Rocco Coronel has title glory within his grasp heading into the final round of the 20th anniversary season of the Ginetta Junior Championship at Donington Park this weekend (25/26 September).
Coronel (R Racing) has been a revelation in his maiden car-racing campaign, putting together one of most successful seasons by a driver in the storied history of the championship. His impressive results mean that it will take an unprecedented turn of events this weekend to see him lose out on the title.
The Red Bull Junior Team ace has impressively fought his way to 11 race victories so far, as part of a record-breaking tally of 19 podium finishes for the season. The Dutchman heads to Donington Park with one hand on the trophy and could provisionally wrap it up as early as race one.
Fred Green (Elite Motorsport) is now the only driver who could deny Coronel both the overall and rookie drivers’ titles. He’s kept himself in contention with a sensational recent run of results, taking two wins at Brands Hatch before scoring a perfect hat-trick last time out at Croft.
Seven wins and 15 podiums in total ensure be will go down as one of the most successful Ginetta Junior Scholarship winners of all time. If he wants to be a champion too, he will need to score more race wins this weekend and see Coronel hit trouble to complete an unlikely title swoop.
Alfie Slater (R Racing) dropped out of title contention after a difficult Croft weekend, with his focus now turning to securing a top three points finish. The second-year contender won the opening race of the season at Donington Park back in April, and has since added wins at Zandvoort and Brands Hatch.
It is a three-way battle between R Racing team-mates for third in the points, with Slater defending his position from Max Cuthbert and Red Bull talent Scott Kin Lindblom. Those two have notched up no less than 11 visits to the overall podium between them, though both are still targeting a maiden win.
R Racing are on course to win a third consecutive Teams’ title as it stands, unless Elite Motorsport can stop them. Alongside Green, their challenge will come from 2024 race-winner Colin Cronin, who secured a long-awaited first podium of the season at Croft, and fellow top-three finisher Ethan Carney.
George Proudford-Nalder (MDD Racing) is a driver to watch this weekend, with a maiden win in his sights after taking a best-ever result of second overall at Croft. Torrin Byrne (Pace Performance) is another potential contender for victory, having finished on the podium twice this year too.
Hoping to fight their way into contention for a breakthrough podium to end the year will be top six finishers Harry Bartle (Pace Performance), Jarrett Clark (R Racing) and Lewis Goff (ProjectR). The latter only debuted two rounds ago and picked up a fifth-place finish in only his fourth race in the series.
The grid is packed full of talent this season, and there’s a host of drivers who could spring a surprise this weekend. They include top ten finishers Felipe Reijs (R Racing), Raul Zunzarren (MKH Racing), Performance One pair Josh Watts and Noah Young, and Elite Motorsport’s Revie Lake and Emillio Del Grosso.
Joshua Henry (Elite Motorsport) will be aiming to end his campaign with a breakthrough top ten result, as will Henry Cameron (Fox Motorsport), Andrew Robinson (E3 Sport) and Tim Gray Motorsport’s Matthew Chiwara and Katrina EE. The grid this weekend is completed by two debutants; Jesse Phillips (ProjectR) and Vladislav Tomenchuk (Pace Performance).
Follow the action across the weekend on social media, @GinettaCars.
Provisional Timetable:
Saturday 04 October: Qualifying 13:10; Race One 16:55
Sunday 05 October: Race Two 11:14; Race Three 16:59
All three races will be streamed live on Ginetta’s YouTube channel, while live timing and results will be available via TSL Timing.
