Jacob Ashcroft became the latest first-time winner in the Ginetta Junior Championship powered by Sunoco Race Fuels as he shared the spoils with Harrison Mackie on the opening day of the Ginetta Festival at Croft (27 June).
Qualifying
Ashcroft (Elite Motorsport) got the weekend off to the perfect start with his maiden pole position in qualifying. In his McLaren Papaya liveried G40, his best effort was almost four tenths of a second quicker than Riley Cranham (R Racing). The latter took race two pole on second fastest times.
Daniel Oliver (Elite Motorsport) was quickest of all in Friday testing and backed that up with third in qualifying ahead of R Racing duo Lewis Goff and Sebastien Leusch, the latter in a seasons’ best fifth. Oulton Park race-winner Mackie (Elite Motorsport) rounded out the top six.
Race One
Ashcroft converted his pole position into the race lead at the start of the opening encounter, but quickly came under pressure from Cranham. Diving down the inside into Tower on lap two, Cranham briefly lost the spot back to Ashcroft at the Esses before seizing the advantage through Sunny Out.
Ashcroft went wide over the grass in the process, allowing Goff to get ahead as well. The next driver on the move was Mackie, picking off Oliver for fourth on lap two and then passing Ashcroft for third next time around to put him on the tail of Goff.
That didn’t last long though, as a puncture for Goff forced him to slow and make a trip to the pitlane. Cranham’s chief challenger became Mackie therefore and over the next handful of laps, the latter closed up a gap of almost two seconds and started challenging for the lead.
Mackie dived down the inside at the hairpin on the penultimate lap to take the lead, however Cranham tried to get it back at Sunny In. Unfortunately, contact between the two sent Mackie spinning onto the grass, with Cranham going on to take the chequered flag in first.
Post-race, he was penalised with a 16.1-second penalty though to put him behind Mackie in the revised result. It was Ashcroft therefore that was classified as the overall race winner, with Jesse Phillips (R Racing) finishing up second after a great drive from ninth on the grid.
Oliver had finished fourth on the road, however he was disqualified post-race due to an infringement under yellow flags. That meant it was Max Murray (R Racing) who eventually took the final podium position ahead of Noah Young (Performance One), with them both rising seven places in the race.
Leusch had a rollercoaster race, dropping back to 14th at one stage before fighting back to an eventual best result of the season so far in fifth. Josh Watts (Performance One) completed the top six, while Ian Danicska (Elite Motorsport) was a great seventh in his debut. He’s become one of the youngest ever drivers in the championship, aged just 14 years and eight days old.
Mackie was eventually classified in eighth ahead of Cranham, with Henry Cameron completing the top ten ahead of his Elite Motorsport team-mate Devon Hagelen. Dominic Darling (Performance One) secured his best race finish of the season so far in 12th ahead of Vladislav Tomenchuk (Elite Motorsport).
Addison Smith (MDD Motorsport) ended up in 14th, having received a five-second track limits penalty, with Jorn Helder (Project R). Harry Bartle (Pace Performance) had been battling for a top ten berth at one stage, however an incident with Bailey Doughty (MK Racing) dropped him down to 16th.
Doughty ended up missing out on the points in 21st, having also picked up a track limits penalty. Finishing ahead were Vicky Farfus (Paradine Competition), first-time points finishers Anesu Maphumulo (RABsport Racing) and Luca Luen (Pace Performance), and Melvin Kalousdian (R Racing).
Kalousdian had crossed the finish line in seventh initially, however 15-seconds of time penalties for track limits infringements dropped him down to 20th. Andrew Robinson (E3 Sport) and Ethan Brass (MK Racing) were next up, with Goff left to finish in 24th after his pitstop woes.
Race Two
Cranham was joined on the front row of the grid by Goff for race two. The R Racing team-mates went side-by-side into Clervaux for the first time, with Goff losing out as Mackie moved up to second. That started a tough opening lap for the championship leader, as he got shuffled back to eighth.
Back at the front, Cranham and Mackie reignited their race one battle. Mackie almost got ahead on lap four, but was able to make it stick next time around with a move through the high-speed Esses and Barcroft section. It was greatly timed, with the safety car boards coming out just after.
That was to allow for the recovery of Doughty’s car after a trip to the Clervaux gravel. When racing resumed, Cranham tried to regain the lead around the outside at Tower. That left him stuck on the outside for the next few corners though, opening the door for Ashcroft to snatch second.
Cranham’s next challenger was a resurgent Goff, who passed both Oliver and Cranham on the same lap to secure third. Oliver followed him past Cranham, while an attempted move from Phillips into Clervaux sent them both wide and allowed Bartle to pick them off.
Their fight continued to the penultimate lap, with Cranham getting down the inside of Bartle into Sunny Out. Phillips seized on the moment though and ended up passing both, with Kalousdian also getting involved to pass Bartle as well.
Having no such drama was Mackie, who picked up his second win of the season ahead of Ashcroft for an Elite Motorsport one-two. Goff completed the podium ahead of Oliver, with the late action ending with Phillips in fifth ahead of Cranham, Kalousdian and Bartle.
Leusch and Cameron added to their tally of top ten results behind, while Tomenchuk gained four places through the race en-route to 11th. Team-mates Young and Darling were next up, ahead of two more drivers to make strong progress through the race in Smith and Hagelen.
In the Freshmans Cup, a class for car-racing rookies with no previous national-level karting experience, Dominic Darling celebrated a double victory. That takes his tally for the season to four wins.
Full race results can be found at https://www.tsl-timing.com/event/262631
Qualifying and both races can be watched back now at www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdLhUvVWqxA
The action continues tomorrow (28 June) with another qualifying and two races, once again streamed live on GT World.
