Gabe Fairbrother scored his maiden win in the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy after emerging on top of a race long battle with Alex Keens in a wet second race of the weekend at Croft.<\/strong><\/p>\nKeen started the race from pole and held the lead into turn one at the start as Olivier Algieri grabbed second from Alex Solley going down to Clervaux, with Fairbrother then making a move for third on Solley at Tower – going around the outside to claim the position.<\/p>\n
Fairbrother was then able to nip down the inside of Algieri as Sunny to go second before setting off after Keens, who had been able to build a solid lead through the first lap.<\/p>\n
Fairbrother quickly closed the gap to Keens at the front and had a look at Sunny on lap two but was unable to make the move stick.<\/p>\n
Fixed onto the rear of the leader going into lap three, Fairbrother was able to get a better run through Hawthorn and onto the back straight to try and get a move made at Tower, where he was able to get the cut back on the exit and grabbed the lead through the Esses.<\/p>\n
From that point on, Fairbrother was able to keep his rival at bay as the pair broke away from the chasing pack, allowing the EXCELR8 driver to secure his first win since making the step up from karting into the series last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my first win in cars and it\u2019s absolutely mega,\u201d he said. \u201cI managed to make a few places at the start which were key as I knew I had to make up spots at the start, and then it was a case of trying to battle ahead of Alex. Even when I got ahead, he put me under a lot of pressure but it was a good, clean battle.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nThe front two were able to race clear because of the huge battle behind for third which was initially headed by Algieri but from an ever-increasing gaggle of cars that was led by Solley until he dropped behind team-mate Black on the fourth lap.<\/p>\n
Ronnie Smith then followed Black through to run in fifth, with points leader Sam Gornall, Luca Marinoni Osborne and Harvey Riby also joining the battle.<\/p>\n
Former points leader Harry Hickton meanwhile wasn\u2019t far behind as he worked his way through the pack from the back after his race one retirement.<\/p>\n
Smith tried to make a move on Black for fourth at Sunny but was unable to get ahead of his rival, whilst behind, Gornall slipped ahead of Solley at turn one to move into the top six.<\/p>\n
Algieri\u2019s hold on third was almost ended by Black, who went around the outside at Sunny but was forced to run wide on the exit, which allowed Smith to get up into fourth but his bid for the podium then ended when he clipped the rear of Algieri at Tower – damaging his car and forcing him to retire to the pits.<\/p>\n
Algieri was also delayed which moved Black up into third spot, with Solley and Gornall also able to move past the rookie as he rejoined.<\/p>\n
Black was able to hold on to the finish to secure the final podium position but Solley\u2019s hold on fourth would end on the final lap when Gornall managed to get alongside on the exit of Tower and edged ahead through the Jim Clark Esses.<\/p>\n
It left Gornall in fourth ahead of Solley, with Algieri able to fend off Harvey Riby and Luca Marinoni Osborne to take sixth.<\/p>\n
Hickton would take the flag in ninth after a strong run fro the back of the pack, which included a long battled with CJ Morgan as he grabbed tenth spot on his debut weekend.<\/p>\n
Further down the pack, Paul Manning was once again the top Directors Cup entrant in 13th to maintain his points lead.<\/p>\n
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Gabe Fairbrother scored his maiden win in the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy after emerging on top of a race long battle with Alex Keens in a wet second race of the weekend at Croft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1462,1466],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-cooper"],"yoast_head":"\n
GABE FAIRBROTHER SCORES MAIDEN WIN IN CROFT RAIN - MINI CHALLENGE<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.minichallenge.co.uk\/2024\/09\/08\/gabe-fairbrother-scores-maiden-win-in-croft-rain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GABE FAIRBROTHER SCORES MAIDEN WIN IN CROFT RAIN - MINI CHALLENGE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gabe Fairbrother scored his maiden win in the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy after emerging on top of a race long battle with Alex Keens in a wet second race of the weekend at Croft.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.minichallenge.co.uk\/2024\/09\/08\/gabe-fairbrother-scores-maiden-win-in-croft-rain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MINI CHALLENGE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-08T13:38:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-08T13:38:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.minichallenge.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-09-08-at-14.16.49.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matt Salisbury\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matt Salisbury\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.minichallenge.co.uk\/2024\/09\/08\/gabe-fairbrother-scores-maiden-win-in-croft-rain\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.minichallenge.co.uk\/2024\/09\/08\/gabe-fairbrother-scores-maiden-win-in-croft-rain\/\",\"name\":\"GABE FAIRBROTHER SCORES MAIDEN WIN IN CROFT RAIN - 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