Podium success for Henry at Oulton Park
Rising star Henry Joslyn moved to within touching distance of the top three in the Wera Tools F4 British Championship certified by FIA with another solid weekend at Oulton Park as the season reached the half-way stage.
The Fortec Motorsport racer headed into the event on the back of a strong showing at Thruxton two weeks earlier, in which he had put his car on pole position in qualifying before bringing home a pair of podium finishes from the three races.
A productive day of testing on Friday ahead of the weekend in Cheshire saw Henry running inside the top six with a lap just two-tenths of a second off the pace, and it would be P6 where he ended up after qualifying - albeit less than a tenth of a second away from the front row of the grid.
His second quickest time would be good enough for fourth on the grid for the weekend opener, where he was lucky to escape being caught up in a chain reaction incident when a number of cars got bogged down off the line.
That resulted in a red-flag being shown, with Henry then taking the restart from what was now a defacto third place and he was able to run in third place throughout to bring his car home for a podium finish.
Starting the reverse grid second race from P7, Henry was able to gain a place on the opening lap but it would prove to be a somewhat processional affair from that point at the front, with no changes in position across the top ten and Henry part of a train of cars looking to try and earn a place on the podium.
Rain was in the air going into the final race of the weekend over an extended period of 25 minutes with Henry grabbing fifth with a brave move around the outside going into turn one.
Henry retained his position as rain started to fall, making conditions on track particularly treacherous with the field running on slick tyres.
Heading down to the final corner on the fifth lap, the leading three drivers were all caught out by the rain and slid wide across the gravel, with Henry able to see what was happening ahead and take avoiding action to keep his car on track having moved into second.
The safety car would be deployed before a brief restart, with the worsening conditions ultimately resulting in the action being halted.
Although a further attempt would be made to get the action back underway, it wasn’t possible to release the cars safely with the result instead being called as it was prior to the restart - meaning Henry was classified in second place for a sixth podium of the season.
It means Henry now sits fourth in the standings ahead of the next Championship round of the year at the Zandvoort circuit in the Netherlands.
Henry said "It's been a strong start to the season, and I'm pleased to have added more podium finishes at Oulton Park.”
“The recent results have helped us secure valuable points, and the focus now shifts to building on this momentum as we head into the second half of the season, with the goal of mounting a serious challenge for the championship."