James Higgins maintained his pursuit of securing a top-three finish in the ROKiT British F4 Championship certified by FIA at Silverstone this past weekend (September 21/22) as he charged to a brace of podium finishes.
Returning to the Home of British Motor Racing for the penultimate event of the season, the Rodin Motorsport driver was one of the stars of the show in the single-seater series as he tallied a pair of second-place finishes.
Riding a wave of momentum having twice triumphed at Donington Park last month, Higgins showed plenty of front-running speed during practice and he carried that forward into Saturday morning’s ultra-close qualifying session.
Topping the times at one stage, the 18-year-old was pipped to claiming a first pole position of the season in the closing moments, instead settling for second place for the weekend’s opening contest.
Blasting away from the front row in race one, Higgins initially found himself in an almighty scrap for second place which resulted in him dropping back to fourth - however a fine recovery soon saw him retake the positions he had lost.
Settling into a groove, the BRDC Rising Star enjoyed a relatively comfortable drive to the chequered flag as he following home newly crowned champion Deagen Fairclough, while maintaining a healthy margin to the chasing pack behind.
Unfortunately a start-line incident saw race two postponed after two red flag stoppages before it was cancelled altogether due to a combination of deteriorating weather and track conditions.
Sticking to the original schedule, Higgins did take to the grid for the weekend’s final race and in a repeat of Saturday’s opener, he shadowed Fairclough from lights-to-flag to claim his seventh podium of the year.
James Higgins: “It’s been another really positive weekend for me and the team; to come away with two trophies is fantastic and it sets us up for what I hope will be a strong end to the year at Brands Hatch.
“Winning two races at Donington Park certainly meant that we went into the weekend with momentum on our side and I immediately was able to settle into a groove during practice and qualifying.
“I didn’t quite have enough to get the better of Deagen in races one and three but two second-place finishes certainly helps my cause of ending the year in the overall top three. It was just a shame we couldn’t get back out for race two.
“We’re off to Brands Hatch in less than a fortnight now so we’ll go through all the data, see where we can improve and hopefully sign off the year in style around the Grand Prix circuit!”
The world-famous Grand Prix layout of Brands Hatch plays host to the final three races of the 2024 ROKiT F4 British Championship certified by FIA, with the finale set to take place in less than two weeks’ time on October 5/6.
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.
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