Lewis Goff has been crowned the provisional 2026 overall and rookie champion in the Ginetta Junior Championship powered by Sunoco Race Fuels, sealing the title with a weekend to spare with victory in the final race at Donington Park (05-06 September).
Goff joins the prestigious roll call of Ginetta Junior champions after scoring more wins (nine) and podium finishes (thirteen) than anyone else so far this season, with his efforts helping R Racing secure their sixth Teams’ title in seven seasons.
Qualifying
Melvin Kalousdian (R Racing) kicked off the weekend in style by securing his third consecutive pole position in qualifying. The Red Bull Junior team driver was 0.158s quicker than Harrison Mackie (Elite Motorsport), who had posted the quickest lap in pre-event testing.
Riley Cranham (R Racing) finished third on the timesheets, but also secured the race two pole on second fastest times, with Devon Hagelen (Elite Motorsport) in fourth. An uncharacteristic ninth fastest overall meanwhile was championship leader Goff.
Race One
Kalousdian got a perfect launch off the line to lead the field through Redgate for the first time. There was an early change behind, as Cranham swept around the outside of Mackie at Coppice for second, with the latter losing further ground to Jesse Phillips (R Racing) and Harry Bartle (Pace Performance).
The third-place battle intensified on lap two, with a slow exit out of the Esses for Phillips resulting in the pack bunching up into Melbourne. Contact from Hagelen on Bartle spun him around and led to his retirement, with Mackie emerging from the corner in third from Phillips.
Goff took advantage of the squabbling ahead to make quick progress into the top five, and he then picked off Phillips and Mackie in consecutive laps to move into third. With all the changes of position behind, the top two of Kalousdian and Cranham had cleared off into the distance.
A huge pack had formed from the bottom of the top six and beyond meanwhile. Performance One duo Dominic Darling and Josh Watts had a wild trip over the gravel at the Esses on lap four, with Darling dropping from eighth to 16th as Watts pulled into the pitlane and retirement.
Three laps later and there was further drama, with an incident between Phillips, Jacob Ashcroft (Elite Motorsport) and Sebastien Leusch (R Racing) dropping them all out of the top ten. The main beneficiaries were Max Murray (R Racing) and Darling, who both gained seven places in one lap.
After all the commotion behind, the final few laps came down to an exciting duel for victory between Kalousdian and Cranham. The latter drew alongside heading into the last corner on the last lap, but Kalousdian managed to hold him off to record his fourth consecutive victory.
Mackie and Goff had been trading third place behind meanwhile, which allowed Hagelen to catch them and make it a three-way battle on the final lap. Goff was the one to lose out, slipping back from third to fifth as Mackie ended up rounding out the overall podium.
Murray finished sixth on the road after passing Darling on the last lap, however he got a five-second track limits penalty that swapped the positions back post-race as Darling completed his impressive recovery drive.
Vicky Farfus (R Racing) crossed the line in eighth ahead of Bailey Doughty (MK Racing), however they had 45 and 15 seconds added to their final times respectively due to track limits infringements. Therefore, Henry Cameron was classified eighth ahead of his Elite team-mate Ashcroft.
Louis Radcliffe (R Racing) picked up his maiden top ten finish ahead of Brass and two more drivers to receive track limits penalties; Noah Young (Performance One) and Addison Smith (MDD Motorsport). Leusch was next up in 14th.
Maxim Kharuk (Elite Motorsport) secured his first points finish in the championship in 15th ahead of Doughty, Anesu Maphumulo (RABSport Racing), Farfus and Phillips.
Race Two
Cranham lined up alongside Darling on the front row of the grid for Sunday’s opening race, with some morning rainfall leading to tricky damp conditions at the start. Cranham got a good launch off the line, while a slower one for Darling resulted in him getting shuffled back to sixth.
Mackie made a move for the lead into McLeans on lap one and while Cranham got it back into the Esses, Mackie returned to the front into Melbourne. Ashcroft slotted into third behind them, however a spin into the gravel at the Esses on lap three ended his race early.
