The top 10 drivers from Ginetta Junior's first 20 years

A total of 341 different drivers have competed in Ginetta Junior over the past 20 years. Incredibly, 108 of them have won at least one race outright. And that means picking out just the 10 best from the ultimate junior proving ground is no easy task.

There have been plenty of memorable battles, unbelievable achievements and game-changing performances over those 500 races. And, after much thought, here is Autosport's selection of the 10 drivers that have really stood out.

10. Tom Ingram, 2010 champion

Ingram (c) defeated Hill (r) in a precursor to their future BTCC battles

Photo by: JEP

Deciding who takes the final spot on any top-10 list can often be the toughest, and that was certainly true here. Whether it was the supreme racecraft displayed by Aston Millar en route to 2021 glory, Senna Proctor overcoming his size disadvantage to come within a whisker of the 2015 title, or the early signs of Dan Harper’s special talent in 2016-17, there is a plethora of worthy candidates.

But we have opted for Tom Ingram. The 2010 season provided a thrilling prequel to Ingram’s future British Touring Car battles with Jake Hill as the pair fought for the honours. Hill won double the races of his rival, but it was Hillspeed pilot Ingram’s greater consistency that told as he provided a first glimpse of his star quality.

9. Jack Mitchell, 2014 champion

Mitchell made waves in 2014 as he defeated Norris and Kellett

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Any driver who managed to defeat Lando Norris during his relentless rise up the ranks towards Formula 1 deserves praise. And, even if winning Ginetta Junior was not critical to Norris’s plans – he remained focused on karting – that should not diminish Jack Mitchell’s achievements in 2014.

It was not just Norris he had to beat; future Ginetta GT4 Supercup ace James Kellett was the JHR driver’s closest threat. Triumphs in six of the first eight races enabled Mitchell to steal a march on his rivals and they were never able to truly close the gap from there. But a lack of strength in depth among the field, which comprised numerous promising rookies not yet ready to truly shine, means Mitchell does not receive a higher ranking.

8. Jamie Caroline, 2014 Winter Series champion & 2015 champion

Caroline sits second in the series' all-time winners' list

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Jamie Caroline defeated Proctor by the narrowest of margins in 2015, winning on countback after the pair tied on scores, but he appears in our top 10 because of the sheer number of victories he achieved during his two-year spell in the series. After twice succeeding in his rookie campaign, he was undefeated in the 2014 Winter Series after a switch to HHC.

Caroline’s 10 further triumphs the following year mean he sits second on the all-time winners’ list and is an impressive three clear of those in third. He clearly had that winning mindset and was not afraid to get stuck into the thick of the action. But not claiming the title more comfortably – amid a tricky opening to the season and some startline errors – holds him back in our list.

7. Harry Woodhead, 2012 Winter Series champion & 2013 champion

The 2013 campaign was one of utter dominance for Woodhead

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In terms of winning points margin, Harry Woodhead is the most dominant of all the Ginetta Junior champions. He took the 2013 title by 134 points over Keith Donegan and did not even contest the season’s final two races. The HHC pilot won the first 10 races on the bounce and never finished off the podium all year in a truly remarkable display of consistency.

And yet he is only seventh on our leaderboard. The simple explanation for that is 2013 was not a vintage season. Grids barely crept into double figures for much of the year, meaning there certainly was not quantity. Quality was not especially in abundance either – the majority of those participating were rookies still finding their feet in car racing, and that limits Woodhead’s position here.

6. Ethan Jeff-Hall, 2024 champion

Jeff-Hall was the latest rookie to seal outright glory last year

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There were some tremendous battles in Ginetta Junior last year and a whole host of drivers were in contention. But it was Ethan Jeff-Hall who defied his rookie status to become just the third driver to land the title in their maiden season in cars.

“I’ve never seen anyone take to a Ginetta Junior as quick as Ethan did,” says R Racing team boss Jamie Ross. “Straight out of the box, he was right on it. By day four at Snetterton, he was driving as fast as all our driver and reference coaches. We put a passenger in Ethan’s car when we were testing in Spain to make the racing [practice] more interesting! Ethan tends to struggle for budget a little more than most, so it’s refreshing that a kid can still be that good.”

5. Tom Lebbon, 2020 champion

Lebbon was at the front of the field right from the very start of his rookie campaign

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The first rookie to win the outright title was Tom Lebbon, and splitting him and Jeff-Hall was another tough choice. Yet Lebbon gets the nod because his success came during a 2020 season that was heavily disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. For someone so young to cope so impressively with the additional challenges of the global health crisis is testament to Lebbon’s ability.

Yet he nearly was not on the grid at all, securing his place through winning the series’ scholarship. “They only did one day at Blyton Park before the scholarship and they weren’t set on Ginetta Junior at all and were still karting,” recalls Elite Motorsport team boss Eddie Ives. “A friend of theirs basically entered them into the scholarship and he came away winning the championship!”

When the delayed season finally began at Donington Park, Lebbon laid down a marker by snaring pole and was victorious at Brands Hatch the next weekend. He then remained a frontrunner through the rest of the campaign. “His results were nothing special in the Winter Series and he worked hard over the winter,” adds Ives of his history-making teenager. “He wasn’t always the outright fastest, but he was exceptionally good in the races.”

4. Seb Morris, 2010 Winter Series champion & 2011 champion

Morris enjoyed a trophy-filled 2011 season

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Seb Morris was the first driver to dominate the championship after the newer Ginetta G40 model was introduced for the 2010 campaign, to replace the ageing G20. The Hillspeed driver’s march to 2011 glory was relentless and his eventual 125-point winning margin was just a few shy of Woodhead’s steamrollering display.

