ONE POINT IN IT AS COOPERS HEAD FOR CROFT

With the impact of dropped scores now coming to the fore, things couldn’t be much closer in the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy as the series heads for Croft this weekend for a special MINI Festival event.

The Cooper grid will be joined by MINI CHALLENGE Clubsport, the Scottish MINI Cooper Cup and the Mighty Minis Championship for the event in North Yorkshire, with the Heroes of FF1600 Sprint Cup also part of the schedule.

The big headline going into the weekend is the battle for top spot in the Cooper class between Westbourne Motorsport duo Harry Hickton and Sam Gornall.

Hickton is 23 points clear of Gornall before drops are taken into considering, but that gap drops to just one when each driver loses their two lowest scores.

Both drivers scored a win at Donington Park last time out when racing resumed after the summer break but it was a weekend of vastly contrasting fortunes for the pair.

Whilst Gornall found himself towards the sharp end throughout and scored a win in race three, Hickton was forced to come from the back after a tough qualifying session – winning the reverse grid second race and making up a total of 27 places across races one and three to grab an unlikely podium finish.

The pair have been able to break slightly clear of Alex Solley after a troublesome Donington Park weekend for the Graves Motorsport driver saw him log a first DNF of the campaign, leaving him 47 points off top spot.

Astonishingly across the twelve races run so far in 2024, Solley is the only driver on the grid who has failed to finish a race ahead of his starting position – although that is down in part to the fact the has consistently been towards the sharp end of the grid.

Solley has been left looking over his shoulder somewhat with the ever-consistent James Black just eight points further back in fourth place after scoring his fifth podium of the season at Donington.

Black is the highest placed driver in the points who has yet to win, and heads into the weekend looking to put that right and break onto the top step for the first time.

Gabe Fairbrother scored his best result of the season last time out to sit in fifth as the best placed EXCELR8 driver in the standings, with Alex Keens holding sixth despite the fact that he was unable to convert pole at Donington into a first win of the campaign.

He sits just eight points behind Fairbrother in the midst of a tight battle for position, with Chandler Motorsport trio Reece Lycett, Rhys Hurd and Ronnie Smith – as well as Westbourne’s Luca Marinono Osborne – all close behind.

Lycett enjoyed his best weekend in the series to date at Donington Park with a pair of podium finishes, whilst Hurd made it three wins for the season with victory in race one as he continues to battle back from a tough start to his second campaign in the series.

Smith heads the Rookie Cup, whilst Marinoni Osborne’s performance at Donington was his best since switching from EXCELR8 to Westbourne over the winter.

Others to watch this weekend include Harvey Riby and Ashley Gregory – the latter having scored a podium here last season – although PerformanceTek Racing duo Callum Eason and Mick Fitzgerald are both missing as is John Castle.

That could be crucial in the race for the Directors Cup, with Castle sitting just one point ahead of Paul Manning and four clear of Ben Taylor going into the weekend.

Tickets for the Croft MINI Festival event can be purchased by clicking HERE