Silverstone was the location for rounds 21,22,23 of the Ginetta Junior Championship at Snetterton and it was here that Kiern Jewiss built up an unassailable lead in the Rookie Championship to become the Rookie Champion, 2017. Congratulations to Kiern and all of the Douglas Motorsport team on this success.

It’s the second year in succession that the Rookie Champion has come from the Douglas Motorsport team. In 2016 Dan Harper claimed the title and in 2015 Stuart Midleton became the Rookie vice-champion before going on to win the 2015 Winter Series.

Kiern will be officially crowned Rookie Champion at the last round of the championship at Brands Hatch on Aug 30/Sep 1

It wasn’t a perfect weekend for Kiern by any means, after taking the lead in race 1 the rain started to come down and contact from another car caused damage to Kiern’s Ginetta which meant he started to slip down through the field, eventually finishing in 9th position, but still enough to earn a Rookie podium finish.

Race 2 and Race 3 saw Kiern finish in 5th and 4th place respectively, picking up two Rookie wins, enough to give him the overall Rookie title.

Tom Canning continued his impressive performances by claiming another rookie podium in race 2. Race 1 saw Tom finish in 10th position, missing a rookie podium by 1 place. Another 10th position in race 2 saw him take 3rd place on the Rookie podium, with team-mate Jewiss on the top step.  These two 10th place finishes meant Douglas Motorsport had all three cars in the top 10 in the first two races.

Dan Harper began the weekend with a podium finish – 2nd place in race 1. Race 2 saw Dan drop back to 14th position after some contact at the front of the field. But, he was able to brilliantly fight his way back to eventually finish in 6th place, and gain some valuable points as his title rivals finished P1 and P2. In race 3 Dan was maintaining 5th place for most of the race until he made some fantastic overtaking moves towards the end of the race, eventually finishing P3 and achieving another podium.

Dan remains in 3rd place in the overall championship. He has a mathematical chance of winning the overall championship, but 2nd place is a possibility, as Dan is only 13 points behind in 3rd place.

The final rounds of the championship take place at Brands Hatch on August 30th and September 1st.

The Ginetta Junior Championship rolled into Rockingham at the weekend (August 26/27), and it proved to be a successful weekend for Douglas Motorsport’s Daniel Harper.

With two pole positions earned as a result of this two fastest laps in qualifying, his haul of two wins and a second place finish was his most successful result to date in his Ginetta Junior career, and it closes the gap on the top two drivers in the championship. Harper is in 3rd place now, only 16 points behind leader Tom Gamble. He has given himself a great chance of an overall championship win.

Daniel Harper –

This was my best ever weekend in the championship and I’m ecstatic. Two pole positions, two race wins and a second place, I really can’t ask for much more than that! It’s absolutely amazing and we really didn’t expect a weekend like this after a difficult Friday.

“Qualifying was superb for us and really set us up to fight for the wins like this. I really enjoyed all of the races, the racing was close and fair, and to come away with three more podium finishes continues our really strong start to the second half of the season.

“The results have put us right back into the championship fight and we’ve just got to keep going the way we are and try to carry this momentum into the remaining races. I’m really looking forward to going to Silverstone and hopefully we can enjoy another weekend like this.”

Race  2 saw Kiern Jewiss start on Pole, with Harper one row back. Harper was able to make up places early on, and a mighty battle for the lead followed throughout the race. By the penultimate lap Harper had taken the lead, but Jewiss fought hard and found a way round his teammate to secure his first win!

Race 2 also saw Douglas Motorsport’s Tom Canning take his 2nd podium finish of this year’s championship, which meant Douglas Motorsport occupied the top two podium places in both the main and rookie races.

The stats for the weekend racing make for interesting reading – 2 Pole positions, Two cars on front row in race 1, 1 race win, 2 double podiums, 2 Rookie wins, a double podium in the Rookie class.in race 2.

The results from Knockhill mean the overall championship is wide open. Jewiss and Harper occupy places 3 and 4 in the standings and are both in contention for the championship, while Kiern Jewiss extends his huge lead in the Rookie championship.

Rockingham is next on the weekend of August 26th/27th

Knockhill Gallery: