Charlie Robertson secured his sixth podium of the 2011 Ginetta Junior Championship after a hard fought third place during Round Fourteen of the series at his home circuit Knockhill, the result making up for a disappointing qualifying and race one performance for the HHC Motorsport driver.
Although lapping well in pre-event testing and Saturday's free practice session, Robertson was only able to post two fourth row starts in qualifying. This left Robertson in a tough position heading into Saturday's Round Thirteen, starting eighth he got stuck in tight scraps in the lower end of the top ten. Fighting over sixth place with two more experienced rivals, he worked his way through to take the place, then gained one more to take a fifth place finish.
Round Fourteen proved to be a very robust affair, with Charlie stuck right in the middle of most the action. Starting seventh, he battled into the top five on lap two, before moving into third soon after. After a short safety car period, Charlie forced his way into second place, but on lap ten he was pitched into a spin at the hairpin, dropping him to eighth. The 14 year old didn't give up though and a superb recovery charge saw him work his way into a third place finish.
Robertson reflected: “I had a bit of contact at the hairpin with (Sennan) Fielding which dropped me back and then I was surprised I got back through so quickly. The others were fighting a lot though so that really helped me out.
“It's great to be on the podium at Knockhill. It's been quite a hard weekend, we've been consistent time-wise with our pace but qualifying just didn't quite go to plan and that was our main problem really. I was a bit disappointed with race one but to finish the weekend on the podium in race two is really good.”
