Hucknall's Ruben Hage loses podium following a penalty in frustrating weekend at Silverstone

Hucknall racer Ruben Hage endured a tough time at Silverstone for rounds 10, 11 and 12 of the Junior Saloon Car Championship (JSCC) season which was held last weekend.

Despite three top ten finishes the 16-year-old was left to rue what could have been after losing a podium finish in the final race thanks to a five second penalty.

The weekend started well for Hage who qualified fifth for the opening race and second for the other two races in a wet qualifying session.

The first race of the weekend took place on Saturday afternoon and Hage was determined to minimise the loss of points to his title rivals who had qualified ahead of him. After some tough battling, he managed to work his way forward and finish fourth, just 1.4 seconds shy of a podium position.

Heavy rain overnight and into Sunday morning meant a damp track for race two of the weekend. Ruben lined up on the front row but found himself on the wetter part of the track for the start which meant an inevitably poorer getaway than those on the drier side of the grid. This saw him fourth in the early stages before a huge slide further round the first lap demoted him to tenth.

From there, the Westbourne Motorsport star mounted a stunning comeback to fight his way to sixth at the flag which later became fifth when one of his competitors was penalised for exceeding track limits.

"Overall, it wasn't a great result starting from second on the grid but to say where we were at the end of lap one it definitely was a hard fought fifth place," said Ruben speaking exclusively to Hucknall Nub News.

In the final race of the weekend Hage made a better start to hold second into the first corner but lost one place further round the lap. He then had continuous pressure from three other drivers until the end of the race but defended valiantly and held on to his third position as he crossed the line.

However, a five second penalty, awarded during the race for exceeding track limits saw him relegated to tenth in the final standings. It was even more galling for Ruben who didn't realise he had a penalty until he got out of the car at the end of the race.

He admitted that had he spotted the penalty board during the race, he would have driven differently to minimise the damage to his finishing position.

"If I knew I'd had the penalty I wouldn't have bothered defending and just tried and pulled as much of a gap as I could have and try and build that five second gap up on the ones behind."

Reflecting on the weekend overall, he said: "It would have been a good haul of points but that penalty kind of changed the whole result of the weekend.

"It's obviously not great especially for the championship hopes. Winning the championship is realistically out of reach now, I think it's about 55 points or so, so that's kind of not realistic to expect.

"I've dropped back down to fourth in the championship and obviously the guys ahead have pulled even more of a gap on us which isn't ideal."

"There is Donington and Brands Hatch (to come) so hopefully those two should play in my favour. Obviously I know Brands Hatch is a good track for me and with it being double points it's definitely an opportunity to get those points back."

The series heads to Pembrey in Wales next for rounds 13, 14 & 15 of the season on the weekend of the 9th/10th of October.