Patience Pays Off For Fielding
The penultimate race of the Ginetta Junior Championship at Silverstone saw rookie Sennan Fielding take the top step of the podium for the first time this season, after some patient racing behind Niall Murray and Seb Morris played into his hands.
As the lights went out to get the race underway, pole sitter Brad Bailey in the TJ Motorsport Ginetta got a poor start off the line, leaving Beacon Racing’s Murray to take the lead as they headed into the first lap, followed by Jake Giddings, Morris, Fielding and Tom Howard, who had managed to get the jump on Max Coates who was demoted to sixth place.
As the drivers entered into lap two, Fielding, who was sitting in fourth place behind champion Morris, decided that he’d had enough of looking at the back of the red and white Ginetta, and stole his third place position. However, this was to be short-lived, as Morris kept on the pressure and not only took back the position a lap later, he attacked Giddings for second place, and took that too, demoting the FML driver to third.
As the race began to unfold, on lap four, Tollbar Racing with Wired’s Howard had an abrupt ending to his race in the gravel at Becketts, putting him out of the race. Due to the misfortune of Howard, this meant that Coates now found himself sitting in a comfortable fifth position.
Giving it his all, the Irish man Murray was still leading the pack, very closely followed by Morris and Fielding showing good form in third. Morris saw an opportunity on lap seven to sneak down the side of Murray at Copse, but Murray had it all covered and closed the gap, making it clear to Morris there was no way of getting through. But while these two were fighting it out in front, it meant that Fielding in the TJ Motorsport Ginetta was slowly gaining on the leading pair.
With Murray, Morris and Fielding out in front, Robertson, who had made good headway in the race and fought through the pack to work his way up to fourth position was slowly beginning to gain on the leaders too. However, the HHC driver had his own problems to contend with, as George Gamble was piling on the pressure from behind.
On lap 11, Gamble in the TJ Motorsport Ginetta managed to find a way past Robertson to steal the place, demoting the HHC driver to fifth. To make matters more disappointing for the 14 year old, Bailey also managed to find a way through, leaving Robertson no choice but to settle for sixth position.
As the race entered its final stages, the battle for the lead really started to hot up. Just half a lap from the end of the race, Morris went for an overtake on Murray, the pair then ended up trading paintwork as they stood their ground for the position. With all this going on, Fielding, who had been patiently waiting for his break in the race, went for it, and got past both the squabbling Ginettas and managed to take the lead.
As the chequered flag dropped, Fielding took his first victory in the Ginetta Junior Championship, followed by Niall Murray in second place, and Morris third. Fourth to cross the line was Gamble, fifth was to be had by Bailey and coming in sixth was Robertson.
Seventh was to be had by Struan Moore for the Hillspeed team, eighth went to Tollbar Racing with Wired’s Will Foster, ninth was Coates and rounding out the top ten was William Palmer.
Newcomer to the series and racing rookie Andrew Watson, managed a fantastic 11th place finish, while Giddings, Patrick McClughan and Oliver Chadwick all received drive-through penalties for exceeding the track limits.
Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey
Becki Mitchell