That led to a safety car period, with Mackie running first ahead of Cranham and Phillips, who made great early progress from ninth to third. Goff had also climbed up early on, rising from tenth to fifth to slot in behind Bartle, while Darling had lost further ground to Goff and Kalousdian.
The action was intense at the restart, with Mackie and Cranham running side-by-side for the first half of the lap. After passing Phillips at the first corner, Bartle drafted up to the top two and dived down the inside of both into McLeans.
A loss of momentum coming out of Coppice meant Mackie was shuffled back to seventh, as Cranham fought back to the lead from Bartle and Goff. Hagelen made rapid progress on the restart lap, climbing from ninth to fourth ahead of Kalousdian and Phillips.
That proved to be the end of the position changes at the front of the field however, as Young spun into the gravel at the Old Hairpin on lap seven. With only a few minutes left on the clock, the decision was made to put out the chequered flag early rather than run behind the safety car to the end.
Cranham therefore emerged with his second win of the season and a fifth consecutive podium result. Bartle finished up second as Goff strengthened his title bid with another podium in third ahead of Kalousdian, while Mackie fought back to fifth on the final racing lap.
Phillips rounded out the top six from Hagelen, as Doughty made strong progress through the race to record his maiden top ten result in eighth ahead of Darling. A brilliant drive from Smith netted him a top ten result from 20th on the grid, while Brass gained five positions himself to finish 11th from Murray, Farfus and Radcliffe.
Race Three
The final race of the weekend was a nail-biting affair, with Goff heading into it knowing that if he finished ahead of Mackie, or directly behind him, he would be crowned provisional champion with a weekend to spare.
As Cranham led away from pole position, Mackie made quick progress from fifth on the grid to pass Kalousdian and Goff to slot into third. Phillips joined him in passing Goff, before picking off Mackie himself at Melbourne to leave the chief title contenders together on track again.
A dramatic incident in the pack behind at the Old Hairpin caused spins for Hagelen, Kalousdian, Doughty and Smith. Resulting damage derailed Kalousdian’s race as he fell down the order, while Smith had to pull into retirement in the pitlane as Hagelen and Doughty lost ground too.
Back in the lead pack, Phillips and Mackie traded second place between them on lap three before Phillips slipped back next time round, with Mackie, Goff and Bartle moving past. Crucially, Cranham at the front picked up some bonnet damage though, reducing his visibility and leaving him under pressure.
A tense few laps saw Goff and Mackie swapping positions multiple times as Goff’s title chance swung back and forth. The battle went all the way down to the chequered flag, with Cranham holding on to take the chequered flag first as Goff importantly finished ahead of Mackie on the road.
Cranham was among a large number of drivers to get a five-second track limits time penalty though, meaning Goff ended up sealing the title with his ninth race victory of the year. Mackie was promoted to second from Bartle, though the latter was disqualified post-race for a yellow flag infringement.
Leusch therefore completed the podium after a stunning drive from 16th on the grid, with Cranham ultimately classified fourth. Watts had crossed the line sixth from 15th on the grid ahead of Murray and Brass, however track limits penalties for all three of them promoted Darling to a career-best fifth.
Murray was another to then be disqualified post-race for a yellow flag infringement, meaning it was ultimately Watts finishing sixth ahead of Brass in a best-ever seventh place. Young ended up gaining 12 places en-route to eighth ahead of Cameron and first-time top ten finisher Farfus.
Doughty and Hagelen recovered from their earlier incident to finish 11th and 12th respectively. Kharuk and Maphumulo celebrated their seasons’ best results behind, as Kalousdian rounded out the race finishers in 15th position after his earlier troubles.
Darling took two wins in the Freshmans Cup – a class for car-racing rookies with no previous national-level karting experience – with Doughty scoring the other. Kalousdian picked up the Sunoco Fastest Driver of the Weekend Award meanwhile, after posting the quickest racing lap of the event.
Full race results can be found at TSL Timing. All three races can be watched back now at GT World on YouTube.
