Ginetta Junior

Three In A Row For Caroline After Chaotic Croft Opener

2 Mins read

HHC Motorsport’s Jamie Caroline has taken the Ginetta Junior Championship points lead after making it three race victories in a row during an action-packed opening race of the Croft weekend.

Caroline’s team-mate Sophia Floersch had started the ninth race of the season from pole position, however Caroline stormed past into Clervaux for the first time to take a race lead he wouldn’t relinquish during the nine lap encounter.

It was far from easy for the Pirtek-backed racer though, with Floersch and fellow HHC racer Patrik Matthiesen sticking hot on his heels in the early stages after they overcame an early challenge from Lewis Brown.

After edging half a second clear, Caroline saw his lead slashed in half by Floersch heading into the middle portion of the race, before it was cut even further by the introduction of the safety car for an incident down the order.

At the restart it proved to be a three lap shootout to the flag, however Caroline was never really troubled as with Floersch defending from the behind, he was able to pull away en-route to a half a second victory.

Floersch secured second, while a slide wide for Matthiesen at Clervaux on the penultimate lap dropped him to fifth, with Billy Monger going on to complete the podium as the top JHR Developments driver ahead of Brown.

Kyle Hornby completed the top six ahead of Stuart Middleton, with Jonathan Hadfield in eighth. Cameron Roberts finished ninth on the road, however post-race he was handed a time penalty for first lap contact with Senna Proctor, promoting Ben Green to ninth after a superb drive from 22nd on the grid.

His efforts were aided by a busy race in the midfield pack, with some of the key action featuring two of the main championship contenders Proctor and Dan Zelos, who found themselves eighteenth and nineteenth respectively at the end of the opening lap.

Zelos, who had a new engine under his bonnet after problems in qualifying, found himself on the receiving end of contact from his team-mate Proctor at the complex on lap two which lost them both further ground.

It was go from bad to worse for Zelos though, as two laps later he unfortunately collected a spinning Dave Wooder heading into the complex, with the heavy contact eliminating both of the G40’s on the spot to bring out the aforementioned safety car.

Proctor meanwhile battled with a dislodged bonnet en-route to thirteenth behind Seb Perez, a first time top ten finisher, Alex Day and Rowan Bailey, but it wasn’t enough to maintain his points advantage.

Will Stacey and Will Tregurtha ended up fifteenth and eighteenth respectively after they came into contact at the complex late on, with series debutants Charlie Fagg and Connor Grady splitting them at the flag.

Fellow newcomer Devlin DeFrancesco failed to make the finish meanwhile, likewise Matt Chapman who pulled off on lap two with a collapsed right front wheel.

Full race results can be found here.

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Simon is an experienced journalist and PR officer, who has worked in the national motorsport paddocks for over a decade, primarily on the BTCC support package.
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