GINETTA JUNIOR
Ginetta Junior’s Winter Series is an excellent indicator when it comes to predicting who will star in the following year’s championship.
Since 2012, every winter champion has gone on to finish first or second in the main series the next season, so expectations were high for Adam Smalley this year after he prevailed in last November’s contest.
Smalley was the Ginetta scholar in 2017 but suffered a disjointed season as he was forced into switching from JHR Developments to HHC Motorsport – and he then had to move again for the Winter Series, to Elite Motorsport. This proved to be the perfect surroundings for him as he was able to beat this year’s F4 champion Kiern Jewiss to the winter crown. And 2018 got off to a good start too.
Smalley was the early points leader and took six podiums from the opening eight races. During this stage of the season his main rival was Richardson Racing’s Luke Browning – one of only a small number of 2017 drivers to join Smalley in returning this year.
But Browning’s charge was halted when he was stripped of a win at Oulton Park after having insufficient oil left in his diffuser and a lacklustre appeal to the National Court was unsuccessful. Despite some great performances, notably at Knockhill where he recovered from pitting on the opening lap following contact to finish fourth in the first race, he gradually dropped further away from the summit.
Instead, while Smalley was battling with a troublesome engine, a new rival emerged: his Elite team-mate Louis Foster, son of ex-british Touring Car racer Nick. Despite only contesting three meetings last term, he went on a remarkable run of results in the second half of the season, winning five races in a row to catapult himself into title contention.
But in the end Smalley stood firm, with a win at Brands Hatch – his first in nine races – helping him to clinch the title.
“The last race of the season was pretty emotional,” he recalls. “I had different people telling me where I needed to finish in the race to win the championship. Originally, I thought it was eighth and then everyone was telling me sixth. I think people were telling me sixth so I wouldn’t play it as safe [and risk missing out]. I was nervous because Louis was on good form.”
His eventual fifth-place finish did indeed prove to be enough for the title, however.
“After winning the Winter Series, all through the winter I had people saying ‘you’re going to be champion’ so there was so much pressure,” Smalley adds. “Crossing the line at that last moment was such a relief.”
Foster did actually score significantly more points than Smalley over the course of the season. But he had 57 deducted from his final total – 27 for incidents throughout the year and 30 for his two dropped scores – and that enabled Smalley to triumph by just eight points.