Harry Hickton scored his eighth podium of the year at Croft Circuit this past weekend (7-8 September) to maintain his championship challenge in the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy.
Taking centre stage at the British Automobile Racing Club’s inaugural MINI Festival in North Yorkshire, the Westbourne Motorsport driver bounced back from a non-finish to showcase his title credentials and at the same time, leave the event sitting four points off the standings summit.
Overnight rain and morning mist blended together to provide a slippery track surface during qualifying however Hickton soon found his groove and wasted no time in joining a number of his rivals in dipping under the existing lap record.
In what proved to be a frenetic session as conditions continuously improved, the 18-year-old settled for the fourth quickest time; however his second fastest lap was good enough to put him on the front row for race one.
Unfortunately the weekend’s opening encounter was to be a case of what might have been for Hickton as he was unceremoniously wiped out of the race at Tower Bend with just a handful of laps completed.
Getting the better of team-mate Sam Gornall to take the lead in the early exchanges, the second-year driver briefly looked comfortable out front before a rival further back ended up on the grass while trying to overtake and unavoidably struck Hickton’s car as he turned into the corner.
Thankfully able to walk away from the incident unharmed, Hickton’s car sustained substantial damage to the drivers’ side which left the Westbourne team with a long night of repairs ahead of them.
Greeted with torrential rain and the prospect of a back row start, Hickton - who is backed by Hysons Chartered Accountants, The Platinum Lift Company, Vernham Labels, Addventure, Woodstock, Hippo Campers and Brandfixx – delivered a masterful drive in race two.
Battling through the spray, the teenage sensation got his elbows out and muscled his way up the order, pulling off a number of daring overtakes in the process. Come the chequered flag, the Hampshire racer had moved up to ninth.
Starting on the second row for the weekend’s final contest, Hickton vaulted himself back into the championship picture with a fine drive as he progressed up to second place before the red flag made an appearance, setting up a two-lap dash to the flag.
Despite his best efforts on the restart, Hickton couldn’t find a way into the lead and instead banked valuable points on his way to the second step on the rostrum.
Leaving Croft, Hickton now sits second in the overall Drivers’ Championship, trailing his Westbourne stablemate Gornall by four points.
Harry Hickton: “What a weekend. It's amazing how quickly things can turnaround in this championship because at one stage it looked as though it was slipping away but now we’re right back in the hunt with two events to go.
“The incident in race one was so frustrating because I was out front, starting to get my head down, and then out of nowhere I received a massive whack at the rear of the car that sent me spinning.
“Everyone at Westbourne did a mega job to get the car straight for Sunday’s two races and it was great to be able to repay them with a charge through the pack, and then another podium in that last one.
“In total we’ve lost five points to Sam [Gornall] but things could have been so much worse. If anything, this has only lit a fire in me to come out and throw everything we’ve got at Silverstone in a couple of weeks!”
The penultimate event of the year for the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy takes place in less than two weeks’ time as the series returns to the support bill of the British Touring Car Championship, competing at Silverstone on the 21-22 September.
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.
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