JAMES BLACK SCORES SECOND WIN AS TITLE FIGHT BLOWN WIDE OPEN

James Black scored his second win of the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy season after a dramatic opening race at Brands Hatch saw the fight for the title blown wide open.

The race had kicked off with championship leader Sam Gornall on pole position and was able to hold the lead at the start as the field headed into Paddock Hill Bend for the first time.

However, there was drama further down the pack as Paul Manning suffered a sideways moment and was collected by CJ Morgan and Katia Loggie – with all three cars going off into the gravel to bring out the red flag.

The field re-gridded in their original positions for the restart but this time, things didn’t go to plan to Gornall as he struggled to get away from the line and plummeted down the order; his car having suffered a gearbox problem that left him with only third gear.

Gornall’s issue allowed Black to jump into the lead of the race ahead of Harry Hickton, who suddenly saw an opportunity to gain further ground in the standings having already bagged six additional bonus points for topping the times in qualifying.

After an early caution period called to recover the car of Ben Taylor from the exit of Druids after he had clashed with Cameron Wood and an ailing Gornall, Black was able to keep Hickton at bay aside from a brief moment on lap seven when the Westbourne man edged slighly ahead.

Once back at the front however, Black was untroubled as he scored victory, helped by the fact that Hickton was under ever-increasing pressure from Gabe Fairbrother for second spot.

“I’m not thinking about the championship yet – we’ll leave that for race three tomorrow,” Black said. “Scoring my first win at Silverstone was a really emotional moment but this is my home circuit so it’s just as special.

“This is just what we needed and I can go to bed tonight feeling relaxed and then come back tomorrow and see what we can do. We led nearly every lap and the battle got a bit heated at times but I wasn’t going to take it lying down.”

With Gornall running down the order, at one stage Hickton found himself moving into the de-facto championship lead but when Fairbrother made his move to get into second, Hickton also found himself overhauled by Alex Keens to drop down to fourth spot.

Second for Fairbrother allowed him to remain in championship contention although the title dream is over for Keens, despite him taking third and bagging the six bonus points for fastest lap.

Hickton would cross the line in fourth spot to leave him 14 points behind Gornall in the standings, albeit knowing that he has already scored six tomorrow by virtue of topping qualifying.

Alex Solley looked set to take fifth spot but on the final lap, he was overhauled by a charging Ashley Gregory – who had started back in 13th place – as well as Ronnie Smith.

Sixth for Smith handed him an unassailable lead in the Rookie Cup standings ahead of Leo Purches, who finished the race in eighth spot behind Solley, with the top ten completed by Chandler Motorsport duo Rhys Hurd and Steven Chandler.

Gornall would end up classified back in 14th.

Directors Cup honour went to John Castle in his first race with Graves Motorsport team, with the points lead going to Taylor despite his retirement.

That was because he gained 15 points back through dropped scores to move 13 points ahead of Manning in the standings, with the Mannpower Motorsport driver facing the prospect of missing Sunday’s races having gone to hospital for precautionary scans on his side.