Rowan Vincent continued his impressive start to his maiden season in the Michelin Ginetta Junior Championship with a hard-fought pair of top 15 finishes during the second meeting of the year at Brands Hatch (08/09 August). Following a promising car-racing debut at Donington Park a week prior, the Woking-based racer make the short trip to Kent in a buoyant mood as he prepared to tackle the world-famous Grand Prix layout, which is universally recognised as one of the toughest tracks on the calendar to master. Scorching temperatures greeted Vincent as he tackled two free-practice sessions on Friday. Making strong progress across the day with Richardson Racing, he make another big step forward with his lap times in qualifying the following morning to secure 19th on the grid for race one. Maintaining position through an early safety car period, the 15 year old pushed forwards once the action resumed and climbed to 17th at the finish. He followed that up with the same finish in race two, as two safety car periods and an early red flag stoppage limited his chance to make progress. Post-race penalties for other drivers promoted him three places though, which meant he would line up 14th on the grid for the final race of the weekend. Competing live on ITV4, Vincent was determined to end on a high in his Concreate and V4 Wood Flooring backed Ginetta G40. A tough start saw him shuffled back down the order during a frenetic opening lap, but he immediately composed himself and fought back to 14th by the end of lap two. That put him right in the thick of the action in the midfield battles. An impressive performance over the remaining laps netted Vincent a well-earned 12th place finish, continuing a strong run of six consecutive points finishes to start the season. He’ll be aiming to extend that record next time out at Knockhill in Scotland (29/30 August). Rowan Vincent: “I’m really pleased with how this weekend has gone. I’ve found the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit a difficult one to get up to speed around, so I can have no complaints about coming away with three more finishes and a couple of strong results. “Our focus was on about improving my speed and racecraft across the weekend and I feel we achieved that. I’m feeling more confident each time I get in the car and I’d like to start pushing towards the top ten next time out at Knockhill.” Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.