Gamble wins race one at Croft
An eventful round nine at Croft saw TJ Motorsport’s George Gamble cross the chequered flag to win race one of the Ginetta Junior Championship, making it his second win of the season.
As the race got underway, Gamble got a fantastic start off the line, managing to get past pole sitter Charlie Robertson, demoting him to second. Behind these two, Brad Bailey, also in a TJ Motorsport car, saw an opportunity to try his luck up the inside of Robertson for second place. Unlucky for Bailey, he hit the kerb into Clervaux, causing him to spin, and collecting the unsuspecting cars of Niall Murray, Jake Giddings and Oliver Chadwick.
While this was happening at the front, current Ginetta Junior Championship leader Seb Morris, who could only manage 11th position in qualifying was storming through the pack. As he charged through, picking off cars as he went, he even managed to avoid the Bailey incident, putting him in a good third position, all by lap two. Others who managed to miss the carnage were Will Foster, who found himself in fourth place, Max Coates in fifth, and Sennan Fielding in sixth.
After managing to recover from the incident, Giddings found himself in seventh position, but then, there was an incident between himself and Fielding, putting them both back down the pack.
As the Ginettas entered into lap four, Robertson set his sights on gunning down first place sitter Gamble, but at the same time Morris was having the same thoughts on taking Robertson for second position.
Morris thought he found himself an opportunity at the Hairpin. As he edged alongside Robertson coming out of the final corner, Morris thought he had second place, but with Robertson covering the racing line well, Morris had to settle for third.
With the Robertson and Morris battle going on behind him, Gamble could focus on the track ahead, and managed to pull a slight gap from the HHC driver. But, with Robertson on the power, he was soon back on the bumper of the TJ motorsport Ginetta.
Morris then found he had problems of his own, as he was coming under pressure from the Tollbar Racing Ginetta of Will Foster, who wanted a piece of the action for third place.
As the race entered its final stages, Robertson even managed to set the fastest lap of the race, and he was on a charge. He even had a go at challenging for first place, with a superb pass on Gamble at the Jim Clark Esses, and Robertson managed to pass into first position. However, this was to be short lived as the HHC G40 spun only seconds later. Luckily, he managed to re-gain his second position he had previously.
As for the Morris and Foster fight, Foster managed to slip through and past Morris with a fantastic move, demoting the Hillspeed driver to fourth position.
With first place secured by Gamble, he crossed the line to win race one of the day with a 4.6 second lead ahead of Robertson, with Foster remaining in third and Morris in fourth. Fifth to cross the line was privateer Max Coates, who had a much better race compared to his Oulton Park performance two weeks ago, and sixth was Tom Howard in the second Tollbar Racing G40.
Seventh place went to FML’s Jake Giddings, eighth place was to be had by Struan Moore, Patrick McClughan finished in ninth place, and rounding out the top ten was Sennan Fielding.
Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey
Becki Mitchell
