Rocco Coronel scored another two victories before Fred Green ended his winning streak in the closest race finish in Ginetta Junior Championship history during the third round of the 20th anniversary season at Oulton Park (24-26 May).
Qualifying
Damp and greasy conditions provided a tricky challenge for the young drivers in qualifying on Saturday morning, resulting in three unfortunate red flag stoppages. The subsequent time lost and need to continue with the day’s timetable meant the session could not be completed.
Therefore, as per regulations the grid for the first two races of the weekend were set by the championship order. Coronel therefore lined-up on pole position for the opener alongside his R Racing team-mate Alfie Slater, with Elite Motorsport pair Joseph Smith and Fred Green on row two.
Race One
Coronel converted pole position into the early race lead, however it was short-lived as Slater got ahead through the Shell Oils hairpin. Green made early progress too as he passed Smith for third, and quickly joined the top two in breaking away from the pack as Smith lost further ground to Lindblom.
The top three ran nose-to-tail for a number of laps before Coronel mounted an attack, sliding down the inside into Lodge on lap five. Slater hit back soon after though, with a good run out of Cascades setting him up for a move into the high-speed Island bend.
Coronel fought back in front into Old Hall at the start of lap eight though and crucially Green was able to follow him through. Slater fought back for second at the end of that lap, with the side-by-side action behind giving Coronel some crucial breathing room en-route to victory.
Slater’s challenge at Lodge had forced Green wide across the grass, with Scott Kin Lindblom (R Racing) taking full advantage to move up to third. Green tried to regain the place with a drag race to the finish, but Lindblom edged him out by 0.046s on the road.
Post-race, Slater was deemed to have gained an unfair advantage for his earlier move on Green and was handed a two-place position penalty. Lindblom therefore made it a Red Bull Junior Team one-two, a result earning R Racing their 200th podium finish in Ginetta Junior racing, with Green promoted to the podium ahead of Slater.
Smith had been hot on Lindblom’s heels for the majority of the race as he finished up fifth ahead of his Elite Motorsport team-mate Colin Cronin. George Proudford-Nalder (MDD Racing) shot up three places on the opening lap to eighth, and later pulled off a move on Freddie Lloyd (Fox Motorsport) to finish up seventh.
Ethan Carney (Elite Motorsport) was one of the drivers on the move through the race, picking his way through from 15th on the grid to ninth at the finish ahead of R Racing duo Max Cuthbert and Jarrett Clark, who had both enjoyed plenty of close racing across the ten-lap encounter.
Felix Livesey (MDD Racing) impressively gained eight places through the race to finish up 12th ahead of Harry Bartle (MKH Racing). Starting from the back of the grid after being one of the drivers to cause a red flag in qualifying, Torrin Byrne (Pace Performance) was a man on a mission as he stormed through from 25th to 14th.
Noah Young (Performance One) and Raul Zunzarren (MKH Racing) were next up in a very close-fought group of drivers, with Emmilio Del Grosso (Elite Motorsport) unfortunate to finish up 17th after running on the fringes of the top ten early on. Felipe Reijs (R Racing), Henry Cameron (Fox Motorsport) and Joshua Henry (Tim Gray Motorsport) completed the points finishers.
Race Two
The action resumed on Monday morning with a typically action-packed Junior encounter. That all happened in the mirrors of Coronel though, as he benefitted from battling behind to break the tow on lap one and comfortably convert pole position into a lights-to-flag victory to make it seven in a row.
Green immediately pressured Slater for second place and grabbed the position through Lodge at the end of lap one. Initially the current Ginetta Junior Scholarship winner headed a long train of cars, but as the battling intensified behind he was able to break clear and score second at the finish.
Slater settled into third for a few laps before Smith dived down the inside into Old Hall. Cronin and Lindblom were on their tail too and the latter made moves in consecutive corners on lap five to move up to fourth place – with that action allowing Smith to briefly edge away in third.
Proudford-Nalder was the next driver to fight his way into podium contention, passing both Cronin and Slater on lap six and then Lindblom next time round. Despite the position changing, the group were able to catch back onto the tail of Smith to ensure third was up for grabs in the final two laps.
Proudford-Nalder got a run out of Druids on the penultimate lap but Smith shut the door, allowing Lindblom and Slater back past Proudford-Nalder. Lindblom tried to pass Smith around the outside of Cascades on the final tour, but it ended up allowing Slater and Proudford-Nalder to pick them both off.
