Lewis Goff has increased his advantage at the top of the Ginetta Junior Championship powered by Sunoco Race Fuels standings with a double victory at Zandvoort (11/12 July), with Harrison Mackie also strengthening his title challenge with a race win of his own.
Qualifying
The weekend got underway with Melvin Kalousdian (R Racing) making it six different drivers to go quickest in six Junior qualifying sessions so far this season. Kalousdian secured his maiden pole position by a narrow margin, lapping just 0.077s quicker than leading rookie Jacob Ashcroft (Elite Motorsport).
A strong session for R Racing saw three of their drivers in the top four, with championship leader Lewis Goff and Riley Cranham sharing the second row of the grid for race one. Harry Bartle (Pace Performance) and Harrison Mackie (Elite Motorsport) completed the top six overall.
On his 15th birthday, Daniel Oliver posted the seventh best time ahead of his Elite Motorsport team-mate Devon Hagelen. The latter had set the quickest lap across the official free practice sessions on Friday, as the only Dutchman on the grid competing in his home event.
Race One
The weekend’s racing began with pole-sitter Kalousdian leading the field through the opening sequence of corners. His advantage was short-lived however, as a brilliant move from Goff around the outside at Mastersbocht saw him pass both Ashcroft and the leader at the same time to seize the advantage.
Kalousdian slotted in behind his team-mate and the top two started to edge away in the early laps, however a mistake from Kalousdian at the penultimate corner on lap four lost him momentum heading on to the straight. Ashcroft and Mackie took full advantage to drop Kalousdian out of the top three.
A few corners later, Mackie dived down the inside of Ashcroft to grab second place. It was a well-timed move, as the safety car boards emerged soon after, following an incident for Cranham. After a grid penalty had put him ninth, he had made great early progress to fifth before the early conclusion.
The race restarted for a two lap sprint to the chequered flag. It was immediately three-wide for third going in to Tarzanbocht, with Kalousdian almost getting the spot from Ashcroft. The Red Bull Junior Team driver ended up losing out to Bartle though, slipping back to fifth.
Bartle continued on the offensive on the final lap and got ahead of Ashcroft into Mastersbocht for third place. Ahead, Mackie drew alongside Goff in the battle for the lead at one stage, but the points leader fended him off to secure a crucial victory.
Kalousdian finished up fifth after trading places with Oliver in the closing laps. Oliver was sixth on the road at the finish, however a one-position penalty for an incident during the race put him behind Max Murray. The latter’s R Racing team-mate Sebastien Leusch made good progress from 13th on the grid to eighth.
Hagelen slipped back from sixth behind the safety car to ninth in the final two laps. Jesse Phillips (R Racing) rounded out the top ten ahead of Noah Young (Performance One), as Vicky Farfus (Paradine Competition) put in her best drive of the season so far to move up from 19th on the grid to 12th.
Farfus just edged an exciting three-way photo finish, with less than half a tenth of a second splitting her, Ian Danicska (Elite Motorsport) and Josh Watts (Performance One). Henry Cameron (Elite Motorsport) and Bailey Doughty (MK Racing) were next up.
After a mechanical issue ruled him out of qualifying, Addison Smith (MDD Motorsport) impressively climbed from the back of the grid to 17th ahead of Vladislav Tomenchuk (Elite Motorsport). Dominic Darling (Performance One) and Andrew Robinson (E3 Sport) completed the points finishers.
Race Two
As Goff led away from pole position, the driver on the move at the start of Sunday’s opening race was Ashcroft. Moving up from fifth to third off the race start, he then picked off Cranham into Tarzanbocht on lap two to slot into second position behind Goff.
A five car train formed at the head of the field in the opening laps, with Kalousdian and Bartle tucking in behind the top three. Goff ran slightly wide exiting the penultimate corner on lap four, giving Ashcroft the slipstream down the straight to move into the lead at Tarzanbocht to start lap five.
Cranham was able to follow him through to second, however slight contact between the top two later in the lap allowed Goff back past them both again. Cranham moved into second, as their battling allowed Mackie to catch the pack and make it a six car battle.
