Round 3 – Junior Ginetta Championship – Monsterwraps create a special livery for Thruxton

Monsterwraps created a one off special camouflage look for Jacks home track

The Junior Ginettas came to Thruxton for Round 3 of the Junior Ginetta Championship. Saturday 03rd May and Sunday 04th May saw twenty 14-17 year olds ascend on Thruxton Race Circuit to compete in race 5 and 6 of the championship. Thruxton Race Circuit, just off the A303 based near Andover Hampshire, is the track closest to Jack Rawles home and the workshop of Bill Rawles Classic Cars.  Thanks to Monsterwraps, a special one off livery was in order for Jack Rawles Racing  for the BTCC race weekend at Thruxton. Monsterwraps Said “We are delighted to be continuing our backing of Jack Rawles Racing that we started for 2013 and to continue throughout the 2014 season in the Ginetta Junior Championship and for Jacks home circuit we wanted to capture the imagination of the audience by doing something a bit different, #saynotopaint“

Due to budget restrictions Jack had to be happy with watching the juniors practice at Thruxton

Thruxton was originally constructed in 1940 as a World War II airfield and it became a motorsport circuit in 1950. It has now become known as the UKs fastest race circuit and annually hosts top motorsport events such as The British Touring Car, Super Bike, British Truck, Formula 3 and BARC Championships. The juniors had had an official test day on April 09th 2014 but unfortunately budget restrictions meant that Jack had to be on the other side of the fence and had to be content to spend the day as a spectator. For anyone who is passionate about motorsport and competing this is probably quite a painful experience but used in a constructive way it can also be quite a useful one.

Jack came to Thruxton with a positive attitude and showed great composure, maturity and his fighting spirit in the first race of the weekend

With the support of friends and family and main sponsors Monsterwraps, Alton Motor Parts and Basingstoke Skip Hire & Southern Waste Management and under the guidance of the team at Tollbar Racing Jack approached the weekend in a positive frame of mind. Jack displayed great pace in qualifying, although a small, unavoidable shunt with teammate Billy Monger interrupted his session slightly and Jack managed to secure a qualifying position of 8th for Saturdays first race of the weekend and 7th for the second race on Sunday which was televised live on ITV4.

The camouflage design was definitely different, making the car easily identifiable and creating a lot of attention

Disappointingly, the first race of the weekend started poorly for the local racer as he dropped back to 13 on the opening lap. Nevertheless Jack showed his fighting spirit passing multiple cars in quick succession, leading him to enter the top 5 by lap four. The following lap Jack made contact with Ryan Hadfield dropping both drivers back to the fringes of the top 10. In the true spirit of Jack Rawles, he showed great composure in recovering from the incident and finished the race in fifth. It was commented that this was an exceptional drive from the young racer as he was the highest placed driver that had not participated in the scheduled official test session. Maybe watching and observing had helped?

A disappointing finish through no fault of Jack Rawles but the juniors put on a spectacular & exciting race for the crowds

On Sunday, race 6 of the championship and the second race of the weekend, Jack started 7th on the grid and believed that he could once again challenge for a top 5 result. Making a positive start, Jack advanced to sixth and was running with the lead pack during the opening laps. Billy Monger, Jacks team mate made a mistake early in the race and left the track at a well-known corner, called Church and headed for the under growth and was unable to resume racing. Due to a challenge from Lando Norris, Jack lost touch with the lead pack and planned to now follow Norris as he moved towards the front. Unfortunately the rookie Norris made a mistake dropping him down the field and leaving Jack isolated and vulnerable to the chasing drivers.   Jack enjoyed a good battle fighting for 7th and settled into a comfortable 8th position on the final corner, with the checkered flag in view. With the race seconds away from finishing, Jack was taken by surprise when Brazilian rookie driver Pedro Cardoso, carrying too much speed, out drove himself and punted Jack off the track, leaving him to make a quick recovery and frustratingly finish the race 13th. Pedro Cardoso finished the race in 9th position but was later penalised and dropped to 13th position and Jack moved up to 12th. Jack Mitchell, came to Thruxton having one four races out of four, unfortunately for Jack Mitchell this winning streak was broken with a DNF in Saturdays race and finishing 6th on Sunday, however he does remain top of the championship table. Why not take a look at the race for yourself ….

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5A9kqodGTU

With no time to waste Back at the Bill Rawles Classic Cars workshop, Bill & Jack Rawles make a start on repairing the car ready for the up-coming events

Losing so many places and championship points and With heavy damage sustained to the car during the accident, Jack was obviously frustrated and annoyed with the result but he knew that he had raced hard, fairly and skilfully and the resulting outcome was out of his hands but he was still just in the top 10 of the championship. Jack also knew that on his return home he had no time to waste and had a lot of work to carryout on his car, with the aid of his Dad, Bill Rawles, before the next events of The Farnham Festival of Transport on Sunday 25th May and the next round of the Junior Ginetta Championship at  Oulton Park, Cheshire on 07/08th June 2014