Kiern Jewiss maintains his seventh place in the Ginetta Junior Championship and second in the Rookie Championship after scoring valuable points with a damaged car in race one, alongside finishing fourth in race two following an impressive charge through the pack.

After a successful weekend at Donington Park, Kiern Jewiss headed to Thruxton for Round Three of the Ginetta Junior Championship. He quickly got to grips with what is the fastest circuit on the calendar, finishing free practice sixth overall and as the second fastest rookie. Kiern’s steady pace continued into qualifying, where his two fastest laps determined his grid positions for race one and race two respectively. For race one, Kiern qualified fifth only four tenths off pole and a mere eight hundredths off the fastest Rookie in third – with his second fastest lap placing him sixth on the grid for the weekend’s second race. 

When the lights when out for race one, Kiern, who is normally a fast starter, uncharacteristically lost three places at the start from the third row of the grid – falling back to eighth position. Recovering quickly, Kiern had already made his way up to fourth through the complex and lighting up the timing screens as one of the fastest out on track. However, Kiern, battling for a podium position, made a move to overtake Tom Gamble who was in the third-place position and when the two touched at Noble, Kiern was pushed wide onto the kerb, which in turn pushed him back into Gamble. The collision resulted in Kiern’s steering arm being snapped and the hub, upright and suspension breaking.

Somehow Kiern managed to drive the final laps of the race to take the flag in twelfth and secure vital championship points. Kiern, who was displaying lightning speed throughout the race, posted a fastest lap time that was only two tenths off team-mate Daniel Harper’s fastest lap before the incident and was the fastest rookie of the race.

Unlike the first race of the weekend, Kiern got off to a great start from sixth position and was already pushing the lead cars when he was unlucky to be pushed wide and lost ground. Falling back to ninth, Kiern again began his recovery with a performance that was reminiscent of his second-place finish at Donington Park in the previous round. Carving his way through the field, Kiern used every inch of tarmac available to navigate his was up the order and by the time the chequered flag had dropped, he was up to fourth position and took the rookie win!

A fantastic display of resilience and ability helped the FM Conway-sponsored driver secure vital championship points and prove that he one of the strongest drivers in the championship and was unlucky not to be walking away from Thruxton with silverware.

Kiern’s points helped him to maintain his seventh place in the championship and second place in the Rookie Championship, only ten points behind fellow rookie, Harry Dyson.

Kiern Jewiss reflected on a tough weekend of racing but is glad he walks away with points in the bag.

“I’m pleased to have scored points in both races, but I’m obviously disappointed about the incident in Race One when a podium was in sight. I’m looking forward to going to Oulton Park where the track is more technically challenging.”