Harrison Mackie, Josh Watts and Performance One Motorsport wrote their name into the Ginetta Junior Championship powered by Sunoco Race Fuels history books at Oulton Park as they became the latest first-time winners in the series.
Mackie initially won the opening race of the weekend on the road, however a penalty promoted Watts to a breakthrough success. A penalty then went in Mackie’s favour in race two though, with the new victors becoming the 115th and 116th drivers ever to win a race in Ginetta Junior competition.
“It was frustrating to have a win taken away, so it’s nice to come back and show it wasn’t a fluke,” said Mackie. “It feels like it’s been a long-time coming this one. We’ve been in the mix from the first round and it’s been a case of getting the mistakes out of the way against drivers with a lot more testing and racing experience in these cars. Now I’ve done that, we’re showing what we’re here to do and hopefully this is the first of many wins.”
Watts enthused: “It’s amazing to get my first win. We had a rough start to this season and I’ve had a lot of bad luck in my time in the championship, so for it to come together and to finally secure a win is a fantastic feeling. I’m so pleased.
“I couldn’t ask for anything more from the team. We’ve worked so hard to develop the car and get it to the place it is now, and it’s so nice to have that hard work pay off. This is such a confidence booster and it will push me to try and enjoy this feeling again.”
Watts’ success meant Performance One Motorsport become the 20th different team to win a race in the G40 era of the Ginetta Junior Championship. They do so in only their second season on the grid, with continued improvement resulting in best-ever qualifying and race results over the Oulton weekend.
“The whole team are incredibly happy,” commented team principal Jack Roberts. “We’ve worked so hard as a team to get to this moment. It’s our first overall victory of any kind since we started the team and it feel really good to achieve it in the Ginetta Junior Championship.
“This is an incredibly competitive championship and it’s hard to win in it, but we’ve achieved it now and I’m excited for the future. We’ll celebrate this moment and shout-out to Josh for a brilliant performance, but then we will continue pushing for the next one.”
The 2026 Ginetta Junior Championship powered by Sunoco Race Fuels season continues later this month with four races as part of the Ginetta Festival event at Croft (27/28 June).
