Olivier Algieri maintained his stunning run of form in the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE at Donington Park as he closed the gap to championship leader Alex Keens down to just four points.
Algieri suffered a tough start to his campaign at Snetterton and failed to finish four of the opening seven races, which left him more than 100 points away from the championship lead – despite the fact he had bagged a win at Brands Hatch.
A second win of the year in the final race at Thruxton was then followed by a hat-trick at Croft as the Westbourne Motorsport hit form ahead of the trip to Donington Park for the final BTCC-support event of the year.
After a pre-event judicial hearing saw him lose one of his Croft victories, Algieri responded in the best possible way by sticking his car on pole position during qualifying, with his second quickest time also earning him a place at the front for the opening race of the weekend.
That race would be a relatively straightforward affair at the front as Algieri held the lead at the start and took advantage of squabbling behind for second spot to establish a handy gap he would hold throughout.
Algieri was followed home by Ashley Gregory after she overcame the challenge of Gabe Fairbrother on the opening lap, with Rhys Hurd storming through the field to take third despite starting back in eleventh on the grid.
Hurd would spend most of the race dicing with Fairbrother over the final step on the podium, with Josh Wilby, Louie Capozzoli and Henry Foote also involved in the fight over the closing laps as the five drivers took the flag covered by less than a second.
Points leader Keens endured a difficult start to the weekend as he was restricted to ninth place after early contact dropped him down the pecking order.
Race two provided plenty of drama, and that drama didn’t stop when the chequered flag had flown - which resulted in the most unlikely of winners.
Even though the top ten on the grid had been reversed, Algieri fought his way to the front of the field to lead the way after a hard-fought battle with Fairbrother and Keens at the front.
A late caution period backed up the field for a one lap dash to the flag as Algieri took the win ahead of Fairbrother and Josh Wilby, both of whom had managed to get ahead of Keens on the final tour of the full Donington GP circuit.
Algieri would then be stripped of the win after being docked a position for contact with Fairbrother but there was worse to come when investigations revealed that the majority of the field had gone beyond track limits on too many occasions.
In total, a dozen drivers were handed time penalties of between five and 30 seconds for their indiscretions which meant Murray Richardson suddenly found himself declared as the winner.
Richardson had taken the flag in 13th place but was the only driver not to penalised, meaning he jumped to the front ahead of James Sherrington and Louis Fleet; the latter also securing a podium finish for the first time.
Normal service was resumed in the final race of the weekend as Algieri once again led the way from start to finish to move onto six wins for the season, coming home comfortably clear of Cameron Richardson.
Richardson, Murray’s elder brother, is competing in the headline JCW class this season and was making a second guest outing with the Wera Alliance Racing Academy team - with the result being his best at the wheel of a Cooper-spec car.
Although no match for Algieri at the front, Richardson was nearly ten seconds clear of another titanic fight for the final place on the podium which – once again – would be headed by Hurd.
This time around, Ronnie Smith, Keens and Alfie Garford were the trio looking to take the place away from him but despite suffering an issue with ABS, Hurd held on to bag third spot and a second trophy of the weekend.
Keens now leads Algieri by four points heading to Silverstone for the next event, with Fairbrother 47 points in arrears in third and Garford sitting fourth.
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