Third in round eight and runner-up in round nine Middleton departs Oulton Park just one point adrift of series lead
Stuart Middleton added two more podium finishes to his season tally at a gloriously warm and sunny Oulton Park Island Circuit over the weekend, 4th/5th June, to keep his 2016 championship bid on the right track.
Wrapping up the fourth event of the campaign second in the driver standings, just a single point shy of the series lead, the 16-year-old Douglas Motorsport racer goes into his ‘home’ race meeting at Croft Circuit near Darlington a fortnight from now confident of a return to winning ways there.
“We did the best we could do this weekend with where we qualified, I’m happy with how the car was and in my driving – we did everything we could to take as many points as possible”, said the Ashington-based driver, “We were a bit unlucky in qualifying and that kind of set the tone for the weekend really. It could’ve been better but, at the end of the day, it could have been much worse.”
Running in the top four in pre-event testing and then heading free practice on Saturday morning, Stuart had to settle for the sixth fastest time in qualifying but actually began race one, round eight, from fifth on the grid due to a penalty for title rival Dave Wooder from the previous event.
Quickly moving up into fourth place, Middleton held position just behind the top three and stayed there for the next few laps bottled up behind Seb Perez. Building up to a potential move, Middleton took his chance on lap six to grab third place and remained there to the flag on lap eight.
Chalking-up his sixth podium visit of the season, the reigning Ginetta Junior Winter Champion lapped faster than the top two finishers and delivered a best lap time just 0.2 seconds shy of the fastest lap of the race.
Beginning Sunday afternoon’s ninth round, which was televised live on ITV4, from third on the grid, Middleton unfortunately slipped to fourth off the start and an attempt to try and re-challenge for third at Old Hall wasn’t successful.
Running close behind the second placed battle between Perez and Charlie Fagg, he was visibly much faster than the pair and piled on the pressure as the race entered lap two. Then, at the hairpin on the second tour, Perez and Fagg tangled but Middleton managed to expertly avoid being caught up by turning tighter over the kerb on the inside – just missing the stricken cars.
Emerging from the corner in second place, Middleton remained there to the conclusion which actually came under Safety Car conditions on lap seven following an earlier incident. On lap four, team-mate Daniel Harper was involved in a tangle with Kyle Hornby and the resulting damage to the left-front of Harper’s car ultimately led to a small fire developing.
As he tried to make it back to the pits the damage worsened, as did the fire, and so Harper pulled off the track at the pit entry. The Safety Car physically appeared in time for the start of lap six and the possibility of a one lap dash to the flag was in prospect.
The chequered flag was shown the next time around, though, with the Safety Car leading the train of cars over the finish line with Middleton second and with a best lap just 0.1 seconds shy of the race winner’s quickest.
“I think there might have been one or two opportunities to try and get the win if the race had been re-started, but you never know”, added Middleton, “I’m just looking forward to Croft now. We have a test there on Wednesday, I haven’t been there since last season when we raced, so it’ll be good to be back on the track. Hopefully we can try and go for two wins there in a couple of weeks.”
Rounds 10 and 11 of the Ginetta Junior Championship season will take place over the weekend 18th/19th June at Croft in North Yorkshire
2016 Ginetta Junior Championship Driver Standings (after Rd9):2nd Stuart Middleton, 253pts
