{"id":29274,"date":"2025-09-28T13:02:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T12:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.minichallenge.co.uk\/?p=29274"},"modified":"2025-09-28T19:18:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T18:18:02","slug":"gabe-fairbrother-gains-ground-with-race-two-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.minichallenge.co.uk\/2025\/09\/28\/gabe-fairbrother-gains-ground-with-race-two-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"GABE FAIRBROTHER GAINS GROUND WITH RACE TWO VICTORY"},"content":{"rendered":"

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GABE FAIRBROTHER GAINS GROUND WITH RACE TWO VICTORY<\/h3>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ header_font=”|||on|||||” background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” module_alignment=”left” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n

Gabe Fairbrother has closed the gap to Alex Keens at the top of the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy standings after the EXCELR8 driver battled his way to victory in the reverse grid race at Silverstone.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fairbrother started back in eighth spot as a result of his race one result, with Leo Purches and James Sherrington instead sharing the front row for Graves Motorsport.<\/p>\n

Whilst Purches was able to retain the lead at the start ahead of his team-mate, Fairbrother was immediately on a charge and gained four spots in the opening lap alone.<\/p>\n

As cars went three – and at times four – cars wide down the Wellington Straight dicing for position in tricky damp conditions, Fairbrother found himself shuffled back down to seventh as Ronnie Smith split the lead pair, with race one winner Rhys Hurd having worked his way forwards to sit on the fringe of the podium positions.<\/p>\n

However, Hurd\u2019s hopes for a second win of the weekend would be ended on lap four when he clashed with Alfie Garford going into Maggotts, with Hurd forced to retire in the gravel and Garford dropping to the back of the field.<\/p>\n

Fairbrother took advantage of that incident to jump back up to third, and having fought his way ahead of Smith, he then dispatched Purches at Brooklands to hit the front.<\/p>\n

As the field squabbled for second behind, Fairbrother was able to edge a slender gap and secured a vital win that allows him to gain more ground in the title race.<\/p>\n

\u201cA win is always nice but the most important thing is we\u2019ve closed that gap,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a good weekend so far, and we have and try to carry it into race three.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe track was drying out all the time but it was so slippery that you couldn\u2019t find the traction, and it was all about trying to be clean. We kept our nose clean and got the result.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A wide moment for Purches would drop him out of the podium fight as Louie Capozzoli instead came through to score second place to make it an EXCELR8 1-2 at the front, with Olivier Algieri rounding out the podium in third.<\/p>\n

Algieri had started the race back in 13th but was amongst those drivers to stay out of trouble when things kicked off ahead as he worked his way through the field, despite admitting that his new Graves Motorsport-run car wasn\u2019t totally to his liking.<\/p>\n

Behind Algieri, Keens also charged his way through the field to take fourth spot, at one stage diving down the inside of three of his rivals going through Woodcote as he looked to minimise his losses to Fairbrother.<\/p>\n

At one stage, the gap between the pair had been coming down to 14 points, but the late charge means Keens remains 30 points clear going into race three.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really tough initially as people found out how much grip there was, and there were a few incidents around me that helped me to make up places,\u201d he said. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point, I got inside three cars at once at Woodcote which was interesting, and after a disappointing race one, we\u2019re done well to fight back a bit here.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Behind Keens, Josh Wilby and Smith repeated their results from race one as they took fifth and sixth, with Henry Foote and Cameron Wood showing strong pace to round out the top eight, with the latter at one stage being the quickest driver on the track.<\/p>\n

Sherrington and Ashley Gregory rounded out the top ten, with poleman Purches back in eleventh.<\/p>\n

Further down the order, Louie Fleet was forced out on the opening lap after contact at Brooklands that left his car to crab back into the pits, whilst a wheel off the rim put Paul Manning into retirement – albeit only after he had posted the fastest lap of the race.<\/p>\n

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Gabe Fairbrother has closed the gap to Alex Keens at the top of the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy standings after the EXCELR8 driver battled his way to victory in the reverse grid race at Silverstone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":29276,"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-29274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-cooper"],"yoast_head":"\nGABE FAIRBROTHER GAINS GROUND WITH RACE TWO VICTORY - 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\/2025\/09\/28\/gabe-fairbrother-gains-ground-with-race-two-victory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GABE FAIRBROTHER GAINS GROUND WITH RACE TWO VICTORY - 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