Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy Title Fight Takes A Twist
The battle to determine who replaces Tom Ovenden as the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy champion took another twist as the series headed for Croft for the latest rounds of the season.
The event saw the Cooper class cars take on the role of headline act for a special Festival celebrating the iconic MINI – with the Clubsport series and Scottish MINI Cooper Cup amongst the supporting cast.
Saturday’s qualifying session saw Sam Gornall lead the way to secure six valuable championship points, which would enable him to move ahead of team-mate Harry Hickton in the standings; the pair having been split by a single point going into the weekend.
Gornall’s second quickest time was also good enough for pole for race one, but it was Rhys Hurd who emerged victorious as he raced his way through from tenth on the grid – aided by a mid-race incident at Tower that saw cars forced to anchor up when Hickton and Reece Lycett collided.
That collision forced Hickton into retirement, with second place for Gornall behind Hurd enabling him to secure a handy lead in the standings going into the reverse grid second race.
That second race would go the way of Gabe Fairbrother after a strong start saw him jump from fourth to second on lap one before he got himself ahead of Alex Keens to take a lead he would retain to the finish.
Gornall would go close to a podium finish in fourth to extend his lead still further in the standings, although Hickton was able to minimise his losses as he came through the pack from the back to ninth place – scoring points for P8 due to the ineligibility of one of the cars ahead.
Rain had had an impact on race two and conditions had worsened by race three where Fairbrother overhauled Gornall to take the lead and looked comfortable out front in his quest for a second win.
A red flag caused by an off for Cameron Wood at Sunny Out saw the race halted and set up a two-lap dash for victory, with Fairbrother holding on out front to take the win from Hickton and Alex Solley.
Gornall however was forced to retire on the first corner after the restart when contact with rookie Olivier Algieri saw him go off into the gravel at turn one with two of his tyres coming off the rim as a result.
Whilst Gornall retains the points lead after the weekend, Hickton is now just four points in arrears heading to the next event at Silverstone.
Looking for a new MINI of your own?