Hillspeed’s rookie pairing of Pedro Cardoso and Harry Mailer each posted a pair of points finishes on their respective Thruxton debuts in the Ginetta Junior Championship.
Cardoso once again led the way for the former series champions. Showing top ten pace, the Brazilian recovered from an unfortunate spin on lap two of race one to finish twelfth. In race two, he climbed up from eleventh into the top ten early on, and took ninth at the flag, despite contact at the final corner with a rival.
He was later awarded a seven second time penalty for that incident though, dropping him to twelfth in the classified results. That came after an approved request earlier in the weekend to purchase two additional tyres to his allocation incurred a deduction of ten championship points.
14 year old team-mate Mailer meanwhile also had an eventful weekend, following up a hard-earned fifteenth place in the opening race, with a strong recovery to eighteenth in race two after an unfortunate spin early on.
“Thruxton was always going to be a huge challenge for Pedro and Harry, it’s the fastest track in the country and neither were available for the official test in April,” commented Hillspeed’s Richard Ollerenshaw. “They both did a good job though and, most importantly, kept out of trouble and got some good race mileage under their belts.
“It’s unfortunate Pedro got the time penalty in race two as his pace warranted a top ten finish at least, but he’s taken two consistent finishes. Harry wasn’t deterred by the challenge and brought the car home safely, it’s so easy to get into trouble at Thruxton so we’re pleased with the outcome.”
