Jamie Caroline led from lights-to-flag in Round Eight of the 2015 Ginetta Junior Championship at Oulton Park to complete a dominant double victory from the weekend and move up to second place in the championship standings.
Caroline started the race from pole courtesy of his race one victory, however he only just edged out fellow front-row starter Dan Zelos on a close fought run to the first corner to maintain his advantage.
Zelos on the outside found himself nudged down to third by championship leader Senna Proctor, with those three quickly breaking clear of the field. Like in race one though, Proctor and Zelos had no answer for Caroline, who edged clear to build a lead of over two seconds by the end of lap five.
That advantage was slashed though when the safety car appeared on the next lap, a slide across the grass at Lodge by Rowan Bailey resulting in heavy contact with Ben Green as he returned to the circuit, leaving Bailey’s car stranded at the side of the road.
Any hopes Proctor and Zelos had of challenging for the win at the restart were ended though when the recovery of the vehicle continued beyond the end of the allotted eight laps, with Caroline taking the chequered flag behind the safety car.
Despite Caroline’s double victory, Proctor’s two trips to the podium has extended his points advantage to 21 points over Caroline, with Zelos seven points further back.
Sophia Floersch and Lewis Brown ended up battling it out for fourth place, with Brown getting the upper hand on the opening lap before Thruxton double race-winner Floersch fought back at Old Hall on lap four to take the spot prior to the safety car stoppage.
Billy Monger ran sixth in the early stages however a drive through penalty for a jump start left him down in nineteenth at the finish, with Jonathan Hadfield assuming the position and holding it to the end.
Matt Chapman fought up from tenth at the end of the opening lap to finish seventh, with his efforts aided by Stuart Middleton spinning Patrik Matthiesen round at Cascades on lap three while battling for eighth.
Whilst Middleton recovered to finish in that spot, Matthiesen ended up ten places further back. A brilliant drive from Dave Wooder saw climb from twentieth on the grid to ninth, with Will Tregurtha rounding out the top ten ahead of William Stacey and Geri Nicosia, the latter impressively fighting through from 22nd on the grid.
Top six qualifier Kyle Hornby’s rotten weekend continued meanwhile when contact with Sebastian Perez on lap one broke his steering rack and forced him to retire.
Full race results can be found here.
