Win for Chesterfield’s Seb Perez
Chesterfields’ junior race ace 16 year old Seb Perez was back in action at Knockhill Circuit in Scotland for rounds 15, 16 and 17 in the Simpson Race Products Ginetta Junior Championship last weekend.
The championship saw three rounds of bumper to bumper action from the junior racer, son of Steve Perez , 2014 BTRDA Gold Star Rally Champion and Chairman of Chesterfield based drinks brand development business Global Brands Ltd and owner of Amigos Tequila Flavoured Beer and Kick Energy Drink Brands.
From start of the weekend Seb knew it was going to be a tough one. Seb had been at the circuit earlier in the week practising and didn’t drop below a top five place in the timings and qualifying on race weekend saw just the same performance from the teenager where he was second fastest only by 0.053 seconds on the first man his JHR Developments team mate Seb Priaulx putting him on the front row for his first race of the weekend.
All eyes were on Perez, both Seb’s lined up on the grid and as the lights went out Perez made a perfect start that saw him take the lead.
Continuing lap by lap Perez was outshining the rest of the pack of 17 cars, he lead the 12 lap race from start to finish and at one stage the Ginetta G40 was some 6 seconds ahead of second car. He took the chequered flag some 4.570 seconds ahead of Douglas Motorsports Stuart Middleton.
Celebrations were high in the Perez family camp after race one and claiming his first win and podium of the season. A jubilant Perez said ” I had a fantastic start off the line, it was an awesome race from lights to flag”
Race two saw Perez and Middleton line up side by side on another front row position.
Both cars kept their same positions as they left the line but both were deemed to have made false starts off the line and given drive trough penalties, this causing Seb to drop down in the pack’s to 14th position by lap 6 out of 12 and in 11th at the end of the race.
After the race there were a number of changes to the positions and a judge of fact stewards report saw Perez’s false start applied during the race to be found incorrect. Robbed of a possible Top 5 or even better a second podium finish this put Seb in 8th place on 4th row for race three after the reverse grid draw.
Race three was going to take its toll, by the end of lap 1 Perez had made up a place into 7th maintaining that position and into fifth position by lap 5.He floated between fifth and sixth by half race distance but Elite Motorsport and Rookie racer Tom Wood had a spin on lap 9 taking Perez and Team mate Middleton off the track with him. Perez dropping to 10th place
All managed to recover and a top 10 place battle commenced between Perez and Olli Caldwell, this saw Perez pushing him to the limited and finish 11th, missing out on a top 10 place by 1.6 seconds, piped at the flag
After race Perez said ” After race one it was frustrating for me, we should have had at least two or even three podiums over the race weekend” He added “It was such a shame but will be coming back stronger at Rockingham in two weeks and looking for further podiums” ” the car ran faultless all weekend with an excellent job done by JHR Developments as usual”
Perez leaves Knockhill in 12th position gaining another place in the championship with 178 points and team JHR Developments still third in the championship with 677 points
You can follow Seb and all the action on Sunday afternoons on ITV 4 where some his races are televised live
EDITORIAL BY PAUL HORTON
“Winnings ways” Perez in action at Knockhill Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
