Harry Woodhead returned to the top of the Ginetta Junior Championship podium with a battling victory in Round 14 at Knockhill, in the process securing HHC Motorsport the team’s championship honours.
Woodhead started the twelve lap encounter from pole position, however a fantastic getaway for fellow front-row starter Keith Donegan saw him leap-frog the pole-sitter into the lead, with Will Palmer slotting into third ahead of Tom Jackson.
Jackson came under early pressure from Jack Mitchell, with contact at the Scotsman spinning Jackson around. James Kellett got caught up in the ensuing melee, and while Mitchell and Kellet were able to continue at the back of the pack, Jackson’s race ended in the gravel.
Ahead, Woodhead challenged for the lead coming out of the final hairpin, squeezing alongside across the start-finish line. Donegan stuck to his guns on the outside around the first sequence of corners.
This eventually caught him out however as Palmer stuck his nose down the inside heading out of Butchers, forcing Donegan onto the grass, with Ollie Chadwick benefitting to jump up to third behind Palmer.
Ollie’s sister Jamie Chadwick was also in the thick of the action, the fellow JHR Developments racer heading a five car fight for fifth ahead of Ryan Hadfield, Ben Pearson, Jack Rawles and Kellett, though the latter had an unfortunate spin at the Scotsman on lap three as he tried to recover from the first lap incident.
At the front, Woodhead was enjoying a trouble-free run to his eleventh win of the season, matching Seb Morris’ record number of wins in a season, with Palmer making it a HHC Motorsport one-two to secure the team’s championship for the outfit.
Donegan meanwhile had hunted down Chadwick in front, with the Irishman finding his way past coming out of Clark’s on lap ten to secure his eighth podium finish of the season, with Chadwick left to settle for fourth.
Team-mate Jamie edged away from the battle behind to take the Rookie class win in fifth, while behind, it was all change on the final lap. Rawles ran sixth until he ran wide at the chicane, allowing Mitchell to complete a fantastic recovery drive through to sixth ahead of Hadfield, Rawles, Pearson and Kellett.
Full race results can be found here: http://tsl-timing.com/toca/2013/133403gij.pdf
Provisional Ginetta Junior Championship Standings (After Rd 14 of 20):
1. Harry Woodhead, HHC Motorsport – 493pts
2. Keith Donegan, Douglas Motorsport – 331pts
3. Will Palmer, HHC Motorsport – 324pts
4. Tom Jackson, Junior Race Car Academy – 280pts
5. James Kellett, HHC Motorsport – 248pts
6. Ollie Chadwick, JHR Developments – 240pts
7. Jack Mitchell, Privateer – 226pts
8. Ben Pearson, Privateer – 188pts
9. Jack Rawles, Privateer – 187pts
10. Jamie Chadwick, JHR Developments – 152pts
