Tom Gamble has become the first driver in the Ginetta Junior Championship history to win all three races in the same weekend after emerging victorious in both of Sunday’s encounters.
Two dominant successes mean the Elite Motorsport man has eight wins for the campaign, giving him a lead of over forty points head into the Brands Hatch season finale at the end of the month.
It was also a standout day for Douglas Motorsport’s Kiern Jewiss, who secured the 2017 Rookie Cup title with a pair of class victories.
Round 22:
A fantastic launch for Sebastian Priaulx saw him storm past pole-sitter Luke Browning into the early race lead, with the former points leader settling into a three-way fight with Gamble and Harry King.
The trio would trade the lead multiple times over the first half of the race, but soon after mid-distance Gamble was able to start edging clear and leave the others to battle behind.
As he went on to take a near five second victory, Priaulx eventually emerged in second place ahead of King, those two having continued their fierce scrap throughout.
The next challenger was Tom Wood who took fourth ahead of Douglas pairing Jewiss and Daniel Harper – early contact between them having forced Harper into a recovery drive from fourteenth.
Adam Smalley and Louis Foster finished seventh and ninth on the road, however five second track limits penalties dropped them back, with Jordan Collard taking seventh in the end.
Finley Green and Greg Johnson took their best results of the season in eighth and ninth respectively, while Browning was an unfortunate retiree having had high hopes from pole.
Round 23:
The final race of the weekend would feature an absolute masterclass from Gamble, who led away from pole position and never looked back as he romped to an eight second victory.
He was aided by a big battle for second position behind, which saw King, Priaulx, Jewiss and Harper running nose-to-tail throughout the race, whilst Collard also later joined the party.
There wasn’t much changing of position for a long spell before Harper went on a charge, with moves into Becketts on consecutive laps seeing him storm into the top three.
Only some tremendous defensive driving in the closing laps would secure King second at the chequered flag, with Harper completing the podium ahead of Jewiss and Priaulx.
Collard and Tom Canning were next on the road, but once again track limits were a factor and they fell back with time penalties, with Smalley promoted to sixth overall.
Charlie Digby ended up seventh to make his best result of the campaign, with Collard eighth ahead of Foster, a first time Rookie podium finisher, and series debutant James Hedley.
Full race results can be found here: http://tsl-timing.com/file/?f=TOCA/2017/173703gij.pdf
