Hillspeed team boss Richard Ollerenshaw has described Benjamin Wallace’s debut in the Ginetta Junior Championship as “very good,” after the 14 year old picked up a top twelve finish in his second race.
Wallace was originally planning to make his racing bow at Silverstone next month, but his debut was brought forward to the opening rounds of the second half of the season at Snetterton.
Wallace qualified 0.6 seconds shy of his team-mate Harry Mailer in 19th in qualifying, which he turned into a 16th place finish during a truncated opening race of the weekend.
In race two, Wallace benefitted from problems for others to climb three places to sixteenth at the end of the first lap. From there, he passed Mailer en-route to 14th on lap three, and eventually finished the race a great 12th.
“Benjamin has done a good job, up until Tuesday he had only done two days with us in a car and there wasn’t really a plan for him to do anything until the end of September,” said team principal Richard Ollerenshaw.
“We’ve brought his programme forward by eight weeks, which is a massive step, but he drove very well in race two. To have a top twelve finish on his first weekend in competition at this level is very good.
“Benjamin is doing three events to retain his Rookie status for next year – he’s going to be back out with us at Silverstone and then again for the finale at Brands and we’re really looking forward to working with him again.”
