Coronel continues Ginetta Junior charge in sizzling Snetterton contests

Rocco Coronel continued his Ginetta Junior domination with a victory brace at Snetterton, though he was denied a further triumph during an exciting opener.

The R Racing driver shadowed Elite Motorsport’s Fred Green until pouncing with five minutes remaining. Green wrestled back the advantage into Brundle before taking his second consecutive win, while there was almost a dead heat for second – Coronel pipping fellow Red Bull junior Scott Lindblom by just 0.001s.

“I needed to find out afterwards [where I’d finished],” said Coronel of his photo finish. “It was a difficult race – I didn’t really have the pace.”

Coronel climbed from third to lead the sequel before a late safety-car period. He briefly lost out to team-mate Alfie Slater during a last-lap shootout but fought back to snatch his eighth victory, while Green was spun down the order early on by Lindblom. Joseph Smith survived final-corner chaos to grab second ahead of Torrin Byrne, who inherited a podium place after Harry Bartle was disqualified for a technical infringement.

Green vaulted from fifth to challenge Coronel in the finale, with Slater capitalising on the squabble to briefly grab the lead. Coronel was soon back ahead, and he withstood final-lap pressure to win again ahead of Green and Smith, while Slater was hampered by a penalty.

“The pace was way better and that helped me a lot,” said Coronel. “I made some [overnight setup] changes because there was way too much sliding at the rear.”

Hillspeed’s Daniel Guinchard consolidated his GB4 lead with two podium finishes despite being put in the shade in East Anglia by Ary Bansal.

The Elite Motorsport driver took over the baton as Guinchard’s closest challenger by winning the first two contests from pole, but he was then wiped out by Douglas Motorsport’s Luke Hilton in the reversed-grid race.

Isaac Phelps slipped to third in the standings by finishing a close second to his team-mate in race one and making a poor start in race two. Arden’s Leon Wilson scored a maiden win ahead of Jack Taylor and Alex Berg in the final encounter, where Guinchard finished sixth.

Meanwhile, the Ginetta GT Academy title battle heated up, with Jamie Caudle winning twice despite two separate clashes with rival Charlie Digby.

Caudle survived the first incident before holding off fellow contender James Nicholas for his fourth success in race one, while Digby spun in the collision but recovered to third. Caudle led home Digby and Nicholas in a tame sequel before the trio made contact in the finale. Nicholas tried to muscle past Caudle on lap one and immediately profited from the latter’s subsequent collision with Digby to cruise to victory.

Archie Clark tightened his grip on the Ginetta GT Championship by edging out Robert Cronin for his fifth victory in race one. Clark led again in race two, but a slow pitstop and a subsequent track-limits penalty shuffled him back to eighth. Cronin clinched his second win ahead of Nick White and Harry Gamble after pitting later than his rivals.

“It cost us quite a bit of time – and probably the race, to be honest,” Clark said of his pitstop. “It’s been a good weekend [overall]. We’re going to change a few things for the next round – we can definitely go faster.”

Archie Clark took Ginetta GT opener before pitstop trouble struck in race two

Photo by: JEP