The Richardson Racing team secured another two podium finishes to maintain its title challenge in the penultimate meeting of the Ginetta Junior Championship season at Silverstone.
The Corby-based team made the short trip to the Northamptonshire circuit once again running a four-car team of Luke Browning, James Taylor, Will Martin and Emily Linscott, with all four hoping to challenge for strong results at the Home of British Motorsport.
Qualifying saw Luke qualify on the front row of the grid, but it would be a more challenging session for James, Will and Emily who lined up eleventh, 14th and 15th for the opening race of the weekend.
That opening race would prove to be a difficult one of the team when a multi-car incident on the second lap led to officials being forced to bring out the red flag, with Will one of those drivers to be caught up in the middle of the drama.
Sadly, the extensive damage sustained in the incident would be enough to rule him out of the remainder of the weekend, although Will escaped without injury.
The restarted race would run over a shortened distance of just six laps, with Luke battling hard to take third place and James taking the flag in seventh. Emily meanwhile was a solid twelfth.
The second race on Saturday afternoon saw Luke starting from pole position although he would slip back to second on the opening lap. Dicing in the front pack throughout despite an overheating engine that affected his ability to run in traffic, he matched his race one result with a third place finish.
James meanwhile picked up a second top ten finish of the weekend in ninth place, with Emily battling back from losing places on the opening lap to take the flag in 14th.
The final race of the weekend would see James leading the team’s challenge with his strong race showing, battling forwards from ninth on the grid to cross the line in fourth overall as second best of the rookies to earn a trip to the podium.
Luke would follow him home in fifth to maintain his top three championship position, whilst there was another 14th place finish for Emily to cap a solid weekend on track.
Will Martin said:
“It turned out to be a weekend that was very short, and certainly not sweet, for me. I was confident that we could move forwards in the races from where we qualified but what happened in race one was unavoidable.
“Turning through Brooklands I had no idea that a car ahead had spun and when the driver who was directly in front of me suddenly jinked to one side, I had nowhere to go. It was a big hit and has caused a lot of damage to the car but we’ll be back at Brands Hatch trying to end the year on a high.”
Luke Browning said:
“It’s been a tough weekend as I’ve been feeling under the weather so to come away from it with two podium finishes is good, even though as a driver, I would have preferred to head home with a win.
“We knew Silverstone wasn’t going to be our strongest circuit on the calendar and the issue we had in the second race didn’t help our chances, but we will go to Brands Hatch in contention for the title and I’ll be giving my all to fight for wins – and we’ll see where that leaves us.”
James Taylor said:
“I was on the back foot after qualifying didn’t go to plan, and the racing was difficult in the pack because of how close everyone was. It wasn’t easy to make up places and I had to just try and get what I could from the races.
“It was good to end the weekend with a rookie podium and end the weekend on a high, and I think I have got as much as I could from it. The aim now is to go to Brands Hatch and end the year on a high.”
Emily Linscott said:
“We didn’t quite get the drafting right in qualifying so the aim is the races was to move forwards. The first two races were fun as I had some good battles on track and managed to go forwards from where I started in both to take twelfth and 14th place.
“Race three wasn’t quite so good as for some reason we just didn’t have the pace in a straight line, which is key around Silverstone. The team will look into it to make sure the car is sorted for Brands Hatch which is a weekend I’m already looking forward to and I can’t believe it’s nearly the end of the season already.”