A double pole position for Lando Norris in qualifying at Brands Hatch has ended his HHC Motorsport team-mate James Kellett’s hopes of winning the title, crowning Jack Mitchell as the 2014 Ginetta Junior Champion.
Kellett headed to Kent needing to secure every point on offer over the weekend, with Mitchell scoring none, to secure the title, but his failure to secure the two points on offer for the pole positions has ended his title challenge.
It proved to be an anti-climactic end to the title battle for Mitchell, with a qualifying session plagued with red flags at the start producing sixth and fifth place grid starts for the newly-crowned champion – who admits the decision hasn’t been made yet as to whether he will even compete in the two races.
“I’m really happy we’ve wrapped it up in qualifying, as with the weather as unpredictable as it is this weekend, anything could have happened in the races,” the JHR Developments racer told TCF.
“We don’t need to do the races now. We’ll have a discussion with the team now and see what we’re going to do. I won’t mind racing personally, as it’s what I do.”
There were two red flags that caused delays before the session could really get started, with Total Control Racing team-mates Billy Monger and Matt Chapman having offs at Druids and Clearways respectively.
When the action started, it was Norris who led the way as the only driver to break the two minute barrier, his best time of 1m 59.754s giving him race one pole. He also topped the timesheets with the second best time for top spot in race two.
Jamie Caroline took second for both, with Norris’ dominaton of proceedings seeing him finish up 0.989s quicker than the TCR runner. Kellett was left to settle for a pair of thirds meanwhile, his session having featured a trip through the Paddock Hill gravel trap.
Alex Sedgwick starred with fourth for the opening race as the top JHR Develpments runner, his team-mates Mitchell and Dan Zelos in sixth and seventh behind Jack Rawles. R&J Motorsport duo Ryan Hadfield and Ben Pearson were next up, with Jamie Chadwick rounding out the top ten.
For race two, Zelos is the best of the rest behind the top three. Newly-crowned champion Mitchell will line up fifth ahead of Rawles, Hadfield, Pearson and Chadwick, with Sedgwick slipping to tenth.
Esmee Hawkey joined Kellett in heading through the Paddock Hill gravel on her way to fifteenth and seventeenth place grid starts, while Sebastian Perez will start eighteenth for both on his debut in the series.
