Harry King fought through the pack to secure a first Ginetta Junior Championship win of the season in a thrilling opening race at Knockhill.
King started the race from an equal seasons best third on the grid behind Douglas Motorsport duo Daniel Harper and Kiern Jewiss, the former having secured a fourth pole position of the campaign.
His lead was short-lived however as a fantastic move around the outside at Duffus Dip handed Jewiss the advantage, though a wide moment at the chicane straight after would hand it back to Harper.
Jewiss slipped back to fourth behind King and Tom Gamble, though on lap two it was King’s turn to explore the gravel trap at the chicane, which dropped him to fifth behind Sebastian Priaulx.
On lap three Jewiss made a move for the lead at Clarks but had to back out, which allowed Gamble through and allowed Priaulx and King to close in, those three running side-by-side across the line.
It was King who emerged with two positions gained and on the next lap he benefitted from a miscalculated challenge for the lead by Gamble to sneak into second and onto Harper’s tail.
On lap five it was King’s turn to charge to the front with a great run out of Clark’s allowing him to sweep ahead, and from there the Elite Motorsport ace would not be caught.
Crucially breaking the tow to the pack behind, King produced incredibly consistent lap times as he edged away to a near three second victory, his third career success in the series.
After losing the lead to King, Harper would be shoved wide by the pack at the hairpin and fell to sixth, with Gamble briefly holding second before Jewiss grabbed it a lap later.
Jewiss broke clear of the pack and enjoyed a comfortable run to a ninth second place finish of the campaign, while the battle for third would eventually go down to Priaulx v the recovering Harper.
The duo traded positions a couple of positions in the closing laps, with Priaulx taking the flag in third, however a five second track limits time penalty dropped him to seventh in the final results.
Therefore Harper took third ahead of Gamble, Adam Smalley and Tom Wood, with Priaulx ending up ahead of Connor Grady, Jordan Collard and Charlie Digby.
Luke Browning had finished ahead of Digby, but a track limits penalty cost him a position, though eleventh was still enough for him to grace the Rookie podium with Jewiss and Smalley.
Full race results can be found here: http://tsl-timing.com/file/?f=TOCA/2017/173203gij.pdf