Ginetta Jr: Series Snetterton qualifying report

RICHARDSON & SWANWICK SHARE QUALIFYING SPOILS AT SNETTERTON

Louise Richardson confirmed her status as a genuine Ginetta Junior Championship title threat at Snetterton in Norfolk today, Saturday, 7th August, by securing her second pole position start of the 2010 season.

Kicking-off the second half of the season superbly, the TJ Motorsport driver -- who is currently third in the standings, just 20 points shy of series leader Jake Hill -- scorched to the round 11 pole position with a time of 1m25.395 seconds (82.28mph).

Lapping 0.325 seconds quicker than closest challenger Adam Bonham, who produced a career best effort to grab a place on the front row of the grid for the first time, Richardson's second-fastest lap of 1m25.954 seconds wasn't enough to give her pole position for round 12 but the podium will undoubtedly be in her sights again from the second row of the grid.

"I'm so happy to get pole position again, it's a great feeling", said the 17-year-old, "The slipstream will be a problem in the races, it'll be difficult to break the tow, but I've been able to lap consistently this weekend so far -- we've found I've been able to run four or five laps all within a 10th of a second of each other while some of the others have just been nailing one quick lap.

"Being consistent will be the key to the races tomorrow I think, if I can get a good start and string together some quick laps at the start we'll hopefully be able to build a gap. I'll be really pleased if we can get a couple of podiums but if I can get a win, I'll be ecstatic!"

Bonham edged out fellow Team Parker Racing driver Chris Swanwick by a mere 0.004 seconds to grab second on the grid for the first of Sunday's nine-lap races while Tollbar's Hill will line-up in fourth position, one spot ahead of chief rival Tom Ingram in his Hillspeed-run car.

Less than half a second covered the top four qualifiers for round 11 with Jody Fannin rounding out the top six for TJ, 0.290 seconds ahead of reigning champion Sarah Moore. The category's youngest competitor meanwhile, Seb Morris, produced his best run since graduating to cars at the beginning of the season with the 10th fastest time.

Today certainly delivered a turnaround in fortunes for Team Parker and they have a great chance to do well in round 12 especially with Swanwick taking pole position for the second race thanks to his second fastest lap time in qualifying.

Looking to reignite his campaign, the experienced Ginetta Junior racer will start ahead of Bonham for round 12 with Hill and Richardson on row two, Ingram and Fannin on row three and FML's Alex Austin and Moore lining up on the fourth row. Morris is rewarded for great consistency with ninth on the grid ahead of Moore's Eurotech-run sibling David.

Rounds 11 and 12 of the 2010 Ginetta Junior Championship will take place at Snetterton tomorrow, Sunday, 8th August, at 10.30 and 16.20 respectively. The second of the day's races will be screened live on Freeview, digital satellite and cable channel ITV4.

Provisional 2010 Ginetta Junior Championship Positions (after Rd10): 1st Jake Hill, 253pts; 2nd Tom Ingram, 244pts; 3rd Louise Richardson, 233pts; 4th Jody Fannin, 199pts; 5th David Moore, 195pts; 6th Tom Howard, 193pts

-source: ginettacars.com