‘Smalley claims the Winter Series crown’
Two wins and two pole positions – the start of the Ginetta Junior Winter Series at Brands Hatch on Saturday couldn’t have gone much better for Kiern Jewiss.
But, as befitting a series in which the unexpected usually happens, the 2017 Ginetta Junior rookie champion’s title bid came undone with just one mistake, allowing Adam Smalley to claim the prize.
The title favourite’s weekend started well with masterful defending of the inside lines at Druids and Surtees to hold off Smalley.
A second win from pole in race two was harder than it sounded thanks to the greasy conditions from constant rain meaning his start was “the longest burnout ever”, dropping him to third behind Greg Johnson and Smalley.
The wet kerbs punished wide moments, shuffling Johnson to third, before Smalley found grip at Surtees to pass a loose Jewiss.
The two continued to trade mistakes into the rapidly fading light, but as Smalley rued afterwards “we both made a couple of mistakes, but unfortunately I made the last one,” – a wide moment at Paddock to settle the win for Douglas Motorsports’ Jewiss.
Smalley began race three on pole but suffered a horrendous start on the wet pole slot from Saturday’s showers. Jewiss looked good for a third win from three, but Elite Motorsport’s Smalley caught Jewiss napping with a superb move on the outside at Graham Hill Bend to take his first Junior victory.
Race four was where it all came undone. Jewiss needed second place while Smalley needed at least a win, but Jewiss had a catastrophic spin on oil at Surtees dropping him from third to 14th. His excellent recovery to sixth, despite damaged steering, couldn’t prevent Smalley’s win from securing the title.
“It’s amazing, I’m speechless,” the 2016 scholarship winner said. “Pole, two wins and the championship in a day isn’t bad. Hopefully I can start next year how I ended this one.”
Jewiss added: “At the end of the day it is what it is, so I will move on from it.”
Ross Wylie and Witt Gamski took the 2017 Britcar Endurance Championship in their Ferrari 458 GTE, with a class win and second place at Brands Hatch.
Wylie and Gamski in Class 1 entered the final weekend one point ahead of Class 3 pair Simon Rudd and Tom Barley, and three ahead of Class 3 duo Darron Lewis and Tom Knight – both pairs in Ginettas for Team Hard.
The Rudd/barley challenge ended in the sprint race – at night in wet conditions – when Barley was nudged into the barriers mid-race at Paddock Hill Bend.
Lewis and Knight lost ground to Wylie and Gamski by finishing second in class to Mike Moss and Kevin Clarke’s BMW, amid controversy over a stoppage that followed Barley’s crash.
Lewis and Knight then had a frustrating into-the-night endurance race. At three-quarters’ distance they were cut across at Druids by the Matt Le Breton/rob Young Mclaren, which dropped them from contention after the resultant extra pitstop.
Gamski and Wylie’s class win and second sealed them the title.
“We’re over the moon,” said Wylie. “It’s been a really difficult season. They threw everything at us but we still came out on top.”
The endurance race was won by Stefano Leaney and Rob Wheldon in their Radical RXC GT3 Coupe, their first Britcar win.
“We’ve definitely had the pace every meeting we’ve been to,” said Wheldon. “It’s about time that we managed to covert it; chuffed to bits that we have!”
The opening race was won by Johnny Mowlem and Bonamy Grimes in their Class 2 Ferrari 458 Challenge, while David Mason and Calum Lockie in another Ferrari 458 won the Sprint race.
The British Touring Car Championship may have been decided at Brands over a month earlier, but the title fight continued between Ashley Sutton and Colin Turkington – this time through their Renault UK Clio Cup Junior proteges.
Jack Young (supported by Turkington) headed into the weekend with the most points, but the Suttonmentored Max Marzorati held the title lead after two dropped scores.
Both made poor starts dropping them down to seventh and sixth respectively in the opening race but, just three laps in, an understeery moment for Young left him tagging Marzorati at the hairpin.
Team Pyro’s Marzorati ended up in the Clearways wall but managed to continue, albeit with front-end damage.
Young maintained his second position (while his rival finished down in eighth place) but he was deemed at fault, and was given a two-place grid penalty for race two.
Marzorati squeezed Young to lead the finale, but was visibly hairy on the corners, saving some big slides on multiple occasions.
On the last tour he couldn’t hold a spin at Mclaren, dropping him to fourth behind Young.
“I’m over the moon,” said Young, who became the first series champion. “It’s a massive confidence boost for me, especially when it’s my first year in cars. There are no words to describe it.”
Lorcan Hanafin claimed the spoils to win both encounters.
Mini debutant Lee Deegan scorched his way to two victories in the Sevens and Miglias, while noted historic racer Nick Padmore also triumphed.
Padmore won the drizzly opener after Deegan spun on cold tyres following a mid-race safety car, eventually recovering from seventh to second.
In the wet second race Deegan again lost his lead to Padmore with a slide at Graham Hill Bend, but retook the place two laps later when they went either side of a backmarker at Surtees.
A fine outside-to-inside move at Clearways completed at Paddock sealed the third race for Deegan.
The South Eastern Centre Sports and Saloons races featured entries from the Modified Saloons and Tin Tops series for a non-championship combined weekend.
A spin for Caroline Agate at Druids brought a safety car out to help Jon Bevan and Rod Birley’s Honda Integra to victory in the pitstop race.
Colin Tester (Ford Sierra) led much of race two, slowing with a problem on lap 16 to gift Paul Watson the win in his BMW E36.
Watson diced with Martyn Scott (BMW E30) in the weekend’s finale, which ended rather prematurely with a red flag for Bevan’s off at Druids in favour of Scott.