Will Macintyre wins the final Ginetta Junior race of the weekend to keep his championship hopes alive going into the final round at Brands Hatch.
He finished behind title rival Josh Rowledge on track, but the R Racing driver received a penalty for track limits that dropped him down the order.
Sonny Smith, who took the chequered flag first on track, also received a time penalty.
For much of the race it was Kenato Le at the front of the order with Sonny Smith close behind. The pair extended a gap of more than four seconds to the rest of the field before they began to battle for position. Smith briefly took the race lead a handful of times, with Le always coming back through.
The battle for position effectively ended when Smith received a five second penalty for exceeding track limits, dropping him down to a net P3. But the R Racing driver continued to push for position. A move up the inside of Le led to contact and Le was sent spinning on the final lap.
With Smith’s penalty, that promoted Macintyre to P1.
Macintyre needed to finish ahaead of Rowledge to keep the championship alive going into Brands Hatch. Though Rowledge started on pole he quickly slipped backwards and spent the race locked in a battle for P3 with Macintyre. Harri Reynolds made it a three way fight for a while but the two championship leaders were able to break away in the second half of the race.
Macintyre and Rowledge swapped places a number of times but it was Rowledge leading in the closing stages of the race. Both drivers exceeded track limits a number of times, but Macintyre managed to keep within the white lines after receiving a warning. Rowledge did not. Though he finished second on track, behind Smith, his penalty dropped him back to P5 overall.
Macintyre claimed the win ahead of Reynolds, who held a train of drivers behind him.
Smith completed the podium, with Le recovering to P4.
Rowledge took fifth ahead of Freddie Slater, who enjoyed a strong drive up through the order.
Liam McNeilly held of McKenzie Douglas to take seventh, while Maurice Henry and Luke Watts completed the top 10.
Full results to follow
Image credit: Ginetta/Jakob Ebrey Photography
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