Patrik Matthiesen secured his first win in his maiden Ginetta Junior Championship campaign during a chaotic second race of the weekend at Silverstone which saw championship leader Jamie Caroline hit trouble.
Caroline started the race from pole position alongside chief title rival Senna Proctor, with Caroline briefly holding the lead before Proctor stormed through into Becketts, Caroline dropping to third behind Dan Zelos.
Matthiesen climbed up to fourth on lap one, gained another spot a lap later and was soon into the lead as slight contact between Proctor and Caroline at the exit of Copse slowed them both up considerably, with Dave Wooder, Zelos and Lewis Brown also getting through.
After a safety car period to remove Devlin DeFrancesco from the Becketts gravel trap after he came to strife on lap one, the action resumed with Caroline climbing back into the top two ahead of Zelos at Copse – Wooder having lost ground after an attempt on the lead prior to the break in racing.
An attempted move on the next lap for third by Brown on Zelos led to both running wide, with Proctor steaming through to move onto the tail of Caroline – with all the battling having allowed Matthiesen to break away at the front.
As the Dane pulled clear to take his first victory by nearly three seconds, it developed into a seven car battle behind for the final two podium positions in the closing stages, with Kyle Hornby suddenly emerging in the thick of the action.
He was able to benefit from drama for Caroline to move up to third, with the championship leader first finding his rear tyre rubbing on his bodywork, before contact with Cameron Roberts at Becketts severely slowed him up on the final lap.
As Proctor and Hornby completed the podium, the latter having superbly negotiated the chaos to rise from fifteenth on the grid, Brown emerged in fourth whilst a last lap scuffle between Wooder and Zelos allowed Stuart Middleton and Matt Chapman to complete the top six.
Zelos and Wooder ended up seventh and eighth respectively, with Charlie Fagg and Connor Grady rounding out the top ten, the latter finishing in the top ten for the first time to become the 22nd different driver in the championship to do so this season.
Caroline’s troubles meant he ended up down in sixteenth ahead of Will Tregurtha, who suffered a spin at Luffield in the middle of the race, while race-winners Jonathan Hadfield and Billy Monger were at the bottom of the top twenty after contact between them at Luffield.
