GINETTA JUNIOR
AT THE MID-STAGE OF THE SEASON IT LOOKED as though we were on for a cracking title battle. Tom Gamble, Seb Priaulx and Dan Harper were evenly matched and star rookie Kiern Jewiss wasn’t too far behind either.
Then came the Silverstone meeting. Gamble was dominant, enabling him to arrive at the Brands Hatch finale with a 42-point lead.
Gamble made history at Silverstone by becoming the first driver ever to win all three races in a weekend. That was enough to separate him from the pack after a season that featured some incredible racing between the leading quartet and others, including Harry King and Tom Wood.
“Silverstone was awesome – I didn’t expect to win all three,” says Gamble. “The first was close, the second one the conditions were a bit weird, and then in the third they were scrapping behind me, so it was the easiest race I’ve ever won.”
But Gamble’s path to title glory wasn’t always so straightforward. He was affected by Ginetta’s decision to suspend JHR Developments mid-season while the manufacturer investigated the team’s conduct. This meant he had to switch to the Elite Motorsport squad but, crucially, it didn’t hamper his progress.
JHR team-mate Priaulx had an even more complicated year, since he was initially excluded from the Thruxton meeting for engine irregularities and docked a number of points. While that was under appeal, he put together an impressive winning streak before the National Court ruled that his points could be reinstated. But ultimately it was to no avail as he fell 27 points short of Gamble after switching to HHC Motorsport following the JHR saga.