Tom Wood took his maiden Ginetta Junior Championship pole position at Silverstone after mastering the drying conditions. Sadly incidents denied him a chance to add to his win tally for the season

Qualifying took place in challenging conditions in which the track was steadily improving as the session wore on. Tom mastered these conditions by hooking up a great lap at the end of the session to seize his first Ginetta Junior Championship pole position by 0.120s from his nearest rival - giving him 1st on the grid for the first of the three races at Silverstone.

His second best time was good enough for 4th on the grid for the third race of the weekend.

Race one, starting from pole saw Tom make a good initial start - however he was on the outside line for turn one and thus lost ground on his rivals on the dryer line which demoted him down to 5th position. Tom managed to fight his way back up to 2nd place but left the door open for attack by rival Dan Harper, and one lap later to Harry King at Brooklands. All of a sudden, a big hit from behind sent Tom spinning and getting collected by rival drivers behind - ruining his race as it caused big damage on the rear of his HHC prepared Ginetta Junior car. Tom managed to keep it going and determined to finish the race, but sadly finished a disappointing 11th place over the line.

The second race of the weekend took place on a drying circuit, Tom made a good start from 4th place on the grid, but initially losing a place being stuck on the inside at Becketts corner. Two corners later at the end of the opening lap, Tom got a hit from behind which sent him wide and cost him 4 positions. 

On lap 4 of the 14 lap race, Tom began to make his move back up the field - as his car was working better with the drying track. By the end of lap 11, Tom had fought his way to 4th place. Tom passed his rivals Ruben Del Sarte into Luffield, Kiern Jewiss into Copse corner, and Browning also into the first corner. Tom showed great pace as he pulled a 3 second gap on the fighting group behind to finish a solid 4th position, just being too far back to challenge for the podium.

Race three and Tom was all set to make another start from 4th on the grid. However as the grid left for the formation lap, disaster, Tom's car would not start due to a mechanical issue. Despite the team's best efforts, they were not able to get Tom's car out for the final race of the weekend.

Tom Wood “It was great to take my first Pole Position in Ginetta Juniors in a tricky qualifying session. However from then on we just always seemed to be playing catch up after being hit by rival drivers which was frustrating. I battled back as best I can to salvage a strong race 2, but not being able to start the final race was a killer for our championship.The aim is to now go to the Brands Hatch finale and finish the season on a high, on the podium and fighting for the wins”

The final race weekend of the 2017 Ginetta Junior Championship will take place at Brands Hatch on the 30 September - 1 October around the Grand Prix Circuit for the last three races of the year. Tom heads in the season finale 5th overall in the Championship Standings on 448 points.

The final three races of the season will see two televised on ITV4 - so tune in to see Tom in action with his Scannervision HHC Motorsport Ginetta Junior.