The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Weston Hills sensation Johnathan Hoggard roared to his first two victories in the F4 British Championship over the weekend.
Fortec Motorsport speedster Hoggard won two of the three rounds a Donington Park and finished fifth in the other as he really announced himself on the grand stage.
After claiming pole position for round four with a qualifying time of 1.24.357mins, the talented teenager was flawless from start to finish to convert pole into a maiden victory on Saturday.
It was a sublime lights-to-flag win around the wet Leicestershire circuit, with Hoggard even surviving a safety car re-start that saw his two-second lead wiped out.
In the end, he held off Sebastian Priaulx (Arden) to win by 1.215secs.
A delighted Hoggard said: “It was tricky out there, I had to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes – but push at the same time to try to build a gap.
“The safety car restart made things harder, bringing everyone closer to me, but I managed to pull a little bit of a gap again and hold it.
“Getting this first win is definitely a weight off my shoulders and hopefully there will be a lot more wins to come.”
Starting round five from fifth on the grid, Hoggard saw Kiern Jewiss take centre stage with one of the finest drives in the history of the series.
Starting from the last row of the grid the Double R racer took an amazing victory.
Still, Hoggard took a solid fifth place and was 10.982secs behind Jewiss.
TOP STEP: Johnathan Hoggard celebrates on the podium. Photo by IAN WARD
However, Hoggard was second on the grid for round six – and he produced yet another flawless drive to climb back onto the top step of the podium.
He made a better getaway than poleman Patrik Pasma (Arden) and flew around the outside of the Finnish ace into turn one to lead the way on the opening lap.
Once again he led from start to finish – but he also had another safety car to contend with. It made no difference though, as Hoggard did well to keep Pasma at bay before pulling away from the chasing pack to cross the finish line with a massive winning margin of 11.575secs.
Hoggard said: “Getting the lead off the line and building that gap as soon as possible was key. I didn’t get the best of restarts after the safety car, but still managed to defend well and then set about building a gap.
“It would have been nice to win all three races this weekend, but I’ll take two wins after what happened at Brands Hatch.
“I’m over the moon with the result. I cannot thank the team enough. They’ve done a great job all weekend. Wet or dry we’ve had the pace.
“We’ve definitely shown how good we can be. Hopefully there are many more weekends like this to come. I’m looking forward to Thruxton in a few weeks. Preparation will be crucial so we can qualify well and get more good results.”
Fortec Motorsports team owner Richard Dutton added: “It’s nice that Johnathan has been able to win the first race this weekend and I’m sure there will be many more.
“He has progressed a lot over the winter. He has come on leaps and bounds and he has been quick everywhere he’s been.”
Round seven to nine are at Thruxton on May 19 and 20.
Hoggard will go into those races in fourth place in the overall standings on 78 points. That’s 24 points behind series leader Ayrton Simmons.
