom Wood – Elite Motorsport
3 – Seb Perez – JHR Developments
4 – Lewis Brown – HHC Motorsport
5 – Will Tregurtha – HHC Motorsport
6 – Geri Nicosia – JHR Developments
7 – Seb Priaulx – JHR Deveopments
8 – Charlie Fagg – HHC Motorsport
9 – Dave Wooder – Total Control Racing
10 – Stuart Middleton – Douglas Motorsport
11 – Daniel Harper – Douglas Motorsport
12 – Jordan Collard – Total Control Racing
13 – Max Bird – Total Control Racing
14 – Kyle Hornby – JHR Develipments
15 – Charlie Digby – HHC Motorsport
16 – Greg Johnson – Rob Boston Racing
17 – Connor O’Brien – Optimum Motorsport
18 – Jenson Dineen – JHR Developments
Image credit: Caroline Rhea
