“Title battles are far from decided”

A95-point gap sounds pretty large. Even more so when you consider it’s after just five events in a championship as notoriously unpredictable as Ginetta Junior. But that’s the position James Hedley finds himself in at the top of the British Touring Car Championship support series heading into the summer break.

As gargantuan as it sounds, it’s not actually the largest points lead for a Ginetta Junior driver after five of the 10 meetings in recent years. That honour instead goes to Harry Woodhead who was 135 points clear back in 2013 after winning every single race in the first half of the season.

Hedley hasn’t been quite that dominant this year.

The Elite Motorsport driver has not even had the most wins, taking ‘only’ three compared to Will Martin’s four. But he has finished on the podium in nine of the 10 races held so far (Zak O’sullivan is next best with five, and is yet to win a race) and it’s that consistency that has enabled Hedley to be in such a commanding position. His worst result so far is fourth.

But does that mean Hedley is a shoo-in for the title? Not necessarily. There’s still a very long way to go. Not only does every one of the remaining five meetings have three races (only Donington Park did in the first half of the year) but there’s the cancelled Croft race to throw into the mix too. While Hedley has no doubt been a class act, maintaining that consistency over the remainder of the season will be a tough ask. Especially as the rookie drivers, now with half a season under their belts, are only going to get stronger.

However, it’s not just Hedley that finds himself comfortably clear at the mid-point of the year. Over in British Formula 4, Zane Maloney is in a rich vein of form having won seven races on the bounce and looks tough to beat. His advantage stands at 54 points, just over two race wins.

It’s a similar story in the Ginetta GT4 Supercup, where Harry King enjoys a 48-point gap and in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB where Dan Harper’s rivals look to have a real fight on their hands to deny the Porsche GB Junior. Although his advantage is only 20 points, the much lower scoring system in the Porsche series means it’s still a healthy lead.

This means the Renault UK Clio Cup is the toughest title battle to call heading into the summer break. The championship may be suffering from tiny entries – it dropped into single figures at Oulton Park last weekend – but it has two very evenly-matched drivers at the front in the shape of Max Coates and

Jack Young. Expect their battle to go down to the wire with just six points separating them at this stage.

But that doesn’t mean the other championships are decided already. Far from it. There has been enough dramatic conclusions and incredible turnarounds among the BTCC support series over the years to suggest nothing is certain with half the season still to go.