Pirtek Racing’s Jamie Caroline was one of the stars of the KICK Start Energy Ginetta Junior Championship at Brands Hatch over the Easter weekend (4/5 April). After a troubled first race, Jamie fought through to the lead in an action-packed second race and was pipped to the flag by a tenth of a second.
Caroline, 16 years-old, has been selected by Pirtek Racing and Andrew Jordan for support in the series for young racers and is among the key championship contenders with the renowned HHC Motorsport squad. Just how competitive the Ginetta Junior season will be was demonstrated in qualifying when a quarter of a second covered the top 12 drivers, with Jamie posting ninth best time only 17-hundredths of a second away from pole position.
Saturday’s opening race, however, did not go entirely to plan and Jamie was on the receiving end of some rather ambitious driving and battled home in tenth after several delays. “It seemed like we had a target on the back of my car and a lot of people drove into me,” said a rather frustrated Jamie.
That result left him starting tenth on the grid for Sunday’s race in front of live ITV4 cameras and Jamie drove superbly to tiger his way up into contention for the lead. Lap by lap he closed in on the leaders and was on the tail of race leader Billy Monger as they headed into the final corner. Monger left a big gap and Jamie dived up the inside under braking for Clearways.
As Monger tried to close the door, Jamie was already alongside and the cars touched. That delayed them both enough for Senna Proctor to dive through on the dash to the flag as Jamie tried to re-challenge. The gap was only a tenth of a second as Jamie took a fighting second. “He was a lot wider than before into Clearways,” said Jamie of the last lap incident with Monger. “He then tried to cut back and I was already there. It was a fair racing move and it got me into the position I needed because I had a bad first race.”
Now, with clear race-winning pace, Jamie will turn his attention to the next two races at Donington Park over the weekend of 18/19 April. He is now fourth in the points after the first race weekend of the season.
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