TOM CONSTANTINE CLAIMS VICTORY AT SILVERSTONE
It was a winner-takes-all scenario at the front of the MSA Junior Rallycross Championship entering the final round of the season, with brothers Luke and Tom Constantine (Richmond) separated by a single point. Fastest in Q1, Luke Constantine then ran into a range of technical issues including a broken sump and starter motor in qualifying, while a flu-ridden Tom Constantine didn’t have a clean run either as Marius Solberg Hansen (Norway) finished top in the Intermediate Classification with a consistent performance. Solberg Hansen and Tom Constantine won their semi-finals to take the best starting positions for the final, but it was Patrick O’Donovan (Iver) who made the best of the first corner squeeze to take the lead while Morgan Wroot (Doncaster) was spun out of contention after contact. Luke Constantine was first to take his joker from fifth on lap one, before Tom Constantine took his joker from third on lap three. The siblings then passed O’Donovan and Solberg Hansen when they took their final lap jokers to finish first and second, victory enough for Tom Constantine to take the title. “I’m really happy to finally get the Junior title. It’s been a hard year, a hard day but it’s fantastic to finish the season like this and win the Championship,” said Constantine. “I’ve been struggling with the flu for the last few weeks, I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night so I didn’t know how the day would go, but it went right for me in the end. Luke and I agreed that we would just fight for the win and he pushed me all the way.” In her best performance of the season, Norwegian driver Kristiane Hvaal Engh (Norway) beat compatriot Solberg Hansen to the finish line to claim fourth, Solberg Hansen then penalised for the first corner contact that spun Wroot, elevating Ben Sayer (Nothallerton) to fifth and James Constantine (Darlington) sixth.
