Josh Watts and Harrison Mackie became the latest first-time winners in the 2026 Ginetta Junior Championship powered by Sunoco Race Fuels, before Lewis Goff extended his points lead with victory in the final race at Oulton Park (23-25 May).
Qualifying
Harrison Mackie (Elite Motorsport) went fastest of all in official testing on Friday and he backed that up with a maiden pole position in qualifying the following morning. He led Riley Cranham (R Racing) at the top of the times, the latter securing a front row berth for the second event in a row.
Max Murray (R Racing) went third fastest overall ahead of two drivers impressively securing their best-ever qualifying results; Performance One Motorsport team-mates Dominic Darling and Josh Watts. Rounding out the top six was Daniel Oliver (Elite Motorsport).
Race One
After a quiet opening lap, race one kicked into gear on lap two as Cranham dived down the inside of Mackie at Cascades to take the lead. That started a thrilling duel between the two, with Mackie regaining the advantage at Lodge on lap three before Cranham fought back a corner later.
Behind, Watts had grabbed fourth from his team-mate Darling before an unfortunate spin for the latter dropped him to the rear of the field. That soon became third for Watts, as a moment for Murray whilst looking to attack for second resulted in him falling to the bottom of the top 20.
At the front, Mackie moved back into the lead through the Shell Oils hairpin. Their continued squabbling allowed Watts to close onto their tail and make it three-way battle in the closing stages, and he would take advantage when contact ahead dislodged Cranham’s bonnet.
With limited visibility forcing Cranham to slow his speed, Watts moved up to second. While Mackie took the chequered flag first on-the-road, a six-position penalty for the incident with Cranham meant that Watts and Performance One Motorsport celebrated their first-ever Ginetta Junior win.
Jacob Ashcroft (Elite Motorsport) had fought forward from ninth on the grid to third at the flag. He received a five-second penalty for track limits infringements though, meaning that Jesse Phillips (R Racing) ended up second in the final result with Ashcroft third.
Championship leader Lewis Goff (R Racing) had a nightmare qualifying session with all of his laps being removed due to track limits. He bounced back with a superb drive in the race though, charging forward from 25th on the grid to fourth in the end.
Cranham nursed his car home to fifth ahead of Silverstone race-winner Harry Bartle (Pace Performance), another to qualifying somewhat out of position, and Mackie. Oliver had originally finished fifth on the road, but a ten-second penalty for a false start put him back in eighth.
Vladislav Tomenchuk picked up his first top ten finish of the season in ninth ahead of his Elite Motorsport team-mate Henry Cameron. Addison Smith (MDD Motorsport) narrowly missed out on the top ten, ahead of Bailey Doughty (MK Racing) and Kai Veitch (Pace Performance).
Devon Hagelen (Elite Motorsport) finished up 14th ahead of fellow Dutchman Jorn Helder (Project R), with Murray recovering to 16th after his spin. Henry Carter (Pace Performance) rose from 26th on the grid after a qualifying mishap to 17th overall.
Melvin Kalousdian (R Racing) and Noah Young (Performance One) were battling it out for a top ten spot mid-race before an incident cost them both ground. Kalousdian finished up 18th ahead of fellow points finishers Sebastien Leusch (R Racing) and Andrew Robinson (E3 Sport), with Young in 21st.
Race Two
After a day off on Sunday, the action resumed on bank holiday Monday in scorching hot conditions. Cranham converted pole position into the race lead from Murray and Mackie, while early action behind saw Darling and Hagelen trading fourth place back and forth on lap one.
Ashcroft moved ahead of Hagelen and went on to pass Darling on lap two, with the latter slipping back behind Hagelen and Phillips next time round. It unfortunately got worse for the Scotsman though, as contact with Young at Cascades on lap four sent them both spinning into the gravel.
This brought out the safety car, just after Mackie had been able to get ahead of Murray for second. That set him up for a challenge on Cranham for the lead in the final three lap run to the chequered flag, however Cranham fended him off to take the chequered flag first.
The on-the-road victor had accumulated a 15 second track limits time penalty though, dropping him all the way back to 24th in the final result. Mackie therefore secured his maiden win in the championship and a first victory of the campaign for Elite Motorsport.
