Reigning Ginetta Junior Champions Hillspeed enjoyed a strong debut at the new Snetterton 300 circuit during Rounds Eleven and Twelve of the 2011 season, with championship leader Seb Morris taking two more victories, while rookie team-mate Struan Moore took his first car racing podium.
The team also ran a third G40J, for the first time this season, with car racing debutant William Palmer joining the team. The 14 year old, son of MotorSport Vision chief Jonathan and younger brother of GP2 Series racer Jolyon, had very little preparation time ahead of the event, but still put in a strong performance over the meeting.
Morris just missed out on pole position for the first race in qualifying, but his second fastest time was enough to give him pole for race two. Moore did a superb job to take third for both, while Palmer put himself sixteenth on the grid for the two races.
The beginning of Round Eleven saw Morris snatch the lead on the opening lap, only to lose it a couple of corners later. He re-took the lead on lap two at the hairpin and from then on control the race to take his eighth win of the season. Team-mate Moore didn't get a great start, dropping to the edge of the top ten before putting in a good recovery drive, getting up to fourth on the penultimate lap before being pushed wide on the last lap, dropping to seventh. Palmer took fourteenth on his debut.
The second race saw Morris hold the lead off the line, but lost it at the hairpin. He fought back and took it again on lap two, but on lap four he was squeezed wide, dropping to fourth. He fought back and got to third on the penultimate lap, before benefitting from contact ahead to squeeze into first for victory.
Moore held fourth early on, before dropping to fifth. Running on the tail of the top four, he benefitted from the same incident Morris dead to dive into third place, finishing just 0.8 seconds behind the race winner. Palmer overcame a few on-track moments to post another race finish, with his pace being quicker than some of the series regulars.
Team Principal Richard Ollerenshaw said: “Seb did a superb job, he raced strongly and had great pace as usual. It's fantastic to be back on the top step of the podium and to have increased the lead at the top of the championship. In the team's standings too we've moved to the top of the points table so, all in all, it's been a very good weekend for Hillspeed.
“Struan has been improving dramatically of late, he's been working very hard with the team and it's really clicked with him this weekend at the new track. We're absolutely delighted to see him take his first podium. William only had about six or seven hours in a Ginetta before the weekend, he really was in at the deep end but did a very good job indeed – we're delighted with the progress he made.”
