Katrina Ee continues her progress on first trip to Oulton Park

Battling changeable conditions at Oulton Park, Katrina Ee gained valuable experience in the latest round of the Ginetta Junior Championship, banking crucial experience at one of the most challenging circuits in Britain, in one of the most competitive single-make junior championships in the world.

Photo credits: alexzafro

Battling changeable conditions at Oulton Park, Katrina Ee gained valuable experience in the latest round of the Ginetta Junior Championship. The Tim Gray Motorsport driver achieved a best finish of 22nd position as she made her debut at one of the most challenging circuits in Britain. Ee further developed her skills across the course of the event as she adapts to one of the most competitive single-make junior championships in the world.

Ee has continued to make progress throughout her rookie season in the Ginetta Junior Championship to date and was rewarded with her first points scoring finish at Silverstone. The Tim Gray Motorsport driver finished all three races and took a step forward in performance as she consistently battled within the lower reaches of the midfield. Securing a best result of 20th, Ee was now targeting further top-20 results as she adapts to the challenges of her debut campaign in the series.

Oulton Park was another new circuit for Katrina to learn and its characteristics were different to that of both Silverstone and Donington Park. With a narrow racing line and little margin for error, building up her confidence throughout the pre-event test sessions would be key to Ee’s progress.

On-track action began on Thursday as the Ginetta Junior Championship drivers participated in a series of short test sessions. It was a disrupted day of running with multiple red flags as the young drivers got to grips with the challenging Oulton Park circuit. At the end of the day, the fastest time set by Ee came in the third session where she clocked a 2:08.369.

Two further test sessions were held on Friday and Ee was able to make significant progress. After banking valuable experience by completing 12 laps in session one, the Tim Gray Motorsport driver ended the day on a high. Setting a fastest lap of a 2:07.257, Katrina had improved upon her best time from Thursday by over a second as she ended testing in 25th position.

Qualifying took place early on Saturday morning and following overnight rain, the track was damp this therefore provided a further challenge for the young drivers. With no practice in these mixed conditions, a number of the racers found the limit and the session was interrupted by multiple red flags.

After the third red flag of the session was required, the qualifying was brought to an early conclusion with no drivers having set a representative time. As a result, the grid was set by championship positions with those causing a red flag demoted to the rear of the order.

Race one of the weekend took place on Saturday with Ee starting from 23rd on the grid. Katrina made a clean start and enjoyed a good opening lap as she battled for position while avoiding the spun car of Revie Lake at the Shell Oils hairpin. As the drivers completed lap one, Ee was up to 21st position as she targeted a points-scoring finish.

On lap two, Katrina was shuffled back to 23rd position as Torrin Byrne and Henry Cameron moved ahead. Matthew Chiwara also ran side-by-side with Ee as the drivers started lap three and he completed the pass into Old Hall corner. Katrina was now running in 24th position and doing her best to remain in contention with her teammate ahead.

Into the middle portion of the race, Ee remained consistent and was regularly lapping within half a second of her best time. On lap seven, Ethan Lennon retired from the race and this promoted Katrina to 23rd position. The following lap saw contact between Joshua Watts and Joshua Henry at the Shell Oils hairpin result in Watts bringing his car back to the pits with suspension damage.

This incident allowed Ee to gain one further position and she remained error-free in the closing stages of the race while banking valuable experience. At the end of the first twenty-minute contest, Katrina took the chequered flag in 22nd position and therefore narrowly missed out on adding to her points tally.

After a day off on Sunday, the young drivers were back on track early on Monday for the second of three races. The grid positions were once again decided by the championship positions with Ee lining up from 23rd position. Track conditions were dry, however ambient temperatures were cool and therefore generating tyre temperature was a challenge.

Katrina made a clean start and completed lap one in 25th position while remaining in contention with the drivers ahead. Ee’s pace in the early stages was strong and on lap three, she ran her quickest race lap of the event to date. With the slipstream effect not as powerful at Oulton Park compared to Silverstone, maintaining the gap to the drivers ahead became more difficult as the race progressed.

On lap four, Ee moved up to 24th position as Emmilio Del Grosso entered the pits to repair slight damage to his car. A number of drivers ahead were being assessed track limits penalties and Katrina was doing well to remain consistent while staying within the confines of the circuit.

As the race entered the final stages, Ee gained two further positions as Matthew Chiwara spun and Felix Livesey pitted with damage after contact at the Shell Oils hairpin. Katrina maintained a good pace until the chequered flag as she secured her second 22nd place result in as many races.

Conditions had changed for the final race of the weekend with light rain meaning the track was wet, however there were no puddles on track or spray from the cars ahead. Ee lined up from 22nd position with the grid based on the finishing positions from race two and therefore she was looking to bank valuable experience in the first fully wet race of the season.

As the lights went out and the drivers headed out of Old Hall corner and down to Cascades for the first time, Ee had fallen back to 24th position but she was holding her own in the early stages. Katrina was then able to overtake Henry Cameron through the middle sector to complete lap one in 23rd position.

On lap two, misfortune struck as Ee left the road at Druids and became beached in the gravel with half of her car straddling the circuit. As a result, the safety car was deployed in order to retrieve Katrina’s car. Ee was able to rejoin the race, albeit a lap down, and she could therefore gain additional experience in the treacherous conditions.

When the race resumed, Joshua Henry spun into the gravel trap at Old Hall corner and therefore the race was quickly neutralised once more. With Henry unable to rejoin, Ee moved into 24th prior to the final restart. Just one final lap was able to be completed under green flag conditions and Katrina did a nice job to avoid a multi-car incident at Lodge corner as she took the chequered flag in 24th position.

It was a challenging end to the weekend for Ee who banked valuable experience at a technical circuit. Katrina will be encouraged by her two clean races in dry conditions as she continues to adapt to a new style of racing. The Ginetta Junior Championship now takes a short break before returning at Snetterton on the weekend of July 12th/13th.