Seb Morris Leading George Gamble and Niall Murray - Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Seb Morris overcame a fierce battle with Niall Murray and George Gamble to take victory in Round Fifteen of the Ginetta Junior Championship, the Hillspeed driver moving one step closer to the 2011 title with his eleventh win of the season so far.
The day's earlier fifteen minute qualifying session saw Charlie Robertson take a superb pole position ahead of Morris, Brad Bailey, Murray, Gamble and Sennan Fielding. A slow start for the pole sitter saw Morris snatch the lead heading around the first banked curve, but at the Deene hairpin, a superb move around the outside saw Murray take the lead.
Morris came back on the next lap though and got the run up the inside heading into Yentwood, the 15 year old squeezing Irishman Murray right out onto the grass to confirm the position, dropping Murray behind a fast-starting Gamble.
For HHC Motorsport's Robertson, the opening lap didn't go very well, the young Scot getting bundled down the field at a chaotic Deene hairpin, as did Bailey, before being spun into the grass at the exit of Yentwood, putting him right at the back of the field with lots of work to do.
The front three began to break clear, with William Foster briefly leading Fielding for fourth, before the TJ Motorsport driver made his way through, while behind a great battle was emerging for sixth between Jake Giddings, Myles Collins and Max Coates, with the latter two finding their way past Giddings in the opening dozen laps, with Coates then nipping past Collins on lap seven.
At the front, Gamble closed on Morris and made his move on lap seven, the TJ Motorsport driver getting past at Deene Hairpin. This left Morris under pressure from Murray, but he shrugged him off and focused on getting back ahead of Gamble, challenging him at Deene at lap later, but Gamble managed to stay ahead.
The safety car was then introduced after a spin for Declan Jones at Gracelands, with the one lap interlude bunching the field up. At the restart, a slipstream for Morris allowed him to slide past Gamble around the first corner to take the lead, with Murray following through into second.
Gamble's last was to get worse at Chapman, with team-mate Fielding working his way past into third, while behind, Coates and Collins got past Foster to take fourth and fifth respectively. Gamble tried to fight back on the final lap at Deene Hairpin, but the Nottingham-based driver out-braked himself and ended up in the barriers, a disappointing end to a promising race.
Morris was having no such problems and crossed the line to take a 0.6 second win, with reigning Ginetta Junior Ireland champion Murray taking his third podium of the season in second, while Fielding took his maiden series podium with a great third. Coates took fourth, a superb drive after starting eleventh on the grid, with Collins a season's best fifth ahead of Foster and Paddy McClughan. A recovering Robertson, Bailey and Giddings completed the top ten, with Tom Howard and Oliver Chadwick rounding out the finishers.
