ARCHIE JOHNSON DRAWS LEVEL WITH SILVERSTONE WIN

Archie Johnson has drawn level on points with Henry Howarth in the JCW Sport class of the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE after benefitting from a track limits penalty for his rival to take victory in race one at Silverstone.

Howarth lined up on pole for the start ahead of Johnson and was able to hold onto the lead when the lights went out, with Johnson slotting in behind and Nicky Gauci making a demon start from sixth to jump up into third.

Having avoided two spinning JCW cars at Becketts, the lead pair set about breaking away from Gauci behind and would run nose-to-tail throughout, with Johnson all over the rear of his team-mate.

The constant pressure from Johnson behind ultimately forced Howarth into a mistake as he exceeded track limits too many times and picked up a five second time penalty.

It meant that even though Howarth took the flag first, it was Johnson who was confirmed as the winner, with Howarth now only leading the championship by virtue of the fact that he has finished second more times – with both having scored five wins.

“It was a good race between me and Henry,” Johnson said. “We managed to keep first and second off the start and just kind of pulled away from there. I was hoping to force Henry into a mistake and he made a few that meant he got a track limits penalty.

“I’d managed to get close to him a few times but it’s so hard to overtake here that you just need to stick it on the inside line which is what Henry was doing lap after lap.”

Gauci would hold onto third spot despite huge pressure in the closing stages of the race from Chris Mackenzie.

The pair went side-by-side dicing for the position with Mackenzie at one stage managing to get ahead but the Bitcoin Racing man would ultimately drop down to the back of the field when he made a mistake a took a trip through the gravel, damaging the front splitter on his car.

That promoted Ben Crossley up into fourth spot, with the JRW Motorsport man just fending off EXCELR8’s Will Crooks.