Ethan Jeff-Hall has moved into the points lead in the Ginetta Junior Championship 2024! He took a stunning hat-trick of victories during the Ginetta Junior G Fest at Anglesey (29/30 June).
In the championship’s first visit to the coastal circuit in North Wales since 2007, Jeff-Hall’s brilliant treble was joined by a second win of the season for Marcus Saeter as R Racing dominated proceedings with a perfect set of one-two race finishes across the four races.
Saturday
Jeff-Hall started the 2024 season with a brilliant double pole position in the Oulton Park opener. He repeated that performance to kick off the weekend in Anglesey. His pole margin was an impressive half a second over Saeter, who made it an R Racing front-row lockout.
Henry Joslyn (Preptech UK) was quickest overall in both days of pre-event testing. However, he had to settle for third in qualifying. Elite Motorsport filled three of the next four places, with Charlie Hart, Archie Clark and Isaac Phelps only separated by Alfie Slater (R Racing) in sixth.
Jeff-Hall converted his pole into the lead at the start of race one. Behind, Hart made quick progress to second ahead of Joslyn and Saeter. Next time round though Joslyn took second back with a smart move into Rocket, with Saeter following through to demote Hart back to fourth.
A few laps later Joslyn ran wide at turn two. He dropped back to fifth behind Saeter, Hart and a fast-starting Phelps. That was a decisive moment in the race. R Racing duo Jeff-Hall and Saeter then enjoyed a comfortable run. It was the first one-two finish of the weekend for the team.
Joslyn mounted a fightback with a stunning move around the outside of The Banking and Church on the penultimate lap. This netted him third place on the road from Hart. However a post-race penalty for gaining an unfair advantage demoted Joslyn a place and put Hart onto the podium.
Clark took fifth from Phelps on the final lap. Ruben Dan (Elite Motorsport) moved up three places across the race to seventh. Tom Ingram Hill (R Racing), James Shotton (Fox Motorsport) and Harry Moss (R Racing) rounded out the top ten ahead of Chase Fernandez (R Racing).
Nickolas Ellis (Elite Motorsport) was the big mover of the race. He climbed up eight places to finish 12th ahead of current Ginetta Junior Scholarship winner Jude Peters (E3 Sport) and Ethan Carney (Preptech UK). Colin Cronin (Fox Motorsport) was another to gain ground in the race, going from 18th to 15th.
Alfie Davies (Preptech UK) and Jack Robinson (Fox Motorsport) were next up, while Slater had to settle for 18th at the finish after spinning out of the top ten. Felix Livesey (MDD Racing) and Holly Miall (Fox Motorsport) rounded out the points scoring places.
The second race of the day began with Jeff-Hall successfully leading away from pole once again. Saeter dropped back from second to fourth off the line, however by the end of the lap he had fought back to second ahead of Joslyn and Hart.
The top four ran closely in the opening laps before Hart and then Joslyn fell back, leaving a two-driver duel for the win. Saeter pulled off an overtake on lap seven to move to the front. He pulled clear to take his second victory in the championship by almost two and a half seconds.
Jeff-Hall came under late pressure from Joslyn and an attempted overtake led to contact between the two, however both continued without harm to complete the podium. A slide wide exiting The Banking dropped Hart from fourth to sixth late on, with Phelps finishing up fourth after a last lap move on Clark.
Moss made solid progress to seventh at the head of a trio of R Racing cars, with Ingram Hill grabbing eighth from Fernandez on the last lap. Peters notched up a top ten finish, with Dan just missing out after moving up from 16th to 11th across the 20-minute race.
After his promising qualifying result, Slater was left to settle for a best race result of the day of 12th ahead of Carney. Once again, Nickolas Ellis put in a star performance to gain ten places through the race to 14th. Shotton finished up 15th, having run up in seventh before an unscheduled pitstop.
Torrin Byrne (Pace Performance), Davies and Miall were next up. Ntiyiso Mabunda (Pace Performance) and James Ellis (MDD Racing) also secured points results. The finishers were rounded out by Cronin, Mahlori Mabunda (Pace Performance) and Robinson.
Sunday
In drier conditions on the final day of action, it was a familiar story in qualifying. Jeff-Hall once again set the pace with a double pole position to lead an R Racing one-two-three. Fernandez bounced back from a subdued Saturday to post the second fastest time ahead of Saeter, Phelps and Joslyn.
Jeff-Hall led through the opening lap and stayed out of trouble as drama played out behind him at Rocket. Contact between Fernandez and Joslyn spun the latter round and allowed Saeter to dive into second. Another incident behind dropped Phelps and Slater to the back of the field.
Fernandez hit back on lap two to grab second from Saeter. Clark picked up fourth place at the expense of Shotton as they made it a four-car battle for the podium places. A few laps later Saeter got second from Fernandez again and went on to edge away from the pack.
He left behind a fierce battle for the final podium spot. The pivotal moment came at Rocket on the final lap as Clark dived down the inside of Fernandez. The move forced both of them wide and opened the door for Shotton and Hart to get ahead to third and fourth respectively.
As Jeff Hall completed a supreme nine second win from Saeter, Shotton secured his first overall podium finish in the championship. Hart finished up fourth ahead of Clark and Fernandez. Peters moved from 11th to seventh on the opening lap and staying there for the rest of the race.
Livesey was eighth as Joslyn and Phelps each gained more than ten places. They really bounced back from their lap one incidents to finish ninth and 11th respectively. Dan split them to round out the top 10.
Nickolas Ellis and Ingram Hill each gained five places through the race to finish 12th and 13th respectively. Another big mover was Moss from 22nd after a tough qualifying to 14th. Byrne was next up ahead of a recovering Slater, Carney and Davies.
The final race of the weekend started with Jeff-Hall and Fernandez leading away from the front row of the grid. An early change for third saw Phelps pick off Saeter into Rocket, with Joslyn following past, while behind Hart passed Clark for sixth at the final corner.
Phelps and Joslyn traded third place multiple times over the next few laps. Joslyn eventually secured the place as Phelps slipped behind Saeter also. Shotton moved up to sixth behind, leaving behind a five-car battle for seventh between Slater, Hart, Clark, Dan and Livesey.
Jeff-Hall signed off his dream weekend with a near seven second win over Fernandez, with Joslyn a comfortable third behind. Saeter finished fourth on the road, however a ten-second time penalty for an out of position start left him back in 15th on the final result.
Shotton was on course for what would become a fourth-place finish, however he agonisingly lost out at the final corner to Phelps, Slater and Hart. It was a standout result for Slater, who secured his first rookie class podium finish alongside Jeff-Hall and Phelps.
Livesey matched his best result of the weekend in eighth place ahead of Clark and Cronin, the latter’s best finish of the event. Dan had finished 11th on the road. However, a track limits penalty cost him four positions to Peters, Ellis, Davies and Byrne.
The Freshman’s Cup is a new class this season for car-racing rookies with no previous national-level karting experience. Peters was the driver to beat here with a perfect record of four class wins from four races. Davies featured on the podium in every race too, Byrne on three occasions and Robinson also took home a trophy.
Full race results can be found at: www.tsl-timing.com/event/242631
The four races can be watched back as part of the G Fest coverage at: www.youtube.com/user/ginettatv
The Ginetta Junior Championship is next in action in two weeks’ time (13/14 July). The action returns to the British GT Championship support bill at Snetterton in Norfolk.
