Fairbrother flies to maiden wins at Croft Mini Festival
CROFT BARC MINI FESTIVAL 7-8 SEPTEMBER
Gabe Fairbrother picked up the first victories of his car racing career as the Mini Challenge Trophy battled the elements during Croft’s inaugural British Automobile Racing Club Mini Festival.
Saturday’s opener featured the best of the conditions for the drivers, and Rhys Hurd maintained his recent run of form, fighting his way through from 10th on the grid to win ahead of Sam Gornall, who claimed the championship lead when Westbourne team-mate Harry Hickton was forced to retire early on.
Gornall extended his advantage in a wet race two with fourth spot while Hickton charged from the back to take ninth. But it was Fairbrother who emerged for a maiden victory after an early pass on polesitter Alex Keens.
Fairbrother looked to be cruising to victory again in the finale before an off for Cameron Wood at Sunny Out with less than four minutes remaining led to a red flag and set up a two-lap shootout. Fairbrother was able to stay out front on the restart to grab a second win of the weekend, but there was drama behind for Gornall when he was tagged by Olivier Algieri going through Clervaux, resulting in two of his tyres coming off the rim as he went sideways through the gravel. With Hickton taking second, Gornall’s advantage in the standings after dropped scores has been reduced to four points ahead of the next event at Silverstone.
The Mini Challenge Clubsport season drew to a close with the fight for Open class honours between Ross Alexander and Stephen Berry being decided in Alexander’s favour when Berry, who won two of the three races, was forced out of race two while chasing his rival.
The overall title was wrapped up by Freddy Hewitt when he took second behind Charlie Newton-darby in the S Class in race
one and he celebrated with wins in races two and three – and he was also on the overall podium for both of these. Andy Langley completed a fine campaign in the Cooper Class with three wins from three. Berry was also a comfortable winner of the non-points Enduro race that concluded the weekend.
Jamie Blake scored a double win in the opening two Scottish Mini Cooper Cup encounters at the wheel of his Cooper S machine, edging out brother Craig in race one before taking full advantage of his sibling running across the grass on lap one to secure a more comfortable win in race two.
While the Cooper S cars only contested the opening two bouts, the Coopers were in action three times. Chad Little had beaten Jack Irvine to top spot in race one before Oly Mortimer emerged victorious in race two. The reversed-grid finale in the worst of the weather conditions began with Daniel Patterson making an astonishing start from the third row to lead into the first corner, but it was Little who ultimately charged to the front, overhauling Robbie Dalgleish and Patterson after a safety car period to grab a second win.
Elsewhere, the classic Mini was represented by the Mighty Minis championship, with Neven Kirkpatrick doing the double in the Super class, and the Mighty Minis victories being shared between Sam Slater and Ben Butler.
The only non-mini races were for the Heroes of Formula Ford 1600 Sprint Cup, which put on its season finale. Lucas Romanek celebrated his first outing in the series with a pair of comfortable wins, leading every lap in a Van Diemen RF88.