Stuart Middleton and Will Tregurtha produced one of the best battles for victory in recent Ginetta Junior Championship history with a thrilling duel in the opening race at Thruxton.
Once the duo had worked their way past poleman Seb Perez, they embarked on a stunning fight for victory which saw them running side-by-side for the majority of the second half of the race.
Middleton stormed into the lead heading into the complex for the first time, with Kyle Hornby briefly taking second before contact from Perez spun him around leaving Seagrave.
Perez maintained a top three standing until he had to serve a drive through penalty for a jump start, which left Middleton and Tregurtha in their own battle at the front.
As a seven car battle over the final podium position formed behind, Tregurtha caught up an initial one second gap to Middleton and laid siege to the Douglas Motorsport G40 in front.
Tregurtha was at his strongest through Noble and lap after lap he would get a run around the outside, but immense bravery from Middleton saw him fight back through Goodwood.
Their shootout went down to the final lap with the duo heading into the final chicane side-by-side, with Middleton emerging in front for his third win of the season so far.
Tregurtha was left to settle for second, his third rostrum finish of the campaign, while emerging from the gaggle of G40’s behind in third was Dave Wooder after climbing from tenth on the grid.
Cameron Roberts was shuffled to fourth in the end having held third for a large portion of the race, whilst Seb Priaulx took the rookie class honours in fifth overall ahead of Harry King.
For King, it marked a first outright top six finish after a great drive from twelfth on the grid, the Elite Motorsport ace holding off the experienced Lewis Brown at the finish.
Charlie Fagg finished up eighth, with less than two seconds splitting third to eighth at the chequered flag, whilst Geri Nicosia and Tom Wood rounded out the top ten.
Hornby recovered from his spin to twelfth at the finish, whilst Dan Harper was another lower than hoped after a moment of his own, having climbed from 14th into the top seven early on.
This marked the first Ginetta Junior race this season that there hasn’t been a DNF, with all twenty cars reaching the finish.
Full race results can be found here.
