Teenage Northern Irish motorsport star Daniel Harper will return to the Ginetta Junior Championship this season, with an outright title challenge his number one objective as he continues his successful partnership with Douglas Motorsport.

Douglas Motorsport are pleased to announce that karting star Tom Canning has signed to contest the 2017 Ginetta Junior Championship with the team.

In 2016 Tom finished as runner up in the Rotax Euromax Winter Cup, in Valencia, Spain, 3rd in the BNL European Junior Max Championship and also achieved 3rd in the British Super One Mini Max Championship.

Tom had his first experience of driving a kart at 6 and started racing at the age of 8.  Having won both the Clay Pigeon Championship and South West Championship, he then graduated to the super competitive  British Super One Championship. Against some of the best drivers in karting, he finished 7th in his first year and won the British title in 2014. Tom then secured 3rd in Europe at his debut in the Winter Cup 2015 in Campillos, Spain.

With nine wins and 21 podiums in Ginetta Junior in 2016, we are confident of challenging for the title in 2017.

Tom Canning, Driver :
‘Karting will always be an important part of my motorsport career, wherever I may go. However you have to move on to make progression to achieve your dream. This is the perfect time for me to move on and prove myself at the next stage of my development. I believe that Douglas Motorsport and I can achieve great things together and I am honoured to be working with them for the 2017 season.”

Wayne Douglas, Team Principal, Douglas Motorsport:  “I’m delighted to have Tom, one of Britain’s top Kart drivers move into the Ginetta Junior class with Douglas Motorsport. We are excited about next season and hope Tom will enjoy great success in his Rookie year in cars.’

The Simpson Race Products Ginetta Junior Winter Series took place at Brands Hatch at the weekend (November 12-13). Rookie of the 2016 championshhp year, Dan Harper, impressed with his pace all weekend and finished in 3rd place in the overall Winter series, with Seb Priaulx claiming the title ahead of Dave Wooder. Douglas Motorsport’s newest recruit for the Winter series weekend, Connor Grady, also impressed with 3 race finishes inside the top 8 and unfortunately was a victim of the weather in race 2 when he spun out.

Daniel Harper is interviewed after his 3rd place finish in race 2

The weather was always expected to play a big part over the weekend, as it always does during the Winter Series, and those expectations were met on day 1. The track was wet, but that didn’t stop Dan Harper from posting the fastest time early on in Saturday’s qualifying sesson, a time which he continued to beat as the session went on. In the end Dan took pole by the largest margin of 2016 – .731 seconds. It was that same wet track that caused Dan to spin his wheels when starting race 1 and unfortunately he wasn’t able to capitalise on his well earned pole spot. However, a red flag meant the safety car was scrambled and a restart. After the restart Harper was in second place to Harry King when the two made contact, which ended Dan’s chance of a race win. He did however recover to finish 4th, with Connor Grady in 5th, both drivers having made up a place after the race due to a penalyy imposed on Harry King who dropped to 6th place from 4th.

The rain was not as heavy for race 2, but the track was still slippery and it claimed Connor Grady on lap one. Daniel Harper made up some places from his starting position and in the last few laps managed to take 3rd position, and fought for second place but there were not enough laps remaining for Dan to improve on an already impressive 3rd place. The 3rd place finish kept Dan in the mix for the overall title with a qualifying session and two races left to run on Sunday.

Harper was fighting it out at the top of the qualifying table during Sunday’s qualifying session and looked set to take pole before Seb Priaulx snatched pole with only a few minutes left in the session. It was an important result for Seb as he managed to maintain his first position throughout the race with Dan Harper taking second, a five second time penalty imposed on both drivers was still enough to keep them ahead of the chasing pack. Connor Grady, who was part of that chasing pack finished in 7th, this time losing a place due to a 5 five second penalty, a good result nevertheless.

Dave Wooder and Dan Harper congratulate was other after a hard battle

The final race of the series saw Dan, in fourth place, battling with Dave Wooder for third place, but Dan wasn’t able to get the better of Wooder, who was also fighting to win the overall Series. Dan’s fourth place finish gave him a clear 3rd overall in the Winter Series, behind Dave Wooder in 2nd and Seb Priaulx who took the title. An eight place finish for Connor Grady meant he finished with 3 top 8 finishes, a good consistent performance from Connor, with the off in race 2 in tricky conditions the only dampener for him.

Overall it was a good result for the team and important for the drivers to get as many races under their belts, especially in tricky conditions, as they begin preparations for the 2017 season.

Harper has gone from scholarship winner to Rookie champion, while Stuart Middleton has gone from scholarship winner the previous year and 2015 Autumn trophy champion to Vice-champion in 2016. It’s a testament not only to the scholarship program but also to the teamwork at Douglas Motorsport and the ability of the team to help in the development of young drivers and allow them to perform at their full potential. This 2016 season Douglas Motorsport has produced 3 vice champions (Stuart Middleton – Ginetta Junior, Will Burns – Ginetta GT4 Supercup, Chris Ingram – Ginetta GT4 Supercup AM class), a Rookie Champion (Daniel Harper – Ginetta Junior), a 4th and 5th place in the British F3 championship (Thomas Randle, who produced one of the drives of the season when winning at Spa-Francorchamps and Enaam Ahmed who claimed a 3rd, 2nd and 1st place at the very first race weekend).

Review of the Ginetta Junior Championship at Rockingham, 27-28th August

The Simpson Race Products Ginetta Junior Championship visited Rockingham last weekend, once again supporting the BTCC.

It was a weekend of mixed results for the Douglas Motorsport at Rockingham last weekend in the Ginetta Cars Junior Championship.

Stuart Middleton qualified in 4th place for race 1. By the end of lap 2 he had made his way into the lead, a lead which he held til the checkered flag to give him valuable championship points, although current championship leader Will Tregurtha finished one place back in second.  This order was reversed in race 2, which was delayed from Saturday due to torrential rain, with Tregurtha winning from Middleton.

Douglas Motorsports rookie driver, Daniel Harper, started in 14th position, but a great drive saw him pick up a number of places to finish in 7th overall and gain third place on the rookie podium, giving him vital points in the Rookie competition and points for Douglas Motorsport in the overall team competition..

Race 3 proved to be the least succesful of the weekend for the Douglas Motorsport team, with Middleton and Harper finishing in 10th and 11th place respectively, picking up vital points in the race for the overall, team and rookie championships.

Your Douglas Motorsport Drivers: