DONINGTON PARK KICKS OFF HECTIC TROPHY RUN

Having not hit the track since early June, the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy season resumes this weekend following a long summer break with the second meeting of the season alongside the BTCC kicking off a busy run of four meetings between now and November.

Whilst the JCW and JCW driver have just one event left to run, this weekend marks the half-way stage of the season for the Cooper field, with three races around the full Donington GP layout being followed by events at Croft, Silverstone and Brands Hatch before the title is decided.

Heading to Donington Park, Westbourne Motorsport lead the way in the standings thanks to Harry Hickton and Sam Gornall, and it couldn’t be much closer at the top with just a handful of points between the pair after dropped scores are taken into account.

Hickton was very much the man to beat over the opening two rounds as he scored three wins from the first six races at Snetterton and Pembrey, whilst Gornall was left to rue mechanical gremlins at round one that saw him retire from the second race – immediately putting him on the back foot in the standings.

Gornall had taken the first win of the year and arrives at Donington on the back of five podiums in the last six starts, which has seen him close in on his team-mate in the title race – helped by Hickton failing to make it into the top six at Thruxton.

The pair have a slender lead over Alex Solley in the points, but the experienced Graves Motorsport driver certainly shouldn’t be discounted having scored two wins thus far at Pembrey and Thruxton.

Solley has plenty of experience in the Cooper and the knowledge of being involved in a title battle in the past, which he will look to benefit from over the second half of the campaign.

Solley’s team-mate James Black holds fourth and has scored four podiums thus far – only needing to make it onto the top step to complete the set. Black certainly has the pace to do that this weekend having been a consistent front-runner during the season to date.

Alex Keens holds fifth on the back of a consistent campaign to date, with the top six being rounded out by Jamie Keates – although Keates won’t be present this weekend after splitting from the PerformanceTek Racing squad that had run his car during the opening three meetings.

EXCELR8’s Gabe Fairbrother holds seventh and will go into the race weekend boosted by the fact that he topped official testing on Thursday ahead of Gornall, with top rookie Ronnie Smith in eighth.

Smith tops the Rookie Cup having scored class victory six times in nine starts, with his Chandler Motorsport team-mates Reece Lycett and Rhys Hurd rounding out the top ten.

Hurd had endured a tough start to his second season in the series having took the rookie title last year, but bounced back in fine style at Thruxton with a double win, with third spot on the times in pre-event testing suggesting he is well placed to carry that form into the weekend.

Further down the order, the race for the Directors Cup is even closer than the overall title race, with John Castle heading Paul Manning by just a single point. Castle had the edge on his rival following Thursday testing, although Manning didn’t set a representative time in the two sessions.

Elsewhere on the grid this weekend, Tommy Watson is set to make his race debut with EXCELR8 after a knee injury forced him to withdraw from round one after qualifying, which his place on the grid having been taken since then by former champion Matt Hammond.

Hammond now drops off the entry list as do Frankie Taylor and Steven Chandler, with the latter reverting back to his role of overseeing the team that carries his name.

The other new addition this weekend is Italian teenager Riccardo Monti, who will contest the remainder of the campaign with EXCELR8.