Season’s best performance for Jasmine Shaw at Silverstone

Jasmine Shaw displayed front-running speed in the Fiesta Junior Championship at Silverstone, scoring an excellent season's best of eighth overall. Her qualifying performance was particularly impressive, showing both speed and consistency that Shaw will aim to continue into the final two rounds of the season.

Photo credits: William St James

Jasmine Shaw displayed front-running speed in the Fiesta Junior Championship at Silverstone, scoring an excellent eighth place overall result in race two. The 20Ten Racing driver has shown great potential throughout the season and by qualifying a season’s high sixth overall, second in the MK7 class, was in position to turn her bad luck around. A seventh place MK7 class result in the opening race was backed up by an impressive race two which saw Jasmine battle with multiple race-winners to cross the line eighth overall, seventh in class.

Although not achieving the results she deserved to start the 2023 season, Jasmine knew the speed was there as she headed to Silvestone looking for a change in fortune. Despite a disrupted first practice session on Saturday morning, the 20Ten Racing driver set the eighth fastest time overall, less than one second away from the quickest driver to underline the competition in the Fiesta Junior Championship which also saw a record 25 cars entered this weekend.

With close results guaranteed in qualifying, Jasmine knew that one perfect lap could lead to a career best starting spot. Shaw finished the session extremely well, setting her quickest times on the two final laps of the session to line up a season’s best sixth overall for race one, second among the MK7 drivers and just three tenths of a second away from the front row of the grid. Showing excellent consistency, Jasmine’s second fastest time placed her seventh overall, sixth fastest in the MK7 class.

Lining up from fifth overall on the grid following a grid penalty for a driver ahead, Jasmine was shuffled out in the early stages but kept the car clean to cross the line seventh in the MK7 class after lap one. Shaw set about getting into her rhythm and set a number of fast sectors before smartly negotiating an incident ahead of her on lap three to gain five overall positions and move into fourth in the MK7 class. The following lap saw the race red flagged for a separate incident which gave Jasmine a chance to continue her progress back through the field.

Jasmine experienced a challenging restart in which she dropped back to sixth in class as the race resumed, however with the Fiesta Junior Championship field as close as ever, there would be an opportunity to make up for lost time. Shaw’s pace improved as the shortened race progressed, including a nice move on the MK6 class car of James Pope which cemented her place inside the top-15 overall. Crossing the line in 14th overall, Jasmine collected valuable championship points by finishing sixth in the MK7 class with the potential for a season’s best result in race two.

Photo credits: William St James

Determined to improve on her start from race two, Jasmine held her MK7 class position after the opening lap, running sixth. With a great move on MK6 class driver Rashan Tyler Chigorimbo on lap three, Shaw was now into seventh overall and just five seconds away from the overall lead. Resisting pressure from race-winner Ben Mulryan, Jasmine displayed her defensive skills before her MK7 class rival passed the 20Ten Racing driver for sixth in class on lap six.

Jasmine remained focused on the drivers ahead and set a personal best time on lap eight, while holding with the group of drivers ahead. The second half of Shaw’s race featured a great battle with MK6 driver George Foxlow as her fellow second year driver held a slender advantage.

Remaining in her rivals’ slipstream right to the checkered flag, Jasmine finished race two eighth overall, seventh in the MK7 class and just three tenths of a second behind Foxlow. This was a great end to the weekend for Shaw who was able to convert her speed into her best overall finish of the season.

"Definitely my best weekend so far. We had an amazing qualifying yesterday - I got pole in class and P2 in MK7 and P5 overall out of a 25 car grid, so I'm mega happy with that", said Jasmine. "Race 1 didn't really go to plan, after being in the wrong place at the wrong time, getting pushed wide and losing positions but still fought back to P6 in class."

"In race 2 we started P7 and finished P8 overall, so definitely a lot of positives to take out of this weekend. We made massive progress since the last round at Knockhill so I'm massively happy with this weekend and hopefully we can do this again in Donington."

Jasmine should be encouraged by her best performance of the season at Silverstone as she consistently raced inside the top-10 among a record grid of Fiesta Junior Championship drivers. Her qualifying performance was particularly impressive, showing both speed and consistency that Shaw will aim to continue into the final two rounds of the season.

The next round of the Fiesta Junior Championship will take place at Donington Park on the weekend of 9th/10th September.