HENRY HOWARTH SCORES VITAL WIN IN BRANDS HATCH OPENER

Henry Howarth moved on to six wins for the season in JCW Sport with victory in the opening race of the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE finale at Brands Hatch.

Howarth went into the season finale sitting twelve points behind team-mate Archie Johnson in the standings, with Johnson then securing an extra six points on offer for pole position – which will be awarded in race three tomorrow.

Johnson lined up at the head of the field for the race, with the grid based on second quickest qualifying times, but was slow away the line as Howarth instead hit the front.

However, it was Nicky Gauci who made the best start from sixth, vaulting up the order off the line to sit in second spot and then grabbing the lead from Howarth going onto the GP loop.

It didn’t take long for Howarth and then Johnson to move ahead of the Maltese racer however, with Howarth taking the lead on lap two and Johnson following him through on lap three.

From that point on, the pair broke away at the front with Johnson happy to follow his Jamsport team-mate – never getting close enough to make a serious bid for the lead.

That meant Howarth took the win, although Johnson minimised his losses by taking the extra three points for fastest lap.

“Obviously, we would like to add the fastest lap points, but unfortunately, Archie just managed to get it from me,” Howarth said.

“We’ve shown good pace so far but lost out a little bit with the red flag in qualifying which was annoying, as we missed out on the bonus points there. But this win is important as it’s all to play for going into tomorrow.

“It’s so close between us and it would only take one bad result to change everything massively, so we’ll see what happens in the final two races.”

Behind the two team-mates, Ben Crossley raced his way through to third place, with Chris Mackenzie also managing to clear Gauci before the end as his challenge faded in the closing stages.

Will Crooks rounded out the finishers in sixth spot having lost ground after a strong start.