Will storms to maiden race win

Southwater’s Will Palmer secured his first race victory of the Ginetta Junior Championship at Northamptonshire’s Rockingham Speedway with a commanding performance on Sunday (September 16).

The 16-year old, son of ex-F1 racer Jonathan and younger brother to GP2 ace Jolyon, jumped into the lead from second on the grid and built a comfortable gap to his rivals at the mid point of the race.

Rainfall in the latter stages of the event made track conditions very difficult, but Will demonstrated superb car control on the twisty layout to keep ahead of nearest competitor Keith Donegan to take his first victory in the series, and climb to second in the overall standings.

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“It’s fantastic to finally take a win after coming so close before, especially given the very tricky conditions,” an ecstatic Palmer said afterwards.

“I have also managed to take second place back in the championship, so hopefully with four more strong results at Silverstone and Brands Hatch I will secure runner-up spot.

“It was definitely the hardest race I’ve ever driven. The start was almost dry and then the rain came. Trying to judge how much grip there was going to be at the next corner made it really tough and I then had lots of pressure from Keith (Donegan) going into the closing stages, but I managed to keep him behind.”

Earlier in the weekend, Will had secured a strong fourth place finish in Saturday’s contest, and was close to another podium, having been engaged in a thrilling scrap with Ollie Chadwick before claiming fourth.

Will is back in action in two weeks time at Silverstone.