Trennon Bettany found himself out of luck in the Michelin Ginetta Junior Championship this past weekend (September 19/20) as top ten pace went unrewarded at Thruxton. Following on from the quick-fire start to his maiden car-racing campaign last month, the Richardson Racing driver took advantage of the recent three week break to reflect on his performances so far, whilst also preparing for the event that marked the halfway point in the season.
Getting up to speed with the 2.36-mile thrill ride layout of the Hampshire venue across a handful of practice sessions across Friday and Saturday morning, the Azura Retreats-backed racer entered qualifying ready to push himself and the car to the limits. Alongside his team-mates, the 16-year-old aimed to benefit from the art of slipstreaming one another however it unfortunately didn’t work out for Bettany, who finished with the 17th fastest time. Lining up towards the rear of the field, the South African maintained his position in the opening stages before moving up to 16th - the position he would stay in for the remainder of the encounter. Competing live on ITV2 for the championship’s second and final race on Sunday, Bettany unfortunately saw his weekend cut short after being involved a multi-car accident exiting the final chicane at the halfway marker. Emerging unscathed from an action-packed first lap, Bettany was a driver on a mission during the early stages of the race and had been on course to score a breakthrough top ten finish. On lap four though, he received heavy contact from behind by another driver. With the rear of his Ginetta G40 lifted off the ground, the Johannesburg racer was a passenger from there and ended up making race-ending contact with the tyre barriers. Trennon Bettany: “It's been a challenging weekend at Thruxton. It's a totally unique circuit compared to those we've raced at previously and I enjoyed getting to grips with it and pushing myself and the car to the limit around the high speed sections. "Our plan for qualifying didn't work out unfortunately, which left us lower on the grid for race one than we deserved to be. There was some close racing in that one, but sadly I lost the tow to the pack ahead so couldn't progress further than 16th. "It was a fantastic start in race two and it was really promising to be up there battling in the top ten again. While having that ended by an incident is a huge shame, there's plenty of positives to take to Silverstone next." The Michelin Ginetta Junior Championship travels to the home of British motorsport, Silverstone, this coming weekend (September 26/27) for the latest installment of the 2020 season.
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.