Texaco Havoline Ginetta Championship

Rounds 17 and 18: Thruxton

The final two rounds of the Texaco Havoline Ginetta Championship returned to Thruxton at the weekend (13th / 14th October) to display their racing entertainment in front of the British Touring Cars crowds.

Champion Matt Nicoll-Jones took a further double-win despite starting from the pit lane in the first of two races and setting a new Ginetta lap record. In a demonstration of skills that have now made him a double Ginetta G20 title-holder, the Evesham-based racer took his first crown in 2005.

Spencer McCarthy had a second consecutive double-podium taking a 2nd and a 3rd, while Rob Austin and Christian Dick shared the remaining podium steps with 3rd and 2nd respectively.

Race 1

Qualifying on Pole (right), Nicoll-Jones pulled into the pit lane on the end of the warm-up lap, feeling his seat belts were not comfortably fastened. Therefore, as the field pulled away, Nicoll-Jones – who sealed his Championship victory at Rockingham – joined in the race at the back of the pack.

By the end of the first lap, he had already made up nine places and took until just lap four before being within the top ten. Moving up to third on lap seven, Nicoll-Jones was right up with the leaders Rob Austin and Spencer McCarthy on the last lap, and took the lead at the final Chicane to clinch the win.

“I caught the pack up by the first chicane and just started picking them off” said Nicoll-Jones. “Then I got through to where I thought was the lead, except I knew I hadn’t passed Rob or Spencer – and hadn’t seen the remains of their cars anywhere, so figured they were still running.

“I kept pushing, and eventually saw a flash of orange in the distance that was Spencer. So I just kept pushing, got them both on the last lap and much to my delight saw the chequered flag!”

Austin and McCarthy had pulled out a gap from the rest of the field of over 7 seconds by lap 6; the pair duelling all the way exchanging places in each others slipstream, but could not hold off Nicoll-Jones at the end. Austin had to settle for third with a damaged wheel bearing in the closing stages.

“I got a good start from 7th and got around most people on the first lap and slot in behind Rob, so five cars is not a mean effort in this sort of championship!” explained McCarthy. “Me and Rob put our heads down and tried to make a gap, but after what seemed an eternity saw this black and white car in my mirrors. Rob’s problem at the end there held me up a bit and Matt just came straight past. A surreal moment really!”

Meanwhile, Frank Wrathall could not capitalise on his third place start when he span coming into Club Chicane first time around whilst in amongst the leading gaggle of identical Ginetta G20 cars, but fought to rejoin in 10th.

Ben Elliott was also unable to take advantage of his second row grid position to strengthen his hold in the Championship runner-up spot. Elliott was also forced to start from the pit lane due to his wheel nuts not being fully tightened. Like Nicoll-Jones, he noticed the problem on the warm-up lap.

Richard Sykes took to the pit lane on the second lap with a damaged nose, but later rejoined minus his bodywork.

Moving up the field in his debut Ginetta race, James Littlejohn had started from 12th on the grid, but was running in 4th on lap 4, sandwiched between team-mate Christian Dick and Joe Osborne. A train of seven cars had developed lead by Dick, closely followed by Littlejohn, Osborne, Julian Barratt, Richard Austin, Dan Laddiman and Paul Moden.

As the race developed, Formula Ford racer Linton Stuteley (left) – also on his Ginetta debut – and Wrathall too joined in on the close racing happening behind the leaders of McCarthy and Austin.

Lap 13 was unlucky for some when the racing became a little too close for Dick, Littlejohn and Osborne into Club. Contact between the three of them saw them all spin off onto the grass, but all continued temporarily. Dick’s hopes of finishing the Championship off in the top three faded when he later had to retire his car.

However, a strong drive by Stuteley now had him in 4th place and fending off a recovery drive by Elliott. Conscious of his second place in the Championship table coming into the race, Elliott’s performance in finishing 5th, ahead of a struggling Laddiman in 9th, secured his runner-up spot at the top of the table.

Michael Ralph endured a troublesome race with his bonnet in pieces on the 6th lap, took him to the pit lane to rejoin minus his bodywork and sporting a similar look to Sykes. Ralph then continued to struggle, spinning off at Church, but continuing through to the end at the back of the pack.

Scholarship-winner Gary Simms scored a personal-best 11th place finish after a strong run in his final weekend with his Speedworks team, having started 15th. Team-mate Jonny Hyde was also on track for a strong top-15 finish until a ball joint forced him to retire.

