Newly-crowned Rookie Cup champion Lando Norris brought the 2014 Ginetta Junior Championship to a close with his fourth win of the season in Round 20 at Brands Hatch.
The HHC Motorsport ace started the race from pole positon, however a slow getaway saw him slip to fourth on the opening lap behind Jamie Caroline, Dan Zelos and James Kellett.
Behind, there was first lap drama for overall champion Jack Mitchell, with a shove from Jack Rawles on the approach to Druids sending him into the barriers and out of the race.
The front four quickly broke away into a thrilling four-way scrap for the lead. Zelos was the first to make a challenge on lap three but ended up getting shuffled down to fourth through Druids, with Norris then squeezing past his team-mate Kellett two corners later to take second.
Kellett tried to fight back on the next lap at Surtees, but his move only ended in a spin down to fifteenth, freeing Norris to hunt down leader Caroline. After switching places on the Indy circuit on lap five, a bold move through Sheene giving Norris the advantage.
While Caroline kept on his heels, Norris maintained his lead for the remaining three laps to take victory, with Caroline finishing off a mixed maiden season with rostrum visit number six.
“I didn’t get the best of starts, as I was on the wet side of the track on the inside,” Norris told TCF. “Jamie [Caroline] drove really well, I couldn’t get past him easily, but I managed to sneak my way through and take the win. It was a really good race.”
Zelos took third to cement his fourth place standing in the championship, the first time this season the podium has been filled with three rookie drivers, while Rawles took fourth to follow up his maiden Junior podium in race one.
Ryan Hadfield crossed the line fifth, while a late move for his team-mate Ben Pearson on Jamie Chadwick secured him sixth – with a trip into the gravel on the final lap resulting in a retirement for Chadwick.
JHR Developments pairing Senna Proctor and Alex Sedgwick, privateer Lewis Brown and TCR’s Matt Chapman rounded out the top ten, with Kellett finishing up thirteenth behind Harry Mailer and Billy Monger.