The battle came to a head at Hislops, as contact to the rear of Smith’s car span him around and sent Lindblom and Cronin onto the grass. Ahead, Proudford-Nalder finished third on the road ahead of Slater, with Lloyd benefitting from the late drama to cross the line fifth ahead of Cronin, Lindblom and Carney.
That order changed dramatically though due to a raft of time penalties. Slater and Lindblom had ten seconds added to their time for false starts, while Green, Cronin and Lloyd all accumulated five second penalties for exceeding track limits.
The revised result therefore had Proudford-Nalder third from Carney for both his and the MDD Racing team’s maiden overall Ginetta Junior podium, while Ethan Lennon (Pace Performance) was classified fifth having taken the chequered flag ninth on the road. Lloyd finished up sixth ahead of Cuthbert, while Byrne produced more heroics to go from 25th to 11th on the road, before being moved up to eighth.
Clark and Cronin ended up completing the top ten ahead of Zunzarren and the recovering Smith, with Slater and Lindblom left to settle for 13th and 14th respectively after their penalties. Reijs was next up, while Josh Watts (Tim Gray Motorsport) emerged at the front of a close-fought six car group battling over 16th to the finish.
That pack included the final points finishers Revie Lake (Elite Motorsport), Cameron, Young and Bartle, plus Henry. Livesey meanwhile had climbed from 18th on the grid to the top ten at one stage, before a late issue unfortunately led to retirement.
Race Three
The final race of the weekend took place in tricky wet conditions. Coronel led away from pole once again, while Proudford-Nalder grabbed second from Green at Old Hall. Those two switched places back on lap two, with their early battling allowing Coronel to build a quick two second lead.
Behind the top three, a slow getaway dropped Carney from fourth into the pack, with Lennon emerging in the position. He lost out to Cuthbert and Cronin on lap two though, the latter making early progress from tenth on the grid, with Carney slotting into seventh.
The action was neutralised by the emergence of the safety car after an off for Katrina EE (Tim Gray Motorsport) at Druids. Coronel’s early advantage was gone therefore, and he came under immediate pressure from Green when the action resumed.
There would only be one racing lap before the safety car came back out on track though, this time after Henry found the Old Hall gravel trap. That lap was enough time for Proudford-Nalder to slip back from third place though, with Cuthbert, Cronin and Lennon working their way past.
The race would ultimately be decided by a final one lap shootout to the chequered flag. Coronel held the lead until the final corner, when Green launched a bold move around the outside. They ran side-by-side to the finish, with Green scoring his maiden overall victory by just three thousandths of a second.
Cuthbert scored his second overall podium of the season in third ahead of Lennon in a seasons’ best fourth. There was a last corner incident in the battle for fifth though, with contact between Smith and Proudford-Nalder sending them both spinning around. Smith collected Lloyd in the aftermath, ending both their races, while Proudford-Nalder finished up in 19th.
Slater emerged from the chaos in fifth ahead of Cronin, however the latter was disqualified post-race for failing to comply with yellow flag signals. Lindblom therefore rounded out the top six in the final result, while Livesey completed a stunning charge through from 25th on the grid in seventh place.
Clark and Zunzarren were next up ahead of Del Grosso, another driver scything his way through the field from 23rd to tenth. Carney dropped back to 11th after having to take to the grass to avoid the last corner incident, ahead of Reijs and Lake.
Byrne was another to lose out on the final lap as he dropped back to 14th in the end ahead of Cameron and Young, while Matthew Chiwara (Tim Gray Motorsport) celebrated his best result of the season in 17th. Bartle, Proudford-Nalder and Watts completed the points scorers, with Watts having been on the cusp of the top ten before a last lap spin.
In the Freshmans Cup, a class for car-racing rookies with no previous national-level karting experience, Young was victorious in the opening race before Lake enjoyed a double success on Monday. Young and Cameron each picked up three class podiums from three races across the event.
Full race results can be found at www.tsl-timing.com/event/252105
All three races can be watched back at www.youtube.com/user/ginettatv
The 2025 Ginetta Junior Championship season is next in action at Snetterton in Norfolk, with three races over the weekend of 12/13 July.
