Exclusion ‘doesn’t matter’

GINETTA JUNIOR

Ginetta Junior frontrunner Luke Browning says that his exclusion from a race at June’s Oulton Park round has not affected his championship position.

Browning finished first on the road in the opening Oulton race, but was disqualified from the results after officials were unable to extract sufficient oil from the differential in parc ferme for scrutineering purposes.

Browning’s team Richardson Racing appealed, claiming that a mechanical failure had caused oil to leak, but was told after the recent Snetterton round that the National Court had upheld the initial verdict.

Browning feels that had the oil leak that led to the exclusion remained undetected after the first race, and the team not sorted the issue, then he would have suffered a mechanical failure in the second race that weekend, which he went on to win. “The way we look at it, the next race [where he won] we would have got a DNF anyway so it would have evened itself out,” said Browning, whose lost appeal left him 36 points down on rival Adam Smalley heading into last weekend’s round at Rockingham.

“It’s just one of those things, it wasn’t anyone’s fault. It was a Ginetta part and it’s not the team’s job for that to work.”

Richardson Racing boss Gwyn Richardson believes his driver is still in contention.

“He will still be fighting for the championship, the gap isn’t that big – it’s just a DNF in one race,” he said.

The points gap after the Rockingham round is now 45 in favour of Smalley, who took two thirds and a fourth, while Browning recovered from a tough first race to score a second place and a win.