HENRY HOWARTH HOLDS ON FOR RACE TWO SUCCESS

Henry Howarth secured his third JCW Sport win of the season in the second Vertu MINI CHALLENGE race of the weekend at Snetterton, benefitting from a red flag stoppage to see off team-mate Archie Johnson.

Howarth had missed out on a potential victory in the opening race of the weekend having been forced into the pits to have a damaged front splitter removed from his car, and took his place in third on the grid behind Will Crooks and Johnson as they shared the front row.

When the lights went out, Crooks was immediately shuffled back down the order as the quicker cars behind went on the attack, with Howarth fighting his way to the front by the end of the opening lap.

Behind him, Ben Crossley had an even better start to go from fifth to second, with Johnson slotting in behind in third.

The top three quickly broke clear of fourth-placed Nicky Gauci, with Johnson taking second from Crossley on lap two before a cat-and-mouse battle developed between the two Jamsport cars at the front.

Howarth was holding on at the front until Johnson finally managed to get a run going down the Bentley Straight on lap eight and nosed ahead going into Nelson.

Unfortunately for Johnson however, the red flag would then be thrown when race one winner Chris Mackenzie had a spin at Coram and came to a halt on the circuit, with the race result being rolled back to how the field had been at the end of lap seven.

That was prior to Johnson making his move and meant it was Howarth who instead snared the victory and maximum points to extend his championship lead.

“I was glad to see the red flag come out as it meant the result got taken back a lap and we got the win,” he said. “To be honest we got a bit lucky as Archie really had the pace in that that one, so the stoppage saved me and allowed us to pick up maximum points.

“It had been a really good battle between us and having raced Archie for over a year, you know it will be a fair fight. It’s good to return to the top step after the disappointment of yesterday and to extend my lead.”

A somewhat disappointed Johnson was forced to settle for second spot, with Crossley unable to keep the pace with the pair ahead as he took third.

Crossley in turn was comfortably clear of Maltese racer Gauci in fourth, with the Jamsport Scholarship winner enduring a somewhere lonely race as he came home nearly six seconds off the podium spots.

However, it was an even larger gap to Crooks behind who would be classified as the final finisher in fifth.