Tom Edgar wins the opening race of the 2021 Ginetta Junior Championship after a hard fought battle at Thruxton.
Edgar spent the race in the lead group but in traditional Ginetta Junior fashion holding the lead for more than a lap appeared impossible.
The R Racing driver started fifth on the grid and wasn’t immedietly challenging for the race lead. Team-mate Aston Millar and the Elite Motorsport car of Seb Hopkins battled for position, with Callum Voisin, Josh Miller, and Joe Warhurst close behind.
Positions shuffled with almost every corner, with Hopkins and Miller briefly taking the top spot, but it was Millar back in P1 at the end of the first lap, with Edgar close behind.
The lead scuffle ended with a retirement for Warhurst at the end of lap one, as the Elite Motorsport driver ran into the barriers at the entrace to the pit lane after clipping the back of one of the R Racing cars ahead.
A brief safety car period followed, allowing Edgar to get onto the back of Millar, but he found himself under pressure from Miller on the restart.
The lead quintet picked up where they left off when racing resumed. Edgar, Miller and Millar all took turns leading the pack, with Voisin and Hopkins also in the fight.
Miller and Voisin were briefly able to break away from the three behind, but it didn’t take long for Edgar and Hopkins to draw back on their tail.
Voisin, Miller, and Edgar ran three abreast on the final lap, with Edgar just able to nose ahead. Miller held onto second and was just 0.270s behind at the chequered flag. Miller was later handed a 0.5s penalty for gaining an advantage, which dropped him down to third in the overall standings.
Hopkins followed Edgar past Millar to take third on track, but was promoted to second by Miller’s penalty. Voisin secured the rookie win in P5.
The next six on track had an equally up-and-down battle. Joe Wheeler eventually came out on top, finishing P6 after starting 17th on the grid. Will Jenkins dropped back to seventh, ahead of Freddie Thomlinson and Robert de Haan, the second quickest rookie.
Liam McNeilly completes the top 10, ahead of Josh Rowledge, who put in an astonishing recovery after a spin on the opening lap dropped him to the back of the field.
Image credit: Ginetta/Jakob Ebrey Photography
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