Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE champions crowned at Brands Hatch
Champions were crowned in the Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE as the JCW season drew to a close at Brands Hatch.
EXCELR8 Motorsport driver Dan Zelos took a healthy lead into the final meeting of the season, and a second place finish in the opening race was good enough to put him out of reach of main title rival Will Orton.
It means Zelos is the first driver to have won the championship twice since the current car was introduced into the series.
Despite missing out on the overall title, Hybrid Tune driver Orton still had a reason to cheer at the end of the weekend as he secured the Rookie Cup following an impressive campaign that saw him score six overall race wins.
The Graduate Cup – for drivers in their second season – would go down to the wire between NAPA Racing’s Jamie Osborne and Graves Motorsport’s Dominic Wheatley.
It looked like Osborne was all set to take the crown when Wheatley crashed out of race two, but the points leader was then forced to pit in race three after damaging his splitter.
Osborne however was able to rejoin the circuit and cruise round at the back to score the points he needed to take the class title.
All three victories on the final weekend of the season went the way of Hybrid Tune, with Sam Smith – who had earlier scored pole – taking victory in races one and two; the latter as part of a podium lock-out for the team.
It marked the first wins for Smith since he was involved in an accident at Donington Park during round one of the season that saw him sidelined for a number of months.
Outgoing champion Sam Weller then took top honours in race three.