After a fairly wet test day, qualifying for the Juniors was one of their first real dry sessions of the weekend. Priaulx was the man to beat, setting his best time of 1:48.186s on his second lap, which no one could top. Title rivals Gamble and Harper gave it a good go, but eventually qualified second and fourth respectively, with King splitting the pair.
Race One
Gamble, with a strong lead, had one hand on the championship heading into race one from the front row. However, a trip through the gravel at Paddock Hill on the opening lap dropped him to the very back of the field whilst his main rival, Priaulx took up the lead.
A safety car was scrambled after Digby spun and needed recovery, allowing the field to bunch up. Priaulx was up front with King, Jewiss, Smalley and Wood behind. Kudos too to Green, he climbed from tenth to sixth and Johnson, who climbed seven spots on the opening lap.
Action got back to full speed on lap four and King swept into the lead at Druids. Harper, who had dropped to eighth in the Gamble / Paddock Hill melee was soon climbing the order and up to sixth by the end of the first full racing lap.
As rain started to fall and the final lap got underway, Priaulx threw everything he had at King and moved into the lead as they dashed towards the line. Harper meanwhile, had recovered to fifth and Gamble an impressive seventh. Priaulx’s result though, was enough to bring him within 26 points of leader Gamble.
Race Two
In race two, Elite Motorsport hel the front row with Harry King started from pole position alongside Tom Gamble. The points leader was able to storm around the outside through Paddock Hill Bend on lap one.
Harper would follow however to grab second, with the race soon being put under the control of the safety car as Adam Smalley, Luke Browning and Finley Green came to blows - bringing out the safety car.
After the restart Harper would find himself caught out by the dust laid down following that incident and ran slightly wide, which allowed King back into second.
Harper was straight back ahead into Hawthorns though and set about chasing down Gamble, who had benefitted from the battling to build an eight tenths of a second lead.
That was gone in one lap though as the charging Harper got onto his rear bumper, with a wide moment through Paddock for the leader opening the door for Harper to sweep ahead.
Gamble hit back later in the lap to regain the lead through Sheene bend, but on the next tour it was Harper back in front with a switchback move through Paddock into Druids.
Gamble would challenge for the lead right to the end, but second
would still be more than enough to secure him the 2017 title as his
closest challenger Sebastian Priaulx ended up sixth.
This provided Elite Motorsport with their first Ginetta Junior Driver's Championship in just their third season of competition.
Elitte Motorsport teammate Harry King completed the podium meanwhile ahead of Tom Wood, Kiern Jewiss and Priaulx.
