Robertson Rules Race Two At Rockingham
Although race one didn’t quite go to plan for the HHC Motorsport driver, Charlie Robertson made race two count, and put himself on the top step of the podium for round 16 at Rockingham.
As the lights went out for the second race of the Ginetta Junior Championship, unfortunately for Robertson, he got another poor start off the line, but it was the luck of the Irish for Niall Murray as he took advantage of the HHC’s misfortune and took the lead into Turn One.
As they went into Deene for the first time, all the G40s were as close as could be, but everyone managed to get through without major injury. As they went through into Yentwood however, it was a completely different story, as several cars made contact, with the result of championship leader Morris being tagged into a spin, and dropping right down the back of the pack.
As the race entered into lap two, Murray was still sitting comfortably in the lead, with Robertson in second and George Gamble for the TJ Motorsport team in third. But this was soon all to change, as at Brook Chicane, Robertson saw his chances and flew down the inside of Murray to steal the first place position.
While these two were battling it out for position, just behind them, Myles Collins, who was running in a fantastic fourth place decided he’d had enough of looking at the back of Gamble’s Ginetta, and passed Gamble at Deene on the third lap, putting him up to third place.
While the front runners were all tightly packed together and battling it out, Morris, who had spun on the first lap was making great headway through the pack, and by the time lap five came around, he was already back up to eighth position.
As the race entered into the second half, the fight for third place was really hotting up. Collins was clinging onto the position for as long as he could, but with each lap, both Gamble and Sennan Fielding were getting ever closer, and both fancied their chances at crossing the line in a bronze podium position.
Then, as they entered into lap seven, Fielding saw his opportunity to dive down the inside of the HHC Ginetta of Collins as they went into Deene, and made it stick, demoting Collins to fourth. Then Gamble managed to get past Collins too and was then hot on the tail of Fielding as they went into Yentwood, and stole third. But, not being one to miss out on a podium after race one’s performance, Fielding managed to squeeze back past at Tarzan for the third place position.
With the front runners constantly battling it out for position, this meant that a sneaky Morris could claw back as many places as he could, his last victims being Gamble and Collins, putting himself in a position to attack for third.
As the chequered flag dropped, Robertson crossed the line to take the win, followed by Murray in second place, equalling his fantastic performance from race one. Fielding was another who managed to equal his race one celebrations, as he crossed the line in third.
Fourth was to be had by Morris, a great result for him considering his earlier incident, fifth went to Gamble, and rounding out the top six was Collins, who although didn’t quite get the result he wanted, drove a fantastic race.
The Ginetta Junior Championship now heads to Brand Hatch Grand Prix Circuit in Kent for the penultimate round of the season, which takes place over the weekend of 1st/2nd October.
For full race classification click here.
For full championship standings click here.
Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey
Becki Mitchell
