Jonathan Hadfield led from lights to flag in the opening race of the weekend at Donington Park to secure his first ever Ginetta Junior Championship victory.
Hadfield converted his maiden pole position into a commanding win in Leicestershire, though had to soak up some early pressure from Senna Proctor and Lewis Brown.
The identity of second changed hands from Proctor to Brown on lap three, and their battling soon allowed Hadfield to break clear to take an eventual win by over seven seconds, the first for the R&J Motorsport team.
The battle for second was a three-way affair, with Billy Monger briefly grabbing the spot on lap seven before being shuffled back again. Proctor assumed control of the spot then and held it to the flag, with Monger passing Brown on the final lap to complete the podium.
The drive of the race came from Patrik Matthiesen, the Danish rookie superbly launching from thirteenth on the grid to eighth on the opening lap, before picking his way through to fifth at the finish for the Rookie victory.
Dan Zelos was in the thick of the action in the top six throughout, eventually rounding out that group ahead of Will Tregurtha, who was another to rise up the field from twelfth to seventh.
Sophia Floersch, Kyle Hornby and Stuart Middleton completed the top ten ahead of Geri Nicosia and Harry Mailer, while gaining eleven places from his grid slot to finish thirteenth was Rowan Bailey.
Jamie Caroline was one of those to hit trouble, early contact and a ten second penalty for exceeding track limits leaving him down in 20th at the finish, while Cameron Roberts fell by the wayside on the penultimate lap after running seventh for a long time, joining TCR team-mate Dave Wooder and William Stacey on the retirements list.
Matt Chapman had finished twelfth on the road, however a ten second penalty for gaining an unfair advantage dropped him to sixteenth, whilst Tristan Charpentier has been excluded from the meeting following a post-race altercation with a fellow competitor.
Full race results can be found here.
