Daniel Harper went from Ginetta Junior Scholarship winner to Ginetta Junior Rookie Cup champion in less than 12 months after a strong weekend at Brands Hatch last weekend. His teammate Stuart Middleton claimed the overall vice-championship whilst Lewis Brown leapfrogged Dave Wooder to snatch third overall.
Wooder qualified on pole position for the first race of the weekend with a 1:48.371 lap, 0.246s down the road from his rival for third in the championship, Lewis Brown. Harry King and Seb Priaulx locked out the second row, the two rookies crucially starting ahead of their rival for the rookie championship, Daniel Harper, who qualified sixth, just behind Seb Perez.
Following a short, sharp shower, racing got underway. Wooder had a sluggish start due to the wet conditions and fell down the order. He then found himself in a spin which saw an unsighted Charlie Digby make contact with the side of the TCR car, with Jenson Dineen also caught up in the accident.
Given earlier timetable disruptions and the looming Brands Hatch curfew, the decision was made to reschedule the race for the following morning. Sadly however, Wooder, Digby and Dineen were unable to compete, thus meaning an amended grid was issued prior to the race.
In Wooder’s absence, Brown was promoted to pole position, with King second and Priaulx third. As the cars powered through Paddock Hill for the first time, Priaulx had a spin and dropped to the back of the pack, whilst Perez made the most of the first turn action and powered from fourth to first.
A spin into the gravel for Greg Johnson brought out the safety car for two laps, and on the restart Brown leapt into the race lead at Surtees. After a heated battle with King in defence of third, which saw the Elite Motorsport racer pull off a huge power slide, Middleton passed Perez to snatch second.
The Douglas Motorsport car then went in pursuit of race leader Brown and was within touching distance of the HHC car with just two laps to go. On the final tour, the pair put on a fantastic show and headed into Clearways side-by-side setting up a drag race to the line, which Middleton won by just 0.062s, confirming him as the 2016 vice champion.
In the battle for the rookie cup, Harper finished sixth, behind King in fourth, but crucially ahead of Priaulx who had recovered to ninth, thus keeping Ginetta Junior Scholarship winner Harper ahead in the points heading into the final race of the year.
In race two, it was a fantastic race between Middleton, King and Brown for the final silverware of the season. The trio each led a lap of the race at some point, with Middleton the early leader although King and Brown dominated the latter part of the outing.
As the trio traded places, Fagg and Nicosia reeled in the top three and were soon filling their mirrors. Try as they might to get past the leaders, the melee in the pack saw Priaulx and Wood sneak through to snatch fourth and fifth overall.
With the championship top two decided, Brown only needed four points to pass absent Wooder and take third in the overall standings. However, the HHC driver was determined to go out in style and took the lead for the final time where he remained to the flag.
King did a fantastic job of keeping Middleton behind. As the race unfolded and positions were traded, the Rookie Cup vice-championship swung between King and Priaulx, but as the flag fell, King’s second place was not enough to dispose Priaulx, in fourth, from second in class. Coincidentally, the result meaning the Rookie Cup top three ended their 2016 season in the same order they finished the 2016 Ginetta Junior Scholarship.
Ginetta now look towards the 2017 Ginetta Junior Scholarship which takes place at Blyton Park on 24/26 October.
