Wera Alliance academy drivers Alfie Garford and Jenson Mason headed to Croft last weekend for round 4 of the BRSCC Fiesta Junior Championship.

Friday testing went well with both showing great pace in the dry conditions. Saturday would bring unsettled weather for their qualifying and race 1 of the weekend.

Both drivers opted to go out in qualy on drys while others gambled on wets. Garford was first out on track and looking very strong to get a pole lap in before the rain came. Unfortunately for the pair of them Jensons car suffered an ABS fault putting him in the gravel and out of contention, this also put the red flag out, halting Garford’s dreams of the pole. On the session restart Garford got the wets on and managed to get a lap in to put him in p8, while Mason would obviously qualify without a time.

Race 1 – The duo know how to start a race! 5 off the line for Mason, 2 off the line for Garford. Mason would see another 3 overtakes and some go wide to cross lap 1 in 10^th from the back off the grid! Garford similarly would move into 5^th both taking 4^th on lap 2.

Mason would scrap for the duration of the race before a delaminated front tyre brought him into the pits before the end of the race.

Garford while in 4^th and catching the top trio had a moment under braking similar to Masons ABS fault and would lose 3 places. But by the flag he regained a place to cross over in 6^th place.

It was a rain-soaked Sunday for races 2 & 3 of the weekend. The pair would line up 7^th and 13^th. Garford’s initial lap was strong and moved up to 4^th by the end of lap 1. He would then go about catching the lead pack again. Setting fastest laps in the process. Mason made great progression through the field all race long making up 6 places and crossing the line in 7^th.

Garford however had other ideas and after catching the lead pack, dived up the inside for 3^rd. A clumsy tap into 2^nd place would ultimately see him in front of the stewards. He crossed the line to take 3^rd place but a penalty was coming his way.

The final race of the day saw the pair start 6^th and 22^nd. Mason was now at the sharp end and Garford had to start last after his incident in the previous race. A safety car start due to bad conditions halted Garford’s progress to take some easy picking off the line but not to be out done, he gave a sterling effort to pick off 9 cars over the 8-lap race. Mason maintained his 6^th place at the start and mid way through had made it up to 4^th place. The gap to the front 3 was big, but Mason dug deep and set about some hot laps but ran out of time to catch the pack up and crossed the line in a great 4^th place and a podium in class.

The team will head to Silverstone in a month’s time full of confidence and speed knowing they have the pace to be challenging for podiums and race wins.