Junior Ginetta Winter Series completed and looking forward to the 2014 Championship

The 2014 Junior Ginetta Winter Series turned out to be a good note for Jack Rawles to end the season on

The annual end of season event took place over the week endof Saturday 09th and Sunday 10th November 2013, at Snetterton race track in Norfolk. The ATL Racing Fuel Cells Junior Winter Series is in its sixth year and the only Junior Ginetta Race Series that has prizes up for grabs for 1st, 2nd, 3rd places and the “Hard Charger” prize awarded to the driver gaining the most places from their respective grid position over the course of the four races. The two day event featured two fifteen minute qualifying session and two fifteen minute races per day.  The reason for the additional qualifying session was to alleviate  the pressure of having your starting position for all four races determined by a single qualifying session and to give the competitors a chance to improve their grid position on day two.

The whole weekend saw some brilliant racing with the juniors being

James Kellett claimed the overall title of the weekend – The ATL Racing Fuel Cells Ginetta Junior Winter Series 2013 Champion

extremely competitive to gain those podium positions. The first race of the weekend was led by the 2013 Ginetta Junior Rookie Cup Champion, James Kellett. Jamie Chadwick, the 2013 Junior Ginetta Scholarship winner, remained on Kelletts tail throughout the race and never quite got the opportunity to take the lead herself and so 1st place went to James Kellett, 2nd Jamie Chadwick and 3rd place went to Alex Reed on his first race debut. The second race of the day saw extremely wet conditions persist, with Jamie Chadwick starting the race from pole position but unfortunately a mistake in the opening lap saw her drop from the lead to sixth position. A determined fight by Jamie saw her, over the ensuing lap; make it back to second place but 5 seconds behind the leader James Kellett. Despite this hard work Jamie’s race ended when she pushed too hard and lost her second place to the gravel and was unfortunately unable to restart, a frustrating result for Jamie Chadwick, resulting in zero points.

Jack Rawles making a podium appearance in the 2013 Winter Series

The results for the second race of the day were – James Kellett 1st, Ben Pearson 2nd and Jack Rawles 3rd. Jack Rawles made his first podium appearance since the first round of the main Ginetta Junior Championship back in March and was obviously so happy, grinning from ear to ear and during his interview said:

“I didn’t have much luck in the Ginetta Junior Championship this season, so to get an outright podium finish here is long-awaited. I am really happy and hope this is a sign of things to come”

On Sunday, the first race of the day, saw Jack Rawles momentarily leading the pack

Sunday morning signalled a new race day and James Kellett taking pole position for both of the days races.  James Kellett third race of the winter series did not quite go to plan when a poor start saw him stuck in the middle of the field and the pack was being led by Pearson, Rawles and Chadwick. When Ben Pearson ran wide and dropped to the back of the pack, this gave Jack Rawles his chance to lead the race. Jack did not manage to maintain his lead and despite a display of good racing, fighting spirit and exciting battling the race did not finish with another podium position for Jack. The final race of the weekend saw a text book start from James Kellett, whilst Jack Rawles found himself spinning down the order from a top three position. The fourth race ended with James Kellett taking four out of four wins and thus gaining the title of ATL Racing Fuel Cells Ginetta Junior Winter Series 2013 Champion. Jack left the 2013 Winter Series in 4th position out of fourteen competitors – not a bad result at all.

As always if you would like to see more pictures from this event, then why not take a look at – ATL Racing Fuel Cells Ginetta Junior Winter Series 2013 – Facebook Pictures