MAX HALL BENEFITS FROM TOM OVENDEN HEARTACHE

Max Hall benefitted from heartache for Tom Ovenden to score victory in the opening Vertu MINI CHALLENGE race of the weekend at Croft.

Ovenden had started the race from pole position alongside fellow EXCELR8 racer Dominic Wheatley, with Max Hall and Jamie Osborne sharing the second row – Osborne having been forced to take a three place grid penalty carried over from Oulton Park.

When the lights went out, Ovenden led the field down to turn one for the first time but behind, Hall was slow away from the line and dropped back down to P5 as both Osborne and Nelson King managed to get ahead.

Ovenden led the early stages but had Wheatley fixed on his tail as the lead pair broke away from the fight for third, which was soon left by King after he managed to get ahead of Osborne going through Clervaux on the third lap.

King then set about chasing down the pair ahead to make it a three-way dice for the leader and made his move on Wheatley going into the hairpin on lap seven.

The Laser Tools Racing man completed the move going to Clervaux on lap eight but was then forced to run across the chicane after contact with Wheatley – with Osborne also taking a short cut across the inside of the circuit.

The contact saw Wheatley lose momentum onto the back straight, which meant Ovenden suddenly found himself clear at the front, with King emerging in second spot from Hall, with Wheatley and Osborne slotting in behind.

King then suffered a moment at Sunny that saw him run off track and allowed Hall to move top into second, with Osborne, Wheatley and Dan Zelos giving chase as King dropped back down to sixth.

Ovenden looked to be charging to his maiden JCW win – despite carrying some damage to the rear after early contact – but exiting the hairpin on lap eleven, his car suddenly slowed with a driveshaft issue and forced him to pull into the pits to retire.

That left Hall out front from Osborne but there was still more drama to come as on the penultimate lap, Osborne dived down the inside at the hairpin – tipping the leader into a half spin.

The pair retained position but Zelos closed in to make it a three-way fight, having cleared Wheatley when he had a moment of his own and ran wide.

Zelos grabbed second from Osborne at the start of the final lap and then tried to grab the lead from Hall at Tower, but was unable to make the move stick. The defending champion then tried again on the exit of the final corner, but Hall held on to take the win, with Zelos and Osborne rounding out the podium.

“I didn’t expect that to be honest,” Hall admitted. “Even when I got up to P2, I thought that was as good as it was going to get as Tom had that race in the back, and I feel really for him losing the win in that way.

“Unfortunately that can happen in racing, and I’m pleased to be the one to benefit and take the win. Even then, I thought it might have gone with the contact near the end but we held on.”

King and Wheatley followed behind run fourth and fifth, with Lewis Selby having a lonely run to sixth spot in the second of the NAPA Racing entries.

Lydia Walmsley took seventh having been involved in a heated battle for position for much of the race with Nathan Edwards, eventually managing to find a way ahead on the exit of Tower mid-way through the race and pulling clear of the Oulton Park winner before he slowed with an issue late on.

Josh Porter therefore took eighth spot, with debutant Antony Sullivan and Marlo Cordell rounding out the finishers.

Cordell however was two laps down having been forced to pit with a gearbox issue of his own early on.