Lewis Brown got his 2016 Ginetta Junior Championship title challenge back on track with a long-awaited fourth podium result of the season so far at Croft last weekend.
After kicking off his season in style with three podiums in the opening five races, including a maiden series victory at Donington Park, the HHC Motorsport contender had missed out on the top three in the previous two meetings.
The third year contender had to bounce back from a difficult qualifying session in North Yorkshire though, having put himself only thirteenth on the grid for the opening encounter, from which he was able to climb through to eighth.
There was more forward movement in race two courtesy of a rocket start that took Brown from eighth to fourth by the end of the first corner. He would hold the position to the end, which proved crucial as he was drawn out the bag as the reverse grid pole-sitter for race three.
Another fast getaway would ensure he missed out on first corner chaos right behind and go on to lead a large portion of the race, however he lost out to team-mate Will Tregurtha two laps from the end and took second at the finish.
“I knew from Saturday that we had good pace to use and try to capitalise on the pole position from the reverse grid,” Brown told TCF.
“We were desperate for the win after having a stressful weekend at Oulton Park with car troubles, and also to end the weekend on a high after having a bad qualifying on Saturday.
“While I’m frustrated I couldn’t hold onto the lead, getting second place is great points for the championship and gets us back on track a bit.”
The Croft results have moved Brown up to third in the championship standings, 67 points adrift of current leader Stuart Middleton, heading into the summer break, after which Brown hopes to return right at the front of the pack.
“Over the summer we will be having a couple of test days, so we can work on our pace to ensure we are consistently up there challenging for podiums and wins in the second half of the season,” he added.
“We don’t want to come back at Snetterton still learning, we want to iron out any problems and be ready to push to the limit from the off. We’ve not given up on the championship, if you give up you’re practically wasting money.
“We’ve got a few triple-header weekends still to come and if we can get a few wins in the next couple of weekends and finish ahead of Stuart [Middleton] and Will [Tregurtha], that could suddenly put us right back in contention.”