Three Share Wins As MINI CHALLENGE Returns To Wales
Jamie Keates, Alex Solley and Harry Hickton all scored victory as the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy season resumed at Pembrey.
The second meeting of the season marked a return to the Welsh circuit for the first time since the 2022 campaign, and was the first event this year to run alongside the British Truck Racing Championship.
Qualifying saw Alex Keens qualify on pole for the first time in his MINI CHALLENGE career, with the Graves Motorsport driver also lining up on pole for race one on Saturday afternoon.
In tricky drying conditions after heavy rain showers, a somewhat chaotic race followed with numerous battles across the field, with Keens pushing hard to keep his lead in the early stages despite the best efforts of Hickton to find a way ahead.
Keens would eventually lost his lead, but not to Hickton – with a hard-charging Sam Gornall instead being the man to knock him off top spot.
Gornall went on to secure the win ahead of Hickton and Jamie Keates as Keens found himself shuffled down the pack, before post-race penalties for the top two promoted Keates into P1 for the first time.
The reverse grid second race on Sunday morning kicked off with Solley on pole position, and he was able to control proceedings from the front of the field to secure a comfortable first victory of the campaign.
It was a different story behind however as a train of cars fought for the remaining places on the podium, with Gornall and Keates taking second and third across the line.
However, they were both hit with penalties after the race for incidents on track, which instead meant James Black was promoted up into second spot with Gornall dropping down into third. Keates meanwhile would end up classified back in seventh.
Keens again started on pole in race three but was forced out by a clutch issue early on, just after he had lost the lead to a hard-charging Hickton.
The points leader was able to hold on at the front to score his third win of the season despite the close attentions of team-mate Gornall, with the top three being completed by Ronnie Smith.
That gave Smith a first overall podium finish and a fifth Rookie Cup win in six starts; a DNF in race two having instead allowed Team Avago driver Josh Wilby to score his first class win.
Directors Cup wins went to Matt Hammond, Paul Manning and Ben Taylor across the three races.
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