RHYS HURD SCORES FOURTH WIN AS GORNALL GRABS POINTS LEAD

Rhys Hurd secured his fourth win of the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy season as the championship battle took a turn following a DNF for Harry Hickton in race one at Croft.

Hurd lined up ninth on the grid for the start as Sam Gornall led the field away from pole position at the start – holding the lead through the opening corners after team-mate Hickton tried to take the outside line at turn one but ram through the gravel.

That briefly allowed Hickton to take the lead but when he then ran across the chicane, he was forced to cede position and allowed both Gornall and Gabe Fairbrother to get ahead.

Fairbrother made a move for the lead on the second lap as he went side-by-side with Gornall into the Esses, but that only opened the door for Hickton to sweep through to get back into second spot whilst behind the top three, Alex Solley found himself being chased down by Reece Lycett and James Black.

Gornall held the led until Sunny on the third lap when Hickton was able to nose his way through on the inside, whilst Lycett was able to get ahead of Solley – with Rhys Hurd and Black also heading the Graves Motorsport man.

With Gornall having grabbed six bonus points for pole in qualifying, Hickton was bidding to try and reclaim the championship lead but as the pair squabbled for the lead, it allowed the pack behind to close in.

Fairbrother got a run on Gornall heading out onto the straight to Tower and tried to look up the inside only for Lycett in turn to try and take two places at once. Contact with the right rear of Fairbrother’s car saw Lycett end up on the grass and he was unable to avoid collecting Hickton as he turned into the corner – putting both into retirement.

As the field behind were forced to scatter in avoidance, it was Hurd who emerged from Tower in the lead of the race from Gornall and Fairbrother, but the lead pair quickly swapped places as Gornall reclaimed his place at the front.

It wasn’t to last however as Hurd then launched his attack on the run up to Tower to move back to the front and would eventually manage to get enough of a gap that he could break the tow and put himself out of reach of Gornall’s attack – earning the Chandler Motorsport man a fourth win in the last three meetings.

“There are no easy races in this championship, and I didn’t think I’d be in a position to win from P10 on the grid,” he said. “I just wanted to be able to benefit from the reverse grid but when it all kicked off ahead there was a chance to take the lead and me and Sam were able to break away – then it was a case of breaking the tow.”

Gornall took the flag in second spot and now leads the championship as a result of Hickton’s retirement, whilst James Black rounded out the podium in third having been able to battle his way ahead of Fairbrother.

Behind them in fifth spot was debutant Olivier Algieri, who made light of his lack of experience in the series to produce an impressive recovery run having dropped down the field in the early stages.

Although not eligible to score championship points, Algieri secured top rookie honours having taken the flag ahead of the series’ regular rookie field.

“The race was a bit of a hack so to come back to P5 at the end is really good,” he said. “The car has been quite easy to get to grips with but the racing here is very different to what I’ve been doing in recent years, and I think my karting experience helped. I’m just happy to be here, so to come away with a trophy is something I’ve over the moon with.”

Solley took sixth spot and secured the six bonus points for fastest lap with a new lap record, with Alex Keens, Ronnie Smith, Luca Marinoni Osborne and Josh Wilby rounding out the top ten.

Further down the order, Paul Manning took top Directors Cup honours in 16th spot, and now leads the class standings as a result.

The final results are subject ongoing judicial investigations that will be completed on Sunday morning.