Jaime Chadwick headed to Thruxton in Hampshire for the latest rounds of the Ginetta Junior championship over the May day bank Holiday weekend.
She was hoping to translate the speed she showed over the previous rounds into results this time.
Things got off to a solid start with a seventh place in free practice. However disaster struck in qualifying. A mistake heading into Church, the Uk’s fastest corner, saw her badly flat spot all four tyres. This not only then made the car very difficult to drive but when she finally had to change tyres it meant she fell foul of the championship’s strict rules on tyres and she lost ten points in the championship, a massive blow for such a close fought championship. She found herself 11th and 10th on the grid for the weekend’s two races.
The first race started well and she managed to move up the field. Battling hard she got all the way up to seventh when disaster struck. Up ahead Jack Rawles spun at the club chicane. Unfortunately he chose to rejoin the race directly in fornt of Jamie leaving her with nowhere to go but into the back of him. The two cars made heavy contact and although she continued, she was forced to retire a lap later with a loose damaged bonnet that obscured her view as well as steering and suspension damage. It was another big blow to her championship and she was completely the innocent party.
The car was repaired for race two and again she fought her way up the field only for disaster to strike yet again. While battling Jack Mitchell for eighth place, the two came together at the complex and both spun off. Jamie rejoined (Along with Mitchell) but she had fallen to the tail of the field and finished in thirteenth place.
A weekend that had promised so much ended up delivering nothing but bad luck and a major blow to her championship chances;
“The weekend started badly in qualifying and just continued to get worse,” said a dejected Jamie. “Qualifying badly put me in a difficult position, as I had to try to recover places. And while I felt I was driving well under the circumstances, the two incidents ruined my day.”
“What’s really annoying is the poor finishes and ten-point penalty I received for using a new set of tyres has dropped me seven places in the championship standings to 13th, so I’ve got a lot of work to do in the forthcoming rounds to get back to where I need to be.”
The next Rounds (7 and 8) of the 2013 Ginetta Junior Championship will be held at Cheshire’s Oulton Park circuit in just over three weeks’ time (8-9 June). By Marc Waller
