Liam McNeilly wins the opening Ginetta Junior race of the weekend at Donington Park.
The Fox Motorsport driver narrowly closed the gap to Aston Millar in the championship standings as Millar came home P2.
McNeilly got the best start from second on the grid, taking the lead from pole sitter Millar. He was unable to shake the R Racing driver, but the safety car was brought out before Millar could attempt a move.
Millar found a way back past McNeilly on the restart. McNeilly kept the pressure on the championship leader, forcing him to defend, but the pair had Robert de Haan and Seb Hopkins close behind, so McNeilly couldn’t attempt too risky a move.
Another safety car was brought out, this time for an incident involving Edward Pearson and Jack Sherwood.
Again, the restart provided the perfect opportunity for a diver to make a move for the lead. McNeilly tried to find a way past Millar, only to come under attack himself from de Haan. De Haan couldn’t make the move stick and fell to the back of the group, leaving McNeilly to challenge Millar again.
The Fox Motorsport driver managed to find a way past Millar, and spent the final minutes of the race extending his lead at the front of the order.
McNeilly finished 2.467s ahead of the battle for P2.
Millar led a train of drivers across the line to take second just 0.5s ahead of Jamie Osbourne, who took his best finish of the season in third.
De Haan recovered to take fourth, while the rest of the top 10 were all within half a second of one another at the line.
Robert Wheeler held on after a strong qualifying to finish fifth, ahead of Harri Reynolds and a charging Will Jenkins.
Fellow championship contender Callum Voisin had been following Jenkins as they made their way up through the order but fell backwards late on, finishing 13th.
Hopkins spent most of the race battling in the lead group, but a small mistake on the final lap dropped him to 10th behind Josh Rowledge and Aqil Alibhai.
Image credit: Fox Motorsport/Jakob Ebrey Photography
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