Good afternoon and welcome to live coverage of the 2014 RAC Auto Trader British Junior Grand Prix with me, Jim Rosenthal and commentator Simon Hill. The race is finely poised, with debutant Kiara Thunder taking pole position on her debut, also marking the first pole position for a female in the IJGPC. Mikko Heininen lines up alongside her on the front row, and defending champion Luke Stokey is in seventh position. The drivers are on the grid, so without further ado, let's join the live coverage with Simon on the track. The RaceHello, we are ready for a wonderful start to the 2014 International Junior Grand Prix Championship season, and the drivers are lined up on the grid, about to set off on their formation lap. While they set off, let's take a look at the full grid. RACE START: Here we go, the lights are ablaze, ready to set these drivers off for their first race of the season... AND AWAY THEY GO! Great start from Thunder, and Heininen is off with a good pace as well. Vahasoyrinki makes a terrible start! Gerrard passes him, and so does Zrigovic! The Fun driver moves across to stop Dubois, but doesn't manage it! Luca Andreolli is overtaken by Arthur Daniau into turn one. Eduardo Oliveira-Martins makes a terrible start as well, dropping to last place. Into Maggotts, Stokey and Daniau are side by side, and the Frenchman pushes through, great move! Down the Hangar Straight, Daniau gets a good run and slipstreams past Andreolli, great first lap from the Peugeot man! Into Brooklands now, Alejandro Suarez in the Liverpool runs very wide, and Emma Wilson makes the pass, and Henk Dekzwabber pushes his way through... THEY CLASH WHEELS! But, they are both OK! They continue on, the Dutchman ahead for Team 23. Going into the second lap, Thunder maintains the lead, and Wilson continues her move through the field. She overtakes Aron Einarsson into Vale with a magnificent move taking 11th place. Pedro Costa takes advantage of the congestion into Maggotts and Becketts with a ballsy move that gains him five places! On lap five, Arthur Daniau takes the inside line into Abbey, and slides down the inside of Vahasoyrinki. We join Simon Hill on lap nine: 'Oh! We have a spinner into the complex! It's a Team 23 car! Looks like it's Dekzwabber, the Dutchman has got it going, lost a few places though. The replays are showing, and he catches the curb and the car just rotates. Such a shame!' Wilson continues her great race on lap thirteen, overtaking Stokey, Andreolli and Vahasoyrinki in a single lap with some great driving. Once again, we go over to Simon Hill on lap sixteen: 'Kiara Thunder is three seconds down the road, and here we have Mikko Heininen in second and Jamie Gerrard in third. Gerrard puts his nose on show into Copse! Heininen does well to avoid him, and they are side by side into Maggotts and Becketts! Heininen is ahead! Gerrard is right on his tail, and onto the Hangar Straight has a better run, and he is on the inside for the right hander. He takes the place! What a piece of driving from both men!' Lap eighteen, and Emma Wilson continues her charge through the field. Dubois is dispatched easily into Copse. Lap 21, and we have the first incident: Kraig van Snelheid spins and stalls the car, and the Downton driver cannot restart, so is the first retirement of the 2014 season. Lap 28, and Luca Andreolli gets on the power early out of the final corner and spins the car, and hits the outside barrier. Safety car required. Lap 30, Aron Einarsson suffers an engine failure behind the safety car, and a lap later, Mikko Heininen falls into trouble: 'My goodness, a Morley has stopped! It's Heininen from a podium place! That promotes Wilson up to third, amazing scenes!' Later on in the race, it's confirmed by Jim: 'Mikko suffered from a loss of hydraulic pressure and the team said he needed to pull the car over.' The race finishes on lap 34, and Thunder takes the chequered flag on her debut, a magnificient achievement! Gerrard is second. Wilson takes a brilliant debut podium as well. The final order is as follows: So there we have it, Kiara Thunder takes the championship lead, and of course, the championship looks the same as the finishing order of the race: And, defending team's champions Westwood have made a solid start, but Downton and Liverpool lead the way: I hope you've enjoyed the coverage of an entertaining race here in Northamptonshire, where we've crowned Kiara Thunder as the winner of the RAC Junior Tourist Trophy, and we've started the IJGPC with a bang. Join us next time when we follow the Virtual Grand Prix Championship across the pond, for the Molson Dry Grand Prix Juvenile du Canada!
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