David Jackson recovered to 18th having started towards the back of the grid after an incident in free practice hampered his qualifying session. His finish was just one second from Jonathan Hawkins who also battled through having started from 30th.

Race 2

An initial clean start turned sour on the second lap for the Texaco Havoline Ginetta Championship’s final race of the season, and a four-lap safety car period.

Initial first lap charges were temporarily halted when a collision sparked by contact between Neil Houston and Tony Hughes turned Jonathan Hawkins onto his roof at Cobb. Fortunately, the G20’s proven strength held up and Hawkins emerged shaken, but his car deemed a ‘write-off’. Hughes too retired, but Houston was able to continue to finish 21st.

Speedworks Motorsport’s Edd Straw made one of his lightening starts to move up nine places in his second only start at Thruxton, moving into 21st spot. Swedish visitor Hampus Rydman jumped into a loaned right-hand-drive car for the weekend and progressed seven places to 16th.

At the race restart, Ben Elliott had taken the lead just before the Hughes / Hawkins accident, but Nicoll-Jones had the better drive out of Allard to take the lead as did Rob Austin, demoting Elliott to 3rd – but the trio headed through Brooklands and up Woodham Hill side-by-side with Elliott emerging out of Club back ahead.

Less than half a second covered the top three drivers across the line on lap 7 with Christian Dick heading the five-car train of Spencer McCarthy, Joe Osborne, Frank Wrathall and Linton Stuteley.

McCarthy and Wrathall both moved up a place each on the 8th lap, but a lap later, two-into-one didn’t fit for Elliott and Austin into Club.

Nicoll-Jones had held the lead from Elliott and Austin, but the latter pair of racers came together and sent them both pointing in the wrong direction. Both rejoined, but lost places down to 7th and 10th respectively.

Meanwhile, McCarthy and Dick were both bearing down on the new Ginetta Champion, and McCarthy took the lead on the tenth lap. A little over three seconds behind them, Frank Wrathall running in 4th, retired his car due to an upright failure.

“This has been the most disappointing meeting yet” said Wrathall. “The car felt great in qualifying. From starting 3rd and with the pace I had, we had an ideal chance of a great result.

“Whilst in 3rd in the first race I suffered heavy impact which put an end to all hopes of finishing ahead.”

Further down the field, a great battle had emerged between James Littlejohn, Martin Jones, Edd Straw and Michael Ralph; Straw and Ralph both losing out to Jones who would both go on to re-take their places leading up to the flag.

In the closing stages, Nicoll-Jones was fending off McCarthy and Dick but the three were side-by-side into Club for the final time and McCarthy just lost out to Dick who went on to take 2nd at the flag by just 0.2 seconds. A recovering Elliott clinched 4th from Osborne and Stuteley.

Laddiman’s 9th and 8th places against Elliott’s 5th and 4th place finishes saw no change to the top three at the head of the Championship table, but Dick trailed in 4th by just three points at the close of season.

“Yesterday was a real downer and hindsight’s a wonderful thing” said Dick. “If I’d collected some points yesterday, we’d be at leased third in the Championship. Ben ran into trouble yesterday and today - and maybe we’d have been able to jump second, but we’ve learned a lot this year.

“We’ve ended with a good result and been competitive, so we can’t complain – it’s been good fun.”

Looking into 2008, Dick will be moving up to the new Ginetta G50 Championship along with stable-mate Richard Sykes. “We can’t wait to get our hands on the new car and get out testing with the G50” added Dick. “But we’re also excited about the upgrade package on the G20’s. Speedworks Motorsport are still going to field four cars in the G20 Championship and will have a competitive package for the guys at the start of next year and fight for the Championship. It’ll be great!”

“The race was awesome!” said a delighted Nicoll-Jones. “I just wanted to go out there and have fun this weekend, and fun I had – a right good do.”

Championship Trio Laddiman (left), Nicoll-Jones (centre) and Elliott

Third place man Spencer McCarthy was also upbeat having had a strong run of weekends. “After Rockingham and the win there, I was looking to be on the podium again here and I did it twice so I’m well chuffed with that – it’s a good end to the season. I’m working on a package for next year to be a lot stronger” he said.

Despite the 2007 Texaco Havoline Ginetta Championship concluding at Thruxton, the G20 action is not over yet for this year. The two-weekend Ginetta G20 Winter Series begins at the Walter Hayes Trophy event at Silverstone on November 3rd / 4th, continuing on to Brands Hatch a week later.

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