But the three-place difference in the pair’s ranking is accounted for by the greater opposition Morris faced. He won 11 of the 20 races and was never outside of the top six when up against the likes of future Ginetta factory stalwart Charlie Robertson, Carrera Cup conqueror George Gamble, Formula Ford ace Niall Murray, serial TOCA support frontrunner Max Coates, single-seater and sportscar star Sennan Fielding, and more.

In many ways, Morris set the model for future Ginetta Junior success. He was the first of seven (to date) to claim Winter Series gold and then enjoy championship glory in the main series the following year. And, to this day, he retains the record of the largest winning margin in a Ginetta Junior race – just the 23 seconds ahead of the rest at Oulton Park. All achievements worthy of a prominent position in our list.

3. Louis Foster, 2018 runner-up

Foster may not have been a champion, but he did change the face of Ginetta Junior

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Third may seem extraordinarily high on this list for a driver who did not win a title, but there is very good reason for Louis Foster’s lofty position. Quite simply, he broke the Ginetta Junior mould.

For years, the perceived wisdom was that a driver would spend one learning season as a rookie before attempting a full title attack in year two. But Foster changed all that. He came within eight points of defeating Elite team-mate Adam Smalley to the 2018 championship, scoring more wins and podiums than his more experienced rival.

“Now, you get rookies coming into Ginetta Junior winning races but, back then, you rarely did,” says Ives. “The top six or seven in the championship would all be second-year drivers; Louis was the first person to get close to winning in their rookie year.

“Louis started the season and just cruised round in fourth behind three second-year drivers. We then went to Donington Park and a couple of drivers in front took each other out and he ended up winning. All of a sudden, it was a case of, ‘I’m not only a rookie – I can win races.’ And that’s exactly what he did. In August/September, he won five races on the bounce.”

Although the future IndyCar driver ultimately missed out on overall spoils, he laid the foundations for a rapid rise up the single-seater ranks. “He had a super-mature head on him – he was only 14 but always had the maturity of a 16/17-year-old racing driver,” adds Ives.

2. Tom Gamble, 2017 champion

Gamble prevailed over some extremely strong competition in 2017

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You can make a strong case for 2017 being the most competitive Ginetta Junior season in its history. The number of drivers from that year who have since enjoyed greatness is unprecedented. Listing future Carrera Cup champions alone (on either side of the pond) there were Seb Priaulx, Dan Harper, Kiern Jewiss, Harry King and Adam Smalley. And not forgetting current FIA F2 frontrunner Luke Browning.

But the driver who emerged atop the standings up against such a phalanx of rising stars was new Aston Martin Hypercar recruit Tom Gamble. It is unquestionably an achievement that deserves a prominent position in our ranking, especially since Gamble even had the luxury of sitting out the final race with the title secure.

PLUS: Why Aston Martin's bet on Gamble

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Gamble’s success was not straightforward. As well as his on-track rivals, he had to contend with the disruption of changing team mid-year when JHR Developments was forced to withdraw from the championship. But Gamble immediately hit the ground running in his new Elite Motorsport surroundings, taking three podiums at Rockingham and winning all three races at Silverstone to pull him clear of the chasing pack.

“He’s a super talent,” says Ives. “We already knew how good he was from racing against him, but I remember very well the first session he jumped into our car at Rockingham in a test a week before the race weekend. He was straight at the top and it was really quite special.”

1. Freddie Slater, 2022 Winter Series champion & 2023 champion

Slater's sublime performances meant there was very little deliberation needed over top spot

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This really should not be a surprise. Anyone who has followed UK motorsport in recent years will no doubt be aware of Freddie Slater’s mastery of Ginetta Junior in 2023 with R Racing.

Entries may have dipped slightly that season, with the series departing the BTCC bill, but Slater’s performances redefined domination. It was not just that he took 16 wins from 21 races and wrapped up the title with six contests to spare, it was the way he pulverised the opposition en route to those successes. He already tops the series’ all-time winners’ list and could also have headed the podium count had he completed the full campaign.

“He was testing the year before and he was on the pace of our drivers that were leading the championship then,” says Ross. “He was always a big chunk ahead of the rest – and we knew all the rest were doing a good job. We had a strong team and there was always a ‘Slater second’, as we nicknamed it. We were scared another team or driver would fill that second’s gap, but they didn’t.

“I always say about Freddie it wasn’t just his pace that made him really good, it was that him driving the car only took up 20% of his brainpower – with the other 80% he could think about what was going on around him. That was the most impressive thing about him.”

Even rival teams could not help but be left in awe at Slater’s abilities and he therefore unquestionably must be number one.

The other notable graduates

Norris hinted at his future stardom in 2014

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Of all the drivers to have appeared in Ginetta Junior in the past 20 years, McLaren Formula 1 title contender Lando Norris is undoubtedly the most famous. Although he was ultimately beaten by Jack Mitchell and James Kellett during 2014, any driver from the series to progress to F1 was undoubtedly a major milestone.

Yet he is not the only driver from the current F1 grid to have graced the series’ ranks. Far less known is Racing Bulls star Isack Hadjar’s brief foray into Ginettas back in 2018. The Frenchman was a fairly anonymous presence in that year’s Winter Series as he first sampled car racing before competing in French F4 the following season. A best result of ninth at Brands Hatch certainly did not suggest to spectators also gathered for the Britcar night races that a future F1 racer was taking to the Kent track.

Another notable driver to have competed in the series is 2009 champion Sarah Moore. Long before W Series and F1 Academy had been created, Ginetta Junior was already home to female drivers, and girls have regularly starred among its ranks.

This article is one of many in the new monthly issue of Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the June 2025 issue and subscribe today.

Hadjar made a cameo appearance in 2018

Photo by: JEP