Will Jenkins and Seb Hopkins are placed second and fifth respectively in the overall Drivers’ championship after the latest three races at Snetterton (12-13 Jun) while Josh Rowledge now leads the “Rookie” standings.
Jenkins enjoyed an excellent weekend. Making a fantastic start in Race 1 from seventh, he was second on the completion of lap one and came home third on the road – his best result of the season – but inherited second due to a post-race penalty. In the second race of the day, he spent much of the race dicing over third-place – a position he took on the final lap before claiming another third in Sunday’s race.
Hopkins, who began Race 1 leading the championship, was hampered with a misfire in qualifying then retired after contact dicing in midfield on the fifth lap, an accident that caused an 11mins Safety Car period for the final half of the race. He fared much better in Race 2, coming through well to sixth place from 11th on the grid – which ultimately became fourth due to post-race penalties. In Sunday’s final race, he posted seventh along with the fastest race lap at the very end of the time-restricted 20mins race.
Another to excel at Snetterton was Rowledge. He recorded his best qualifying, overall (sixth) and class (second) placings to date in Race 1 and recoded another class runner-up result on the road which became a class win later on Sunday evening due to penalties. His excellent form continued into Sunday with another class win, sixth overall, and fastest class race lap.
Max Hall, Joe Warhurst and Jack Sherwood each drove with gusto throughout the weekend. Hall suffered a broken bonnet pin in Saturday’s opening race which affected his vision but placed a strong sixth in class in Race 2. Warhurst suffered a spin in Race 2 but spectacularly sliced his way up from a 25th Race 3 grid start to record 13th overall, fifth in class. Warhurst and Sherwood opened their respective points accounts at Snetterton, Jack continuing to gain experience with battling runs in all three races around the 2.97-mile Snetterton 300 circuit that bathed in very warm sunshine and in front of a restricted on numbers crowd over both days.
Eddie Ives, Team Owner & Manager:
“Elite netted six podiums and we now lead the Junior standings, so a decent outcome on home soil! Will [Jenkins] struggled a little at Thruxton and so to bounce back at Snetterton with three podiums was a tremendous performance. Josh [Rowledge], at only his second car event, struggled a little in quali and also did an awesome job considering his lack of experience, running just outside the top-five all weekend.
“Seb [Hopkins] unfortunately had a bit of a car problem which put him on the back foot from qualifying. He got punted into the barriers on the back straight in the opening race. That meant he had to run a new tyre which upset the balance of the car in Race 2 but set the fastest lap in Race 3 by a big margin. It was a shame but if a bad weekend equates to a fourth and a seventh, then things aren’t too bad.
“Joe [Warhurst] qualified reasonably well and excelled in Race 3, coming from nowhere to just outside the top-10, so is making steady progress. I’m very happy the way Jack [Sherwood] and Max [Hall] are shaping up so early in their maiden car racing seasons with us. Both have a good attitude and will improve with every race.”
