Trennon Bettany made further improvements in the Michelin Ginetta Junior Championship this past weekend (August 8/9) on what proved to be a second frenetic and fraught event of the season at Brands Hatch.
After showing plenty of promise at the Donington Park season-opener, the Richardson Racing driver was once again in the thick of the action around the Grand Prix layout of the Kent venue, securing another three race finishes in the ultra-competitive single-make category. Getting to grips with the challenging 2.43-mile circuit across Friday’s two practice sessions, the South African racer underlined the progress he is making in qualifying on Saturday by lapping more than two seconds faster than he had done the previous day. Lining up 18th on the grid for race one, the Azura Retreats backed teenager enjoyed a strong start to the encounter and ran as high as 13th on the opening tour before his chances of further advancing were scuppered. Hitting debris whilst making an overtake, Bettany sustained damaged to the front and rear of his front-wheel-drive machine and was forced to limp home to the chequered flag in 18th. The 16-year-old raced hard in a truncated second race of the weekend too but arguably saw his pace go unrewarded. With two safety car appearances and a red flag ultimately bringing the contest to a premature end, Bettany was unable to truly show what he was capable of. Moving up two spots on the first lap, Bettany found himself in strife at the halfway marker and dropped back. He was however able to fight back late on to be classified 15th. Starting where he finished in race two for the third and final race of the weekend - broadcast live on ITV4 - the Conditioned Environment-sponsored driver held position, despite a trip through the gravel trap, to underline that top ten results could be on the horizon in future events. Trennon Bettany: “I’m happy with that we’ve been able to make more improvements for the second weekend on the bounce. It was a really hot weekend which made things that bit more difficult but myself and the team did the best job we could. “We were unlucky with damage in race one else we could have been higher in the order but to then bring the car home in 15th in races one and two is encouraging. Race three in particular we could have challenged for points had I not been clipped into the gravel trap - that’s all part of Ginetta Junior racing though. “On the whole it has been a great first two events of the season and now we can take stock of things and hopefully continue to work our way up the order at the next meeting.” The Michelin Ginetta Junior Championship returns in under three weeks’ time on August 29/30, with three more races taking place north of the border at Knockhill in Scotland.
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.