Lewis Goff has made it five wins from the opening six races of the 2026 Ginetta Junior Championship powered by Sunoco Race Fuels season, with Harry Bartle breaking his streak with his maiden victory during an action-packed triple header at Silverstone (25-26 April).
Qualifying
Under the Silverstone sunshine, the weekend began with Bartle (Pace Performance) charging to his first double pole position in the championship. The second-year contender lapped three tenths of a second quicker than Riley Cranham (R Racing) in a seasons’ best second.
Daniel Oliver went third fastest for the second consecutive event this season, just edging out his Elite Motorsport team-mate Harrison Mackie. Goff, the opening pole-sitter of the year at Donington Park, ended up fifth on the timesheets ahead of his R Racing team-mate Jesse Phillips.
Race One
The teenage talents served up a thrilling opening race, with non-stop action culminating in a sensational final lap battle for the win. Bartle led the way in the early laps, with Oliver quickly moving up to second before mounting a challenge at Stowe on lap two.
Bartle fended him off though and Goff took advantage to grab second, having charged up the order from fifth on the grid. Next time round Goff grabbed the lead into Stowe, staying in front for the next few laps before Bartle dived down the inside at Brooklands on the penultimate tour.
On the final lap, Goff edged ahead into Maggots but Bartle hung it around the outside at Becketts to get back in front. Oliver got back into the battle at this point, getting past Goff into Abbey for second. Goff swept around the outside of both at The Loop though, which proved to be the decisive move.
As Goff secured his fourth consecutive win to start the season, Oliver finished second on the road however a five-second penalty for track limits infringements dropped him to tenth. Bartle was therefore classified second, while Ashcroft picked up his maiden Ginetta Junior podium in third.
Jacob Ashcroft (Elite Motorsport) fought his way through an exciting battle in the early stages, rising from eighth at the end of the opening lap past R Racing trio Max Murray, Phillips and Cranham to fifth at mid-distance.
It ended up as a duel between Ashcroft and Mackie for fourth on the road, with Ashcroft grabbing the place and ultimately an overall podium result on the final lap in his McLaren Papaya liveried machine. Mackie ended up with rookie class silverware in fourth overall.
Phillips finished up fifth, while Melvin Kalousdian (R Racing) impressively climbed through the field from 12th on the grid to sixth. Noah Young (Performance One) was another to make progress to seventh ahead of Murray and Cranham, the latter enduring a difficult race from second on the grid.
As Oliver rounded out the top ten, Addison Smith (MDD Motorsport) completed a great drive from 20th on the grid to 11th place. Sebastian Leusch (R Racing) was next up ahead of Elite Motorsport duo Vladislav Tomenchuk and Henry Cameron.
Henry Carter (Pace Performance) fought back from 20th at the end of lap one to 15th, while making similar progress was Josh Watts (Performance One). From 19th at the start, he was up to 11th before suffering an unfortunate retirement on the last lap
Bailey Doughty (MK Racing), Vicky Farfus (Paradine Competition), Jorn Helder (Project R) and Ethan Brass (MK Racing) picked up points behind, while Andrew Robinson (E3 Sport) took the final points paying spot on the road but a track limits penalty put him behind Pearce Wade (Pace Performance).
Race Two
The race two grid, set by the drivers’ second fastest times in qualifying, saw Bartle and Goff lining up on the front row of the grid. As they led the field away, Mackie was on an immediate charge behind as he overtook Phillips off the line and Ashcroft exiting Copse.
Oliver was his next target as they went through Becketts, however a slide through the corner led to contact between the two and the end of Mackie’s race in the gravel. This led to the emergence of the safety car, with Bartle leading the train from Goff, Ashcroft and Phillips.
The action was frenetic as soon as the race restarted, with Goff initially getting shuffled back to fifth before fighting back to second within the same lap. That put him on the tail of Bartle and next time round at Club, he swept past to grab the race lead.
Bartle fought back at the same corner next time round, with a trip over the gravel dropping Goff into the pack again. He wouldn’t give up without a fight though, with a pair of brilliant double moves on the penultimate lap moving him back to the front of the order.
The final moment of the race went the way of Bartle though, with a brilliant dive down the inside into Brooklands securing him his maiden Ginetta Junior win. Goff pushed him all the way to the finish, just 0.073s splitting them, while Ashcroft rounded out the podium.
Phillips crossed the line in fourth, however a track limits penalty dropped him to eighth. Murray therefore completed the rookie top three instead, while tremendous late progress from Kalousdian finished off a drive from 14th on the grid to fifth.
Cameron impressed too, gaining five places on his way to a maiden top six finish in the championship. Cranham and Phillips were classified next, as Smith picked up his first top ten result in ninth and Josh Watts (Performance One) remarkably rounded out the top ten from 28th on the grid.
Helder and Doughty made good progress too, each gaining eight places to finish 11th and 14th respectively, split by Tomenchuk and Devon Hagelen (Elite Motorsport). Kai Veitch (Pace Performance) was next ahead of first-time points finisher Dominic Darling (Performance One).
Andrew Robinson (E3 Sport), Brass and Wade also finished in the points, as did Jake Woods (Orion SPR) in only his second ever Junior race. Missing out meanwhile was Young, who was running as high as fifth in the early stages before an incident at Maggots dropped him down the field.
Race Three
The race two result set the grid for the final race of the weekend, meaning it was Bartle and Goff once again on the front row. They came under threat immediately from Ashcroft though, who passed Goff into Copse and challenged Bartle for the lead into Stowe.
Both went wide though, with Goff briefly moving to the front before Bartle fought back at Club. That kicked off another duel for victory between the two, while behind, Murray briefly moved up to third past Ashcroft before Phillips stormed past both of them around the outside at Village.
The action was halted for a few laps with the emergence of the safety car, following an incident in the pack that left Smith in the gravel. The racing resumed with a two-lap shootout to the chequered flag, with Goff wasting no time on the restart and diving down the inside of Bartle into Copse.
They ran side-by-side through Maggots and Becketts, with Goff making the move stick and bringing team-mates Phillips and Kalousdian with him. On the final tour, Kalousdian tried to grab second from Phillips at Stowe, however they ran wide and that allowed Bartle past them both.
Goff took advantage of the battling behind to take the victory ahead of Bartle and Phillips, with a last lap move from Ashcroft netting him fourth at the expense of Kalousdian. Cameron followed them home to round out the top six again.
Murray finished up seventh ahead of Watts, while Young stormed forward from 23rd on the grid to ninth. Hagelen rounded out the top ten ahead of Tomenchuk and Mackie, the latter executing the drive of the race as he gained no less than 17 places from 29th on the grid to 12th overall. Veitch was next ahead of another rapid riser in Carter, who moved up from 28th to 14th.
Earlier in the weekend, Anesu Maphumulo (RABsport Racing) narrowly missed out on a points finish as he scored a best result of 22nd in race two. His team-mate Oscar Stockley-King’s highest finish came with P24 in the closer, while Samuel Del Gaudio (Paradine Competition) was 24th in the opening race.
In the Freshmans Cup, a class for car-racing rookies with no previous national-level karting experience, Doughty make it four wins for the season so far with success in the opening two races. Darling then secured his first Ginetta trophy with victory in the closer.
Alongside his maiden victory, Bartle also ended the weekend with the Sunoco Fastest Driver of the Weekend Award after posting the quickest racing lap of the event with his 2:38.742 effort in race three.
Full race results can be found at www.tsl-timing.com/event/261705
All three races can be watched back now at www.youtube.com/gtworld
