Seb Hopkins, who led the standings after the Thruxton openers, put the disappointment of Snetterton behind him, and re-took the championship lead at Brands after three podium finishes. He claimed third place in Race 1 – denied a runner-up placing by 0.027secs. In Race 2, he captured second place at the re-start following a Red Flag stoppage – Seb just 0.167secs behind the winner having also set the race’s fastest lap. He completed a great weekend with another second place and fastest lap in Race 3.
Will Jenkins slipped from second to fourth in the standings – but only three-points off the lead – despite three top-six overall race finishes around the 1.2-mile Brands Indy track. Will finished sixth in Race 1, at the back of a tight and dicing six-car battle for the lead covered by just over one-second for much of the race. He netted fourth at the flag, the top-four covered by less than one-second in Race 2 and fourth again on Sunday in Race 3.
Erstwhile “Rookie” leader Josh Rowledge heads to the next race now placed third. He arrived in Kent having achieved “Rookie” podiums in every race and made a great start going from 12th overall to seventh on the opening lap in Race 1, a position he maintained to the flag and importantly the second “Rookie”. Josh resumed Race 2 after its stoppage fourth in class having impressively worked his way up the order but moved in to third at the re-start. However, his excellent podium run came to an end in Race 3 when he spun off on his own lubricant and into instant retirement.
Max Hall endured a torrid qualifying session suffering a small excursion and also having multiple lap times deleted due to exceeding track limits. He finished 12th in “Rookie” category, non-scoring for the first time this year. Having worked his way up the leaderboard to finish a creditable ninth in class in Saturday’s Race 2, Hall recorded a 13th place class finish on Sunday which included a 5secs penalty for exceeding track limits.
Joe Warhurst impressively made up places in both of Saturday’s races after a disappointing qualifying session but was involved in a start line incident in Race 3. Jack Sherwood scored points for the second consecutive race with a 10th in Race 1, despite a grassy excursion, and just missed out on a top-10 finish in Race 2 having been spun around at Druids. Jack was another involved in the start line melee which damaged his bonnet, restricting visibility for a lap, and his car’s tracking, and then the Rowledge incident. The Ginetta Juniors are next out over 31 July-1 August at Oulton Park.
Eddie Ives, Team Owner & Manager:
“Plenty of ups along with a few downs but that’s motor racing! Qualifying didn’t go according to plan with our drivers tripping over themselves.
However, there’s a long way to go in this championship and we can’t wait to regroup.
We’ll be out for some private testing and then back out racing at Oulton in a month’s time.”
