OLIVIER ALGIERI HEADS WESTBOURNE 1-2 IN CROFT OPENER

Olivier Algieri secured his third win of the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy with a lights-to-flag victory in the opening race of the weekend at Croft.

The Westbourne Motorsport driver had been in dominant form during qualifying to secure his place at the head of the field for both the first and third races of the weekend, setting no fewer than four laps that would have been good enough to put him at the front of the pack.

The main concern for Algieri was getting through Clervaux unscathed on lap one, and having retained his place at the front as the field headed down to turn one, he was able to race away from the field behind.

Setting the fastest lap in the process, Algieri came home more than nine seconds clear of a race-long fight for second place – allowing him to score victory for a third successive weekend.

“Qualifying was good enough for me, so to top it off with a race like that is brilliant,” he said. “We had to get off the line well and then the car was mega – it was a case of managing it. Hopefully we can carry it into tomorrow.”

Algieri had been joined on the front row by series returnee Louie Capozzoli, although he would be forced wide at turn one at the start to immediately drop down to fifth.

That allowed Cameron Richardson to briefly move into second spot before he was overhauled by Rhys Hurd on the exit of Tower, with Alfie Garford also clearing Richardson before the end of the lap to take third.

As Algieri raced away, Hurd was forced to defend hard to keep Garford at bay, with the Wera Alliance Racing Academy driver knowing he had Richardson behind to play rear-gunner – with the JCW racer fighting hard to fend off Ashley Gregory.

Richardson would drop away from that battle when he suffered damage to the rear of his car that caused a loss of power, with Alex Keens and Josh Wilby instead taking up the challenge of joining the podium battle.

Wilby briefly got ahead of Keens on the exit of Tower only for Keens to fight back to reclaim fourth with their battle meaning that Hurd and Garford were left free to squabble for second to the flag.

Hurd held on to take the position at the flag, with Garford chasing him home as both made it three podium finishes for the season.

“I knew Olivier was going to be hard to beat as he’s so quick here, so the plan was to get to P2 and then try to keep the others behind,” he said. “It was a good race and I knew there were only a few places where Alfie could realistically pass, so I had to make sure I defended those and held on.”

Wilby was able to grab fourth on the final lap with a late lunge on Keens going into the hairpin, with the top six being rounded out by Ashley Gregory.

Gregory had been part of the fight for the podium spots for much of the race and also survived contact from Ronnie Smith at the complex that dropped her into a huge fight for position with Kieran Roberts, Smith, Leo Purches and James Sherrington.

Roberts emerged at the front of that battle to chase Gregory home and take seventh, with Smith, Purches and Sherrington rounding out the top ten.

Having been forced to start from the back of the grid after his engine issues in qualifying, Gabe Fairbrother came through the pack to finish twelfth, with Richardson droppeding down to 14th as a result of his power loss.

Two drivers failed to make the finish, with Capozzoli coming in to retire at the end of lap one and Luca Marinoni Osborne pulling off with engine problems.