Round 2 – Junior Ginetta Championship – An Easter weekend full of Motorsport

Was it a weekend of Motorsport or Easter Egg hunting?

If you follow Ginetta then you may know that Round 2 of the Junior Ginetta Championship came to Donington Park for the Easter weekend, 19th – 20th April 2014, with Bill and Jack Rawles choosing a weekend of motorsport rather than hunting for chocolate eggs. The Ginetta Junior Championship is undoubtedly one of the most popular support races to the headlining British Touring Car Championship and for the fans at Donington Park, over Easter, the skill of these teenage drivers did not disappoint and only helped to cement that reputation and increase the support and following that this junior series has gained. The weekend was set to be highly competitive with a grid of twenty 14 to 17 year olds all with high expectations, everything to prove and championship points to be earned.

The weekend is made up of free practice sessions, qualifying and 2 races, usually one on the

Round 3 of the highly competitive Junior series attracted a grid of 20 teenagers

Saturday and the other race on Sunday being featured live on ITV4. Having only driven this track once, last year in the championship, Jack was on a back foot with limited experience and track time and it was motorsport coach and instructor Richard Fores who stepped in at the last minute, ahead of the weekend and spent a day mentoring Jack. In the first practice Jack found good pace which undoubtedly improved his confidence heading into qualifying. For some reason, inexplicable to Jack, qualifying has become an issue and his qualifying result is not matching his other achieved track times. Jack recognises that this is something he has to work on and to get his head around. In a close qualifying session Jack aimed to hook up with championship leader Jack Mitchell in an attempt to maximise his speed by getting a tow down the straights, unfortunately this did not materialise until the end of the session but Jack Rawles did manage to secure a respectable 8th place starting spot, narrowly missing out on the top 5 by just one tenth of a second.

Saturday’s race saw Jack starting 8th on the grid and finish the race 9th

Saturday’s race took place later in the day with Jack starting 8th, fourth row of the grid and aiming to steadily move forward over the 9 laps. Jack enjoyed a successful opening lap moving up to sixth and was in hot pursuit of the drivers ahead of him. While in the process of chasing Jamie Caroline, the rookie driver took a trip onto the grass which unfortunately led to a stone entering Jack’s radiator. Despite this, Jack managed a solid 9th place finish guaranteeing more valuable points towards the championship. The race winner was Jack Mitchell, who led from start lights to the checkered flag, making it three out of three wins for him. Second was rookie driver Lando Norris who has been flagged as the next Lewis Hamilton?  Which may be true with his talent and an available racing budget running into hundreds of thousands. Third place went to Ryan Hadfield, after he battled with James Kellett for this position.

The following day saw damp conditions for race two, with Jack starting 8th on the

Despite Jack falling back to last place with car damage, he managed to finish – The real casualty was Jamie Chadwick

grid again. Jack again made a very good start and was heading to be part of the lead pack, he saw a gap, made a calculated decision to make a challenge, committed to his move, took the inside line but unfortunately Ryan Hadfield turned back in on him, causing Jack to spin out. The real casualty of the race was Jamie Chadwick who found herself, through no fault of her own in a head on collision with Jack culminating in a DNF for Jamie and Jack re-joining the race at the back in last position. With a clear track ahead of him, Jack showed great character, kept his cool and determination as he charged up through the field. Despite suffering damage to the steering and the headlight which affected the straight line speed but he managed to cross the finish line in 13th place, probably tinged with disappointment but enjoyed the challenge.

Jack finished the weekend 9th in the championship looking forward to Thruxton in a few weeks time

Even though Jack did not get the finishes he deserved at Donington, he was pleased with the pace he had shown, the maturity in adversity and the ability to stay calm and fight back to achieve the best you can under the circumstances. As always every round of the championship is only achievable with the support that Jack receives from friends, family and his sponsors – so we would like to thank – Monsterwraps, Alton Motor Parts, Basingstoke Skip Hire and Southern Waste Management and the entire team at Tollbar Racing, we would also like to thank Jakob Ebrey and Darren Hurrell for the photos and to Liam Redford for helping with writing reports – take a look at his blog Paddock Insight.

If you have reached the end of this report and you would like to actually watch the race…

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3nmwiUSNUc