{"id":29345,"date":"2025-10-04T18:57:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T17:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.minichallenge.co.uk\/?p=29345"},"modified":"2025-10-04T18:57:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T17:57:20","slug":"nathan-edwards-battles-to-victory-as-jcw-title-fight-takes-a-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.minichallenge.co.uk\/2025\/10\/04\/nathan-edwards-battles-to-victory-as-jcw-title-fight-takes-a-twist\/","title":{"rendered":"NATHAN EDWARDS BATTLES TO VICTORY AS JCW TITLE FIGHT TAKES A TWIST"},"content":{"rendered":"

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NATHAN EDWARDS BATTLES TO VICTORY AS JCW TITLE FIGHT TAKES A TWIST<\/h3>\n

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Nathan Edwards scored a lights-to-flag win in the opening JCW race of the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE finale as team-mate Tom Ovenden moved closer to the 2025 title.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Edward saw off the challenge of guest entrant Nick Tandy to score the win, with Ovenden benefitting from issues for both Lewis Selby and Max Edmundson – the latter not even able to take the start after suffering a driveshaft issue on the grid.<\/p>\n

Edwards made a solid start to keep Le Mans winner Tandy at bay when the action got underway despite the NAPA Racing man trying to draw alongside on the run up to Druids.<\/p>\n

Behind, Josh Porter briefly took third from Ovenden before the championship leader was able to reclaim the position before heading out onto the GP loop for the first time.<\/p>\n

Through the early stages, Edwards was kept honest by Tandy in the battle for the win, with Tandy almost able to get ahead on lap two going onto the GP loop.<\/p>\n

However, Edwards made his extra experience with the car would tell as he eased clear – adding the