The twenty five car grid for the second race of the 2019 Ginetta Junior season at Brands Hatch was led by the youngest driver, rookie Zak O’Sullivan. The front row was completed by Lorcan Hanafin who managed to make the most of the start to get in to the lead at the first corner.
As per the first race of the weekend there were drivers spinning off on the opening lap, this time it was James Hedley, Zak O’Sullivan and Casper Stevenson; all three drivers manage to recover and continued the race.
Unfortunately there was chaos in the middle of the pack as five Ginetta G40 Juniors spun off of the track due to the disruption from the first incident, bringing out the safety car.
Gus Burton, Ben Kasperczak, Bailey Voisin, Ethan Brooks and Joel Pearson all failed to get going again, forcing them out of the race.
After an orderly restart Hanafin continued to lead the pack, followed closely by Will Martin, James Taylor and Ben O’Hare.
Meanwhile O’Sullivan dropped down to nineteenth having started the race in first. Stevenson completed one lap before returning to the pits to address problems caused by the earlier spin.
O’Hares’ bumper fell off in the middle of the track as he ran wide onto the kerbs; resulting in him dropping out of the podium battle as he rejoined the pack in nineteenth place. A safety car was not required as a brave marshal ran onto the track to recover the stricken bodywork.
Opening lap problems were left far behind for the three front runners Hanafin, Tom Emson and James Taylor as they led the field around the Brands Hatch Indy circuit.
On lap thirteen Emson overtook Hanafin for first place and managed to hang on for the remainder of the race. Taking an surprise win ahead of Hanafin. James Hedley rose through the ranks in the final few laps going from fifth to third in the closing stages.
It was then that disaster struck for round one winner James Taylor, as the rear of his car locked, spinning him off of the track and out of the race on the final lap.
The battle for second was tight until the end of the race between Hedley and Hanafin, but this time it was Hedley who took second while Hanafin was forced to settle for third.
Runner up James Hedley produced the fastest lap of of the race with a time of 58.684s.
Ben O’Hare received a ten second penalty for a false start.
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