An eventful weekend of racing saw Geri Nicosia fight technical difficulties and on track incidents in round five of the Junior Ginetta Championships at Croft Park.

The Princes Risborough youngster battled hard to earn 12th, fifth and fourth place finishes at the North Yorkshire circuit.

Despite his committed effort, Nicosia falls back to sixth in the championship standings, and was slightly disheartened by missing out on a first podium finish of the season in race three.

He said: “That podium is getting closer, I don’t know whether to be pleased we got fourth after such a bad start to the weekend, or gutted not to keep the third place.

“We know we can mix it with the front of the grid, and surely it [a podium finish] will come soon.”

The tough start which Nicosia is eluding to came as early as Friday testing as a host of issues left him languishing as the 19th fastest car on the circuit.

He required a new gearbox, differential and rear brakes to be fitted early on Saturday morning, but Some excellent work from his JHR Developments team ensured Nicosia made it to the qualifying session.

Further issues would scupper any hopes of a decent qualifying position, however, and he finished the session in 14th place.

A quick start to the opening race allowed Nicosia to gain three places early in the race before a haphazard entry to the penultimate corner of the lap sent him back to 15th.

He regained three places before the close of the race and finished 12th. The weekend’s second race proved to be altogether more productive and Nicosia claimed fifth.

The better finish left the 17-year-old further up the grid for his final race and a typically quick start saw him avoid a first corner incident to emerge from the carnage in third.

While Nicosia enjoyed a big gap back to fourth, the pace of ex-European and World runner-up Dave Wooder proved to be too much for him to contain and he slipped back a place before the chequered flag.

Nicosia’s 22 point haul represents his best return of the season and comes ahead of a summer break, which sees the Junior Ginetta championship return at Snetterton at the end of July.