Adam Smalley inherited a race victory before putting on a great performance to cut back through the pack in race two at Oulton Park

The Ginetta Junior Championship headed to Oulton Park for Rounds 8-9 of the 2018 Championship.

Smalley set the 2nd fastest time in the opening Official Practice Session, before setting the 2nd fastest lap in Timed Qualifying behind Luke Browning. Smalley would start the opening race of the weekend from the outside of the front row.

Smalley’s second-best lap was good enough for 3rd on the grid in the second race of the weekend.

 

The first race of the weekend took place on Saturday, with Smalley making a solid start to give chase to leader Browning. The top two managed to break away from the chasing pack around the technical Cheshire Circuit.

Despite Smalley’s best efforts to apply pressure and overtake, the race was rather stagnant as Smalley came home 2nd, just on the tail of Browning. However, post-race scrutineering saw Browning excluded on a technicality – promoting Smalley to the race victory, with the race result currently provisional due to appeal.

 

Race two took place under scorching conditions in the sun. Smalley got away well from 3rd on the grid as the pack charged into the Island Hairpin. Smalley was hit from behind, which turned the Total Rail Solutions and Reflex Van backed driver around and stranded in the circuit.

Smalley managed to get going again – albeit now at the back of the field.

From here on, he put in a storming drive to recover the situation and limit the damage to his championship position.

 

Smalley put in successive fastest laps as he caught the pack up and began to make his way back through the order at a vast rate of knots in the short 8-lap race.

He crossed the line in a brilliant 6th after being down in 17th after the third corner of the race – salvaging a good points haul.

 

 “Overall it was a positive weekend for me. It was great for me to grab the win in race one but I was very unfortunate in race two. I got involved in an unavoidable incident at the start pushing me back to last but luckily I had the pace in the car to pull me back up to 6th place which I feel is the best I could have achieved. I was praying for a few more laps where I could have made up a few more places. A big thanks to all of the team and my sponsors, Total Rail Solutions, Reflex Vans, Dan Morley Snap-on, Madame Tussaud’s Blackpool and F1 Alloys. Fingers crossed I’ll come back on the top step and Croft in a couple of weeks time”

 

After the Oulton Park races, Smalley heads the Ginetta Junior Championship standings on 241 points, 9 points ahead of his nearest rival Louis Foster.

The next round of the championship heads to Croft in North Yorkshire, on the 23-24 June for Rounds 10-12 of the season.