Irishman Andrew Watson overcame championship leader Charlie Robertson to secure his first victory in the Ginetta Junior Championship at Silverstone.
Robertson started Round 17 from pole position and the HHC Motorsport man produced a great getaway to lead away cleanly, ending the opening lap alone two seconds clear.
Behind, Will Palmer ran second until he received contact from Pepe Massot at Luffield at the end of the opening lap, the contact dropping him to ninth, with Massot slipping down the order too with a broken bonnet.
The incident allowed Harry Woodhead to slot into second ahead of Oliver Basey-Fisher, though they were both quickly dispatched by a determined Watson, the Douglas Motorsport driver slipping into second on lap .
As Watson looked to close down the 2.8s gap to Robertson ahead, his team-mate Niall Murray was also making progress, getting ahead of Basey-Fisher for fourth at Brooklands, with Sennan Fielding following him through.
The title contenders were soon battling themselves, with an optimistic move by Fielding at Brooklands resulting in contact between the two. Murray span down to twelfth, while Fielding recovered to fifth behind Basey-Fisher, though he and Keith Donegan were soon ahead of the reigning Scholarship winner.
Ahead, Watson was right on to Robertson’s tail and made his move at the end of lap twelve, finding his way through coming out of Luffield to take the lead. Robertson fought back on the final lap, getting alongside the leader down the Wellington Straight, but despite a slight moment, Watson held onto the lead to cross the line for his first victory.
Robertson took second, just 0.078s adrift, while Woodhead just held off a determined Fielding to secure his fourth podium of the season. Donegan took fifth, while a hard-charging Murray recovered to take sixth ahead of Basey-Fisher and Oliver Chadwick, with Palmer left a disappointing ninth after further contact later in the race caused a short trip through the gravel.
*After the race, Fielding recieved a 6.75 second penalty for his incident with Murray, dropping him to sixth. This promoted Donegan to fourth and Murray to fifth.*
