Race one of the Ginetta Junior Championship at the scorching Brands Hatch GP Circuit saw Seb Morris provisionally crowned 2011 Champion, due to some robust racing causing a judicial hearing, putting Niall Murray on the top step of the podium.

As the lights went out for the first race of the Ginetta Junior Championship at the Kent circuit, it was third place sitter Sennan Fielding who got a cracking start off the line, and began challenging Jake Giddings and pole position place sitter George Gamble for position. As they entered into Paddock Hill Bend, Fielding saw his opportunity on the outside of Giddings, and demoted the FML driver to third place.

As for the Hillspeed driver Morris, who started fifth on the grid, he found himself in an unusual position of going back down the pack, ending up in seventh position by the time the cars got round to Druids.

As for HHC driver Charlie Robertson, he had a poor start in his Ginetta thanks to coming into contact with others, causing the car to want to spin off the track at Graham Hill Bend. But, thanks to some cunning car control, Robertson got himself facing the right way and back on track ready to catch up with the rest of the pack.

While this was going on behind, Gamble in the TJ Motorsport Ginetta was still out in front and in the lead, up until lap four when Fielding had other ideas. As they entered into Druids, Fielding saw his opportunity and went for it, putting Gamble back in second position. However, this move was to be short-lived, as the pair came together on the Grand Prix loop putting Gamble out of the race. Luckily for Fielding, he managed to recover and set to work climbing back up the pack.  

Thanks to the off with the front runners, this meant that Giddings was now leading the race, with Tom Howard for Tollbar Racing with Wired for company in second. Running in a solid third place was Beacon Racing’s Murray, who was slowly being hunted down by Morris in fourth.

As the drivers entered into lap six, Murray had enough of following the back of the Tollbar Racing Ginetta, and went in for the move at Druids, not only taking Howard, but also Giddings, putting him right at the front and in the lead. Then, as they went into Graham Hill Bend, contact between Giddings and Murray meant the front runners were shaken up again, with Murray having a fantastic come-back and grabbing the back the lead at Surtees. Morris also got the maximum out of this by working his way up into second position. Unfortunately for Giddings, he dropped down into fourth place, promoting Max Coates up into third place.

As the race entered into its final stages, an unfortunate turn of events for Howard meant that his race came to an early end, as he entered into the pits on lap seven and retired from the race. As for Murray and Morris who were running strong at the front, as they entered into Druids on the penultimate lap Morris managed to sneak ahead of Murray. But, not wanting to settle for second best, on the final lap, Murray on the same turn as before tried to get down the side of Morris to take back the lead, but the pair came into contact, with Morris keeping his first place position.  

Although Morris crossed the chequered flag first to take the win for race one, after the event, a judicial inquiry was held, which stated Morris used some robust tactics, and therefore was given a three second time penalty which demoted him to second place, giving Irishman Murray the win.  Third to cross the line was an elated Coates, who was ecstatic to be on the podium. Fourth was to be had by Robertson, which was a fantastic recovery from his earlier incident in the race, fifth went to Giddings and sixth was to be had by Brad Bailey.

Another great result was for Oliver Chadwick, who finished in his best position so far this season, bringing his Ginetta home in a great seventh position.  Although Fielding only finished in ninth place, he still had a positive to gain from the race, as he managed a new lap record of 1m40.330 seconds.   

Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey

Becki Mitchell is our designated Ginetta Junior correspondant. You can contact her at becki@btcccrazy.co.uk or on her personal twitter account at @bexcci.