Gamble puts an end to Morris’ winning streak
George Gamble finally puts an end to Seb Morris’ winning streak, as he wins the fifth round of the Ginetta Junior Championship at Thruxton.
The weekend began extremely well for Gamble, as not only was he the quickest in testing on Friday and Saturday’s morning practice, he took his first pole position with a fantastic lap of 1m30.818 seconds.
As the lights went out on the grid, Gamble got a good start off the line, and led the pack with Morris in second position. As for Struan Moore, who qualified in a superb third place, unfortunately begin slipping down the ranks as the other drivers wanted a bit of the action.
A fantastic start was also made my Westbourne Motorsport’s driver Myles Collins, who started sixth on the grid, found himself up to third place after a quick move on Max Coates around the outside of Campbell.
As the drivers were fighting for position, Morris found some clean air, and gained some time on Gamble, putting him right on his bumper. As the pair reached the fast, flat-out Church Corner, Morris saw his time to make an incredible move up the inside of Gamble to take the lead.
Another battle that was going on behind was between Tom Howard and Niall Murray, who made contact with each other, hurling Murray off the track and unfortunately out of the race.
Due to Murray’s excursion off the track, the safety car was deployed for the start of lap two. The safety car then went back in on lap five, and the racing got underway again.
As the drivers went over the start finish straight, the two front runners Morris and Gamble began pulling away from the rest of the pack. Third place sitter Collins done well to shake off fourth place driver Coates on lap five, but by lap six, Coates had found the momentum to pass Collins at Church to steal his position.
If there wasn’t enough action behind, at the front Morris made a mistake at the chicane after church, causing him to go wide over the high curbs, meaning Gamble could lock Morris in his sights.
Gamble wasn’t going to make it easy for him, as he continued to pile on the pressure, filling Morris’s mirrors with the TJ Motorsport Ginetta. As the race went on, Morris’ tyres were going off, but he still continued to press on and try to stay in first position.
As the duo went into the chicane on lap nine, Morris made another mistake, causing him to make another excursion over the kerbs. This made it even easier for Gamble to get ever closer to the Hillspeed driver, giving him the opportunity to attack at any time.
As the drivers entered the final lap, Morris had the lead, but only just, by 0.183 seconds, and Coates was getting ever closer too.
As the top two went into Goodwood, Gamble got a better run out of the exit, used the slipstream fantastically behind Morris at Woodham Hill, and attacked Morris around the outside of the chicane – a bold move but he made it stick to steal the lead.
As the chequered flag dropped, it was literally a photo finish at the end of the race, but with a lead of just 0.036 seconds, Gamble took the win, with Morris in an extremely close second.
Third place went to an elated Coates, who fought hard throughout the race, fourth and fifth place went to Brad Bailey and Sennan Fielding respectively, both being their best finishes in the season so far, and sixth went to Charlie Robertson.
Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey
Becki Mitchell
