Lewis Goff enjoyed a perfect start to the 2026 Ginetta Junior Championship powered by Sunoco Race Fuels season, charging his way to a sensational triple victory across the opening round at Donington Park this past weekend (11-12 April).
As 28 drivers battled it out, the biggest-ever grid for the opening round of a Ginetta Junior season, Goff produced a dominant display at the head of the field. He becomes only the second driver in history to win three races on a season opening weekend, replicating Freddie Slater’s achievement from 2023.
Qualifying
Goff (R Racing) topped the timesheets in official testing on Friday, and he repeated that performance in qualifying the following day. The Winter Series race-winner lapped the 2.49-mile Grand Prix circuit almost a quarter of a second quicker than anyone else to secure a double pole.
Max Murray made it an R Racing front-row lockout for the opening race, while Daniel Oliver (Elite Motorsport) finished third quickest in his first-ever Junior qualifying session. Fellow Elite contenders Jacob Ashcroft and Harrison Mackie joined them in the top six, split by Jesse Phillips (R Racing).
Race One
Timetable delays on Saturday led to the opening race being moved to Sunday morning, the first of three races across the day. Goff got off to a great start from pole, benefitting from immediate battling behind to secure a three second lead by the end of the opening lap.
He didn’t look back from there, leading every lap en-route to a four second victory, his first in the main championship in addition to a Winter Series win last year. It was a landmark moment for R Racing too, as they became the first team to reach 100 race wins in Ginetta Junior competition.
The man on the move in the leading pack was Harry Bartle (Pace Performance), rising from seventh to fourth on the opening lap. He then picked off Murray and Oliver on consecutive laps to move up to second, where he remained to the chequered flag.
The battle for third was hotly-contested throughout the race. Oliver held it through mid-distance, before Phillips dived past at Melbourne on lap eight. Murray and Melvin Kalousdian (R Racing) were in the thick of the action as well, with Phillips eventually completing the overall podium.
Kalousdian finished fourth on the road, however a five-second penalty for track limits infringements dropped him behind Murray and Oliver. Ashcroft bounced back from a tough opening lap to finish seventh on the road, however a track-limits penalty put him behind Noah Young (Performance One).
Ashcroft and Young had been part of a phenomenal six-car battle over seventh place in the middle part of the race. R Racing pair Sebastien Leusch and Riley Cranham were involved too as they rounded out the top ten overall, while Josh Watts (Performance One) was unlucky to see an incident at the Old Hairpin end his top ten challenge.
Addison Smith (MDD Motorsport) finished his debut Ginetta race in 11th overall ahead of Bailey Doughty (MK Racing) and Vladislav Tomenchuk (Elite Motorsport), with the latter two drivers impressing gaining six places over the course of the race.
Mackie had split them at the flag, however a track-limits penalty put him 19th, ending a difficult race where two off-track moments dropped him out of the top six. Devon Hagelen finished 14th ahead of his Elite team-mate Henry Cameron and Kai Veitch (Pace Performance).
Vicky Farfus (Paradine Competition) and Henry Carter (Pace Performance) finished their first-ever Ginetta races in 17th and 18th respectively. Andrew Robinson (E3 Sport) completed the points finishers, with Jorn Helder (Project R) just missing out after a last corner spin dropped him back from 12th.
Race Two
The grid for race two was based on the second-fastest times in qualifying, with Goff joined on the front-row of the grid by Bartle. A clean start saw Goff lead the field through Redgate for the first time, however an incident at the Old Hairpin led to a quick safety car period.
When action resumed, Mackie pressured Bartle for second and got past at McLeans on lap four. His advantage only lasted a couple of laps though, as Bartle fought back ahead at Coppice. The top three remained in formation from there, Goff doubling his win tally as Mackie scored his maiden podium.
Ashcroft and Phillips traded fourth place back and forth in the early stages, leading a close fought train that stretched back to tenth. Cranham fought his way past both to grab fourth, before contact with Ashcroft led to the latter spinning to the outskirts of the top ten.
Cranham went on to score a rookie podium in fourth ahead of his R Racing team-mates Phillips, Kalousdian and Murray. Oliver enjoyed some close action as he finished up eighth, while Ashcroft recovered to ninth in the closing stages ahead of Leusch and Cameron.
Debutant Veitch impressed as he moved up to 12th ahead of Smith, while Watts was on a charge as he fought his way through from 25th on the grid to 14th. Helder picked up his maiden points finish behind, with Pearce Wade (Pace Performance) and Ethan Brass (MK Racing) also celebrating that milestone.
Race Three
Changing weather through the day meant tricky conditions greeted the field for the final race of the weekend. With the grid set by the race two results, Goff led away from pole position once again as an early change saw Mackie grab second at the Old Hairpin from Bartle.
The second-year driver lost further ground on lap three, as Phillips and Kalousdian worked their way past at Redgate and the Old Hairpin respectively. Behind, Cranham dropped back from sixth behind Ashcroft, Leusch and Oliver prior to the introduction of the safety car.
While the racing was paused, the rain intensified to create an intriguing final three lap sprint to the finish. Goff executed the restart perfectly to maintain his lead, while a slide wide at the Old Hairpin dropped Mackie out of second to fifth behind Phillips, Kalousdian and Bartle.
Phillips put in a fierce challenge for the win in the closing stages and drew alongside his team-mate at the final corner on the last lap. Goff got better traction out of Goddards to secure the win though, while Red Bull Junior Team ace Kalousdian followed them home to complete a 1-2-3 finish for R Racing.
Bartle lost ground on the final lap, dropping from fourth to seventh. Mackie grabbed fourth in the end, as Ashcroft fought forward from ninth on the grid to fifth in his McLaren Papaya liveried car. Cranham completed the top six, whilst Leusch sealed a top-ten treble for the day in eighth.
The drive of the day came from Young, who incredibly scythed his way through the field from 25th on the grid to ninth. Cameron rounded out the top ten behind him, as Veitch and Helder picked up their best results of the weekend in 11th and 12th respectively.
Ginetta Junior Scholar Hagelen and Tomenchuk were two more drivers to rise through the field, each gaining 13 places as they finished inside the top 14. Robinson was next up ahead of Smith, with Murray and Oliver unfortunately dropping out of the top ten battle to the lower points-paying positions.
Doughty and Wade completed the points finishers, as Dominic Darling (Performance One) and Samuel Del Gaudio (Paradine Competition) just missed out with their highest finishes of the weekend. RABsport Racing duo Anesu Maphumulo and Oscar Stockley-King meanwhile ended their debut event with best results of 21st and 22nd respectively in race two.
In the Freshmans Cup, a class for car-racing rookies with no previous national-level karting experience, it was a clean sweep of wins for MK Racing. Doughty was victorious in races one and three, with Brass on top in race two.
Alongside his triple victory, Goff also ended the weekend with the Sunoco Fastest Driver of the Weekend Award after posting the quickest racing lap of the event with his 1:54.386s effort in race two.
Full race results can be found at www.tsl-timing.com/event/261551
All three races can be watched back now at www.youtube.com/gtworld