Ashcroft got ahead of Murray on the penultimate lap for third on the road, but both of them found themselves under attack from Watts on the last tour. The race one winner swept around the outside of both at the Shell Oils hairpin, continuing a superb drive up the order from 14th on the grid.
It went wrong for Watts at the last corner though as he spun onto the grass, promoting Ashcroft and Murray to a rookie lockout of the overall podium. Bartle fought forward to fourth ahead of Phillips on the road, however the latter lost ten positions due to a track limits penalty.
Goff therefore finished fifth in the final result as he replicated his race one heroics from 23rd on the grid. Ginetta Junior Scholarship winner Hagelen picked up his first top six finish of the season behind ahead of Red Bull Junior Team driver Kalousdian and Cameron.
Smith rose seven places through the race to finish ninth ahead of first-time top ten finisher Helder. Doughty, Robinson and Ethan Brass (MK Racing) also picked up their best results of the season to date in 11th, 13th and 14th respectively, with Veitch sitting between them in the final result.
After a pitstop at the end of the first lap, Oliver benefitted from the safety car period to catch the back of the field and fight through to 16th. Vicky Farfus (Paradine Competition) was next, having been battling on the fringes of the top ten in race one before late issues, ahead of Carter and Tomenchuk.
Race Three
With the race two result setting the grid for the final race of the weekend, Mackie lined up on pole position alongside Ashcroft. Murray started third, but he was shuffled back to sixth behind Bartle, Goff and Hagelen through the opening sequence of corners.
Bartle and Goff went on to make more progress at the expense of Ashcroft, who then lost further ground to ninth on lap two. As Goff made a move on Bartle for second, Murray worked his way back up to fourth ahead of Hagelen, Kalousdian and Cameron.
Mackie fought off a challenge from Goff for the lead at the end of lap three, but he lost out on the next tour as Goff dived down the inside at Island. Mackie found himself out across the grass in the process, briefly slipping back to fifth before following Kalousdian past Murray at the end of the lap.
At that point, the safety car was introduced after a three-way incident into Old Hall resulted in Carter and Anesu Maphumulo (RABsport Racing) sliding into the gravel trap – the latter having enjoyed his best result of the weekend of 22nd in race two.
The race boiled down to a two-lap sprint to the chequered flag, with a four-car train at the head of the field initially. The first to make a move was Kalousdian down the inside of Mackie at Hislops, however both lost momentum in the process and Hagelen was able to grab second place.
Their battling allowed Goff to build a gap at the front and he maintained it on the final lap to secure his sixth win of the season so far. Kalousdian picked off Hagelen at Old Hall to secure his second overall podium of the season, with Mackie then getting ahead to complete a double podium for the day. Post-race, Kalousdian received a one place penalty for causing a collision, moving Mackie up to second.
Hagelen secured his first rookie class podium of the season in fourth overall from Cameron. The drive of the race came from Cranham behind, as he bounced back from his race two disappointment by charging forward from 24th on the grid to sixth overall.
After a mid-race incident with Murray sent them both over the grass, Bartle recovered to seventh place. Phillips was another to mount a comeback drive, fighting back from 26th at the end of the opening lap to eighth ahead of Tomenchuk, while Young climbed from 26th on the grid to tenth.
Murray ended up 12th behind Veitch, with Darling hot on their heels at the finish. Helder was classified 14th, having unfortunately lost seven positions with a track limits penalty, while Brass survived a trip across the grass at Cascades and fought back to 15th ahead of Robinson.
Samuel Del Gaudio (Paradine Competition) gained six places through the race as he celebrated his first points finish of the season in 17th position. Smith and Leusch were next up, while Ashcroft rounded out the points finishers after having to make a trip to the pitlane whilst running in the top six.
In the Freshmans Cup, a class for car-racing rookies with no previous national-level karting experience, Doughty made it six wins for the season so far with success in the opening two races. Darling then secured his second class victory in the closer.
The Sunoco Fastest Driver of the Weekend Award went the way of Murray, after he posted the quickest racing lap of the event with his 2:03.772s effort in race one.
Full race results can be found at: www.tsl-timing.com/event/262105
All three races can be watched back now at www.youtube.com/gtworld