Positions changed again at the start of lap six, as Goff ran wide at Tarzanbocht. That dropped him to fourth, with Cranham taking the lead for the first time. Kalousdian briefly grabbed second from Ashcroft, however they both lost ground later in the lap and fell to the back of the lead group.
Benefitting from it all was Mackie, who rose from sixth to second in less than two laps with a move on Goff into Tarzanbocht. That put him on to the tail of Cranham for the closing laps of the race, and the duo served up a nail-biting conclusion.
Cranham seemed on course for victory, but Mackie got a great slipstream out of Arie Luyendyk Bocht for the final time and just nosed ahead at the chequered flag. The winning margin was just 0.022s, the fourth closest race finish in the history of the Ginetta Junior Championship.
Goff finished up third, while Ashcroft and Kalousdian completed the top five after both passing Bartle two laps from the finish. Bartle ended up having contact with Oliver on the penultimate lap, dropping him to ninth and bringing Oliver’s race to an early conclusion.
Benefitting from all the action in front of them to slowly climb up the order were Phillips and Cameron, each gaining five places en-route to sixth and seventh respectively. Hagelen was eighth ahead of Bartle, as Leusch rounded out the top ten from Doughty.
Watts had been battling at the bottom of the top ten through the race, but pulled off the circuit into retirement on the penultimate lap. His Performance One team-mate Young ended up 12th ahead of Danicska, as Smith made superb progress again from 24th on the grid to 14th at the finish.
Tomenchuk moved up five places through the race to come home 15th. Darling recovered from an issue mid-race and fought back to 16th ahead of Ethan Brass (MK Racing) and Robinson. Samuel Del Gaudio (Paradine Competition) and Anesu Maphumulo (RABsport Racing) completed the points finishers.
Race Three
With the race two result setting the grid for the final race of the weekend, it was Mackie on pole position. He led proceedings for the first few corners, before Goff dived down the inside into turn nine, however the lead changed hands back into Tarzanbocht on lap three.
Goff lost further ground later in the lap to Ashcroft, just before the emergence of the safety car after Farfus pulled off circuit. When racing resumed on lap six, Goff quickly fought back past Ashcroft into Scheivlak and then picked off Mackie for the lead on the next lap.
As the battles for third intensified, the top two were able to break away. Mackie made his move into Tarzanbocht on the last lap to regain the advantage, however a slight mistake under braking at Hans Ernst Bocht opened the door for Goff to slip back past and grab his eighth win of the season.
In the pack behind, the driver on the move after the safety car restart was Cranham. He moved ahead of Hagelen on lap six, with Bartle and Phillips following him through, before he passed Kalousdian next time round. Ashcroft was his next target, with the duo trading positions on lap eight.
Their eagerness only allowed Kalousdian to get ahead of both of them though, with a tough lap for Ashcroft resulting in him slipping back to seventh. Kalousdian put in a brilliant defensive performance on the last lap to hold on to third place, though only just by 0.022s from Bartle.
Cranham’s impressive race culminated in a fifth place finish ahead of Phillips, with Hagelen making a late move on Ashcroft for seventh. Cameron made it three yellow Elite machines in a row in ninth, as Leusch completed the top ten overall after a good battle with Danicska.
The big mover in the race was Oliver, moving up nine positions through the race to 12th. Watts made similar progress to 13th on the road, however he received a one-place penalty to put him behind Young. Doughty was 15th meanwhile as he completed a hat-trick of wins in the Freshmans Cup – a class for car-racing rookies with no previous national-level karting experience.
Tomenchuk ended his weekend in 16th ahead of fellow points finishers Smith, Robinson, Brass and Darling. Missing out on the points meanwhile after having to make trips to the pitlane during the race were Del Gaudio and Murray.
Alongside his double race victory, Goff also picked up the Sunoco Fastest Driver of the Weekend Award after posting the quickest racing lap of the event. His 2:04.827s effort in race two is also a new Ginetta Junior Championship lap record for Zandvoort.
Full race results can be found at www.getraceresults.com
All three races can be watched back now at www.youtube.com/gtworld
