Casper Stevenson brought his superb maiden season in the Michelin Ginetta Junior Championship to a close with hard-fought rookie podium finish on the historic Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. After a challenging weekend last time out at Silverstone, the Blackwood Group supported racer bounced back well to record his 17th class podium of the campaign to cement his second place finish in the 2019 rookie points standings. Wet weather presented a real challenge to Stevenson across the meeting and he used free practice on Friday to learn how his Richardson Racing Ginetta G40 would handle in the slippery conditions. The 16 year old saw his qualifying efforts hampered heavily by a number of red flag periods. He secured 12th on the grid for the first of two races on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately it was a short-lived affair as Stevenson was caught up in an incident ahead of him. Contact sent a driver spinning across the circuit and he was unable to avoid him, leading to an immediate retirement. The second race saw Stevenson and his rivals negotiate a tricky race that was run in heavy rain and very little visibility. A strong performance in his Scope Charity supported car resulted in a hard-fought top ten finish. The final race of the season was televised live on ITV4 on Sunday. The London based racer enjoyed a great race, battling with a number of his rivals and staying out of trouble on his way to eighth at the finish and third in the rookie class. Casper Stevenson: “It’s a shame it’s the last weekend of the 2019 season. It’s gone by pretty quickly. Coming into the weekend I was determined to end the season strongly and I’m pleased I could get onto the podium. “Practice and qualifying wasn’t great with the constant red flags and tricky conditions. Race one was naturally frustrating, the incident was out of my control, while we barely went racing in the next one as we spent most of the race behind the safety car. “Race three was much better though. I had some fun out there and enjoyed racing wheel-to-wheel with my rivals for one last time. A special thank you to the Richardson Racing team and my sponsor Blackwood Group for a fantastic year.”
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.