Pirtek Racing’s rising star Jamie Caroline brought the curtain down on his first year of single-seater competition in fine style with a stunning victory during the final rounds of the F4 British Championship Certified by FIA – powered by Ford at Brands Hatch.
The talented teenager went into the season finale keen to try and return to the podium positions having fallen agonisingly short at both Rockingham and Silverstone, and the weekend looked set to start in fine style when he posted the quickest time in qualifying.
Unfortunately, a post-session penalty for a technical infringement meant Jamie was demoted to the back of the grid for races one and three, whilst he was also given a ten second penalty to serve before started the opening 20 minute encounter of the weekend.
Despite that, Jamie made the most of an early Safety Car period to battle his way through the field in a damp opening race; taking the flag in seventh spot and lapping more than two seconds quicker than anyone else on track.
That put him at the front of the grid for race two thanks to the reverse grid draw, and Jamie produced one of his most measured drives of the year as he drove away from the pack behind to take a commanding victory by nearly five seconds.
Ninth place from the back in race three helped Jamie to cement his top ten championship position, with the 31 points scored being his best weekend score of the year.
“It’s great that I’ve been able to finish the season with a victory, and it was the perfect way to come back from what happened in qualifying,” he said. “The issue with the car didn’t affect the performance, which I think was shown in how strong we were in the races, and without that penalty, we could have got even more from the weekend.
“In the first race, I was able to make the most of the conditions to make it into the top seven and in race two, the car was just unreal. There was no way I was going to lose that race and I just drove away from the guys behind. The changing conditions caught us out a bit with the tyres in race three, but we picked up some good points and it was nice to end the year having been back on the podium as we were unlucky to miss out on quite a few occasions.
“Overall it’s been a season of ups and downs after a promising start, but I think I’ve shown that I have the speed and I’d love to come back and challenge for the title next year.”
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