Rocco Coronel has written his name into the history books as the winner of the milestone 500th Ginetta Junior race. It came as part of a perfect victory hat-trick in the second round of the 20th anniversary season of the Ginetta Junior Championship at Silverstone (26/27 April).
Qualifying
Torrin Byrne (Pace Performance) set the pace during pre-event testing on Friday and impressively replicated that result with an exemplary performance in qualifying the next day, securing his maiden Ginetta Junior pole position by a margin of seven tenths of a second.
2025 Junior Scholarship winner Fred Green (Elite Motorsport) was second fastest ahead of Red Bull Junior Team member Rocco Coronel (R Racing), while Ethan Carney (Elite Motorsport) secured a career-best Junior qualifying result in fourth. Alfie Slater (R Racing) and Joseph Smith (Elite Motorsport) completed the top six.
Race One
Byrne started the opening race from pole position, however his advantage was unfortunately short-lived. Green dived down the inside into Copse to grab the lead, with Coronel and Slater also working their way past Byrne before contact at Village spun him to the rear of the field.
Smith emerged in fourth place ahead of Scott Kin Lindblom (R Racing) and Carney, but a spin of his own at Vale on lap two dropped Smith down the order too. As Lindblom broke clear in fourth, a huge battling pack behind was led by Colin Cronin (Elite Motorsport) and George Proudford-Nalder (MDD Racing).
At the front of the field, Green and Coronel worked in unison to pull a gap of over five seconds to Slater behind. Tucked under the rear wing of Green for many laps, Coronel bided his time before making a decisive move into Village on the penultimate lap to grab the race victory.
Behind, Slater fought hard to secure the final place on the overall podium but lost out to his team-mate Lindblom just past mid-distance. Proudford-Nalder broke away from the pack to secure a breakthrough result in fifth, leaving behind a mammoth scrap for sixth.
From a seven-car train on the final lap, Freddie Lloyd (Fox Motorsport) emerged in sixth on the road ahead of Cronin. They were both handed five-second time penalties for track limits infringements though, dropping them back three places each.
Carney therefore signed off an up-and-down race in sixth ahead of his Elite team-mate Emmilio Del Grosso and Ethan Lennon (Pace Performance). Lloyd was left to settle for ninth, having produced a brilliant charge forward from 17th on the grid, with Cronin in tenth.
Smith and Byrne impressively recovered from their early dramas to come home 11th and 12th respectively, while Jarrett Clark (R Racing) finished 13th after a last lap spin at Aintree whilst in the middle of the close-fought group battling for the top ten positions.
Max Cuthbert (R Racing) was 14th ahead of Revie Lake (Elite Motorsport), who rose four places from his grid position through the race. Behind, MKH Racing duo Harry Bartle and Raul Zunzarren were split by Josh Watts, with the latter’s Tim Gray Motorsport team-mates Matthew Chiwara and Joshua Henry completing the points finishers.
Race Two
Green would start the milestone 500th Ginetta Junior race from pole position courtesy of posting the quickest ‘second fastest time’ in qualifying. He converted pole onto the early lead from Coronel, while early changes behind saw Smith and Carney work their way past third-place starter Byrne.
As Carney picked off Smith and challenged Coronel for second on lap two, a dramatic moment behind saw Byrne run wide at Farm and make contact with Slater and Lindblom whilst returning to the circuit. Cronin benefitted from the incident to rise to fifth ahead of Cuthbert, Clark and Lennon.
After a safety car period, the action resumed with a two-lap shootout to the chequered flag. Coronel initially had to fend off a challenge from Carney for second, but soon turned his attention to Green and launched a move around the outside at Brooklands.
Green spun around on the inside though, with the unfortunate Lennon, who had climbed from 14th to eighth, collecting his car and leading to retirement for both. Proudford-Nalder took advantage of the incident to storm forward from ninth to fourth ahead of Cuthbert, Cronin and a recovering Slater.
Coronel went on to lead through to the chequered flag for the honour of being victorious in the 500th race. Smith and Carney followed him home to make it a double podium for Elite, while fourth for Proudford-Nalder secured him a maiden rookie class podium finish.
Cronin and Slater enjoyed some thrilling wheel-to-wheel action in the final corners as they rounded out the overall top six ahead of Clark. Lloyd continued his phenomenal run of charging drives as he rose from 22nd on the grid to eighth ahead of Lindblom.
After a climb from 25th to 13th within three laps in race one went unrewarded with a retirement, Felix Livesey (MDD Racing) produced similar heroics as he scythed his way through the field from 25th to tenth. Lake gained five places himself to 11th ahead of Felipe Reijs (R Racing).
Noah Young (Performance One) was another driver on the move through the race, moving up from 24th on the grid to 13th at the finish. Behind, Henry Cameron (Fox Motorsport) and Katrina EE (Tim Gray Motorsport) picked up their first points finishes of the weekend.
Race Three
With the race two result setting the grid for the final race of the weekend, it was Coronel’s turn to start from pole position. The Dutchman led the field through Copse for the first time, with Smith slotting into second whilst Proudford-Nalder passed Carney for third at Stowe corner.
A multi-car incident in the pack that ended the races of Cronin and Lake led to a safety car stoppage. When racing resumed, an attempted move from Carney on Proudford-Nalder at Chapel sent them both wide, allowed Slater to slot into third and latch onto the tail of the top two.
Despite Smith’s best efforts, Coronel remained out front and it was Slater who eventually made progress in the lead trio, passing Smith on the penultimate lap. Coronel meanwhile took his fifth consecutive race win, a tally only beaten by one driver in championship history.
After the restart, a frenetic battle over fourth position played out for a number of laps. A recovering Proudford-Nalder eventually broke clear of the pack to secure the place and his second rookie podium of the day, leaving behind a ten-car battle over the remaining places in the top six.
Lindblom was in the thick of the action and produced a superb penultimate lap to climb from ninth to an eventual fifth place result. Cuthbert bounced back from late troubles in race two with a phenomenal drive in the finale, working his way through from 21st on the grid to a top six result.
Producing similar numbers was Green, who went from 23rd to seventh through the race ahead of Livesey. An up-and-down race for Lloyd resulted in a ninth-place finish in front of Clark, with Lennon just missing out on a top ten result after a good charging drive from 22nd on the grid.
Carney finished 12th on the road, however a five-second track limits penalty dropped him back to 19th. Bartle was therefore classified 12th ahead of his MKH Racing team-mate Zunzarren, the latter equalling his best result of the season, while Byrne came home 14th from the back of the grid.
In the Freshmans Cup, a class for car-racing rookies with no previous national-level karting experience, Proudford-Nalder was the driver to beat with a comfortable triple victory. Lake, Cameron and Young each ended the weekend with two trophies apiece.
Full race results can be found at https://www.tsl-timing.com/event/251705
All three races can be watched back at www.youtube.com/user/ginettatv
The 2025 Ginetta Junior Championship season continues next month with three races during the Spring Bank Holiday weekend event at Oulton Park in Cheshire (24-26 May).
