RHYS HURD ADDS TO WIN TALLY IN BRANDS HATCH OPENER

Rhys Hurd made it three wins in the last four starts with victory in the opening Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy race of the weekend at Brands Hatch.

The Westbourne Motorsport man had qualified in fifth place on the grid but emerged at the front after an action-packed race at the front, which had to be red-flagged early on before being re-run over a shortened 13 minute distance.

Luca Marinoni Osborne had lined up on pole ahead of Ashley Gregory, and the Westbourne Motorsport man was able to hold the lead when the lights went out on the run up to Paddock Hill Bend for the first time.

Behind however, Ronnie Smith got out of shape on the run up to Druids and slid sideways into Hurd, with the end result being Smith going off into the gravel on the outside of the circuit.

With Leo Purches also grinding to a halt with a mechanical issue, the race was halted before restarting shortly afterwards minus the full second row.

Marinoni Osborne once again led the field away at the start but a mistake on the exit of Druids allowed Gregory through into the lead, with Hurd following her through into second spot.

Whilst Gregory led the early laps, Hurd saw a chance to pounce at the start of lap four as he went around the outside into Paddock Hill Bend to grab the lead, with Marinoni Osborne then grabbing second from Gregory at Druids.

Henry Foote also attacked Gregory going into Surtees but would be unable to make a move stick and was instead left on the outside line going into Clearways, dropping down the order after dipping a wheel into the gravel.

Gregory dropped out of the battle for honours when her car cut out going through Graham Hill Bend on lap six, which saw her hit by Alfie Garford who was luckily able to escape unscathed to continue.

He did however run off track which allowed Louie Capozzoli to jump up into third before he chased down Marinoni Osborne to bag second. By this stage however, Hurd was clear up the road and duly scored win number five of the campaign by a margin of nearly three seconds.

“With the retirements we’ve had this season, the title hasn’t really been in my sights so the goal coming in this weekend was on trying to get as many points as possible and seeing if we could grab second in the standings,” he said.

“This is a great way to start the weekend and it was a big battle with Ashley early on. I got the side draft down the straight and I threw it down the outside to get ahead, and then it was a case of trying to build a gap.”

Capozzoli would have to settle for second spot, with Marinoni Osborne taking third for what was his first podium finish of the campaign.

Behind, James Sherrington raced his way to a solid fourth spot from tenth on the grid, with Olivier Algieri and Garford rounding out the top six.

That allowed Garford to close the gap slightly to Alex Keens at the top after Keens had to settle for ninth spot.

Keens had fought his way to the fringes of the top six before losing ground late on but still holds a lead of more than 70 points in the standings going into Sunday’s two races, and will also start race two from the front row of the grid after the top ten on the grid were reversed.

That means Munroe Rennard will lead the field away in the penultimate race of the campaign.