Katie Milner was in action in Norfolk last weekend as the Junior Saloon Car championship (JSCC) had it’s fifth and sixth rounds at a hot and sunny Snetterton.
Katie was still on a high going into the weekend having achieved her first ever win in the previous rounds at Pembrey in Wales. She’d also won the driver of the day award for her impressive performances.
This race meeting was held on a single day with qualifying and the race all taking place on the Saturday. Testing had taken place on the sixth May with Katie’s regular driver coach Adriano Medeiros helping her find the quickest way round the track.
Katie had a successful qualifying taking fourth on the grid for race one and sixth for race two. These were good starting positons in such a competitive field and gave her a great chance of taking some more strong results.
As race one got underway, she had an amazing start to take second place going into the first corner. For the whole first half of the race, Katie maintained position just behind the leader Edward Moore. Things were looking positive for another podium finish but the heat was taking it’s toll on the tyres. Katie found her pace slowing as her tyres went off and there was little she could do about it. Two of her rivals Mathew Round-Garrido and Charlie Kennedy managed to find a way by but after that, Katie was able to hold her postion to claim fourth place. It wasn’t quite a podium but it was a good haul of points that could well be critical towards the end of the season.
For the second race she was starting sixth. She made a good start but initially held position in sixth. She was immediately looking for an opportunity to pass Ethan Hammerton with Callum Jenkins at the same time trying to find a way past her! She passed Hammerton although with Jenkins also finding a way past him, she was still under pressure. Her next target was now Adam Batty. She set off in pursuit of him and at the same time she started to edge away from Jenkins.
On the final lap she made her move going into the Bomb Hole corner. It was an amazing move but sadly she ran fractionally wide onto a kerb. Although she controlled the car well, the tiny amount of time she lost was enough to see Batty come back through. This left Katie with fifth place.
Although she didn’t get a win this time, a fourth and a fifth place gave her some good points in her championship battle and Katie is only 19 points off the championship lead.
Katie spoke after the race about the publicity she’s received since her first win;
“I was blown away by how much my name is out there now and I can’t wait to continue that!” She continued, thanking her family and supporters;
“Also my dads support is just amazing, I can’t thank him enough, as well as my whole family. Plus I can’t forget my sponsors including Richardson transport who have been so supportive.”
She spoke about how Snetterton lived up to her targets and looked forward to the next rounds at Rockingham;
“My aim for Snetterton was two top five finishes and going forward to rockingham I’m looking for two top 3 finishes to really boost my championship points [She’s currently fourth]. I did feel a lot of pressure going into this weekend as I’ve raised a few eyebrows and shown how strong against the boys I really am.”
Katie and her dad Jonny are also raising money for the JSCC’s chosen charity the Teenage Cancer Trust, by offering a competition to win a passenger ride at the Croft round in Jonny’s British Rally championship winning Toyota Corolla. Tickets are £20 and if you’d like to enter you can visit the Katie Milner Racing page on Facebook for the full details. By Marc Waller
