Emily Linscott recently had the final rounds of the Ginetta Junior championship at Brands hatch on the legendary grand prix circuit. As you may already Know, Linscott has been competiting at the final three meetings of the season this year ready for a full season in 2018.
The hope is that she will be far better prepared to take on the championship against other drivers joining in 2018.
As usual there was pre-race weekend testing in the week before and this went well, with Linscott being mentored by her usual driver coach former BTCC champion Chris Hodgetts.
Then it was on to qualifying and she looked at the most competitive she had been so far, setting some impressive lap times. Unfortunately, Linscott (along with several others) lost her best times for a track limits infringement. Despite this she took seventeenth on the grid.
Race one and two were on Saturday with race three on Sunday. The first race was early afternoon and Linscott made a good start but soon realised there was an issue with the car. The problem was limiting her performance but despite this, she got into a great battle with one of her rivals. The two of them spent most of the race passing and defending with each other and Linscott eventually came out on top taking sixteenth place with a car which wasn’t 100%.
Race two initially went even better with Linscott making up several places. Then came a shunt further up the field. Linscott avoided the crashed cars as she passed and the safety car was then scrambled. Linscott was now well up the field and things looked set for a great result as the safety car went in. But as Linscott came up to pass the crash site, there was a slippery patch which sent Linscott wide and into the tyre wall. Incredibly she bounced out still facing the right way and, determined as ever she powered on, eventually taking twelfth at the flag. It was lower than she would have finished but it showed her bravery and determination that she still finished even after bouncing off the tyres with a car which after it’s excursion wasn’t at it’s best. She hoped race three would bring her more luck.
This time there was a bit of a coming together at the start. Another car bumped off of Linscott’s car but fortunately she survived the bump. However, some other cars had crashed and the red flags came out. On the restart things were less eventful. Linscott had another hard-fought race to take thirteenth at the flag. Under the circumstances three finishes were a good result for Linscott. She was pleased with how she had performed;
“Well that’s the last Ginetta Junior Championship races finished off at Brands Hatch. What an awesome track to race too. Fairly happy with my progress, need to find more pace but that’ll come with a bit more experience. Finished with a 16th, 12th and 13th place finishes and set my best lap time each day.”
She took the opportunity to thank her supporters;
“A huge thank you to everyone for their kind support, it’s been fantastic to have you all with me. I must thank Handpicked Commercial Interiors, Vitabiotics, Ropelet, Sargeant Partnership, Everyone Active, iQComms, Dirtyslate Creative Studio, Basildon Council, YRDA, Race Driver Developments for partnering with me for these three meetings, I hope you’ve all enjoyed it as much as I have and hope you’ll be back with me for next season. A shout out to my school, St Clere’s, for their support too, you’ve been great. Lastly, I’ve got to thank my fantastic mum and dad for doing everything they can to get me this far and for making my dreams come true. Looking forward to my next time out there.” By Marc Waller
