Dave Wooder has opened his Ginetta Junior Championship win account with a stunning drive in a close-fought second race of the weekend at Thruxton.
The start of the race saw Stuart Middleton and Will Tregurtha immediately resume their titanic battle from the opening encounter, before Wooder made his presence felt after an early safety car.
That came at the end of lap one when the unfortunate Max Bird was collected by the squabbling Seb Perez and Enzo Fittipaldi, with only the latter able to continue.
Lewis Brown held third through the interlude, but at the restart some robust driving at the complex from Wooder saw him grab the final podium position.
From there, Wooder was straight in the fight for the lead, with the trio incredibly almost running three abreast coming out of Church on lap five – with a great cutback giving Wooder second.
A lap later Wooder was into the lead at the complex and held it through to the next lap, when the lead battle lost a contender as Middleton got spat out across the grass at Goodwood.
He was swiftly replaced by rookie duo Seb Priaulx and Harry King, who had traded fourth between themselves over the previous couple of laps before joining the lead battle.
Geri Nicosia joined them to make it a five car battle for the lead, with the close nature of the race showcased by the fact the top fifteen cars were separated by five seconds in the closing stages.
Tregurtha regained the race lead into Noble on lap seven, the corner he’s excelled at all weekend, but Wooder decisively fought back at the complex on the penultimate tour.
A nervy final lap saw the top five running nose-to-tail, but Wooder fended them off for the race victory, with Tregurtha second and Priaulx in third for his maiden outright podium finish.
King took his best result of the season so far in fourth, with Brown recovering from his earlier moment to fight back to fifth ahead of Nicosia, Kyle Hornby and Charlie Fagg.
Middleton climbed back from his grassy moment to ninth ahead of Tom Gamble, who completed the rookie top three with Priaulx and King.
Full race results can be found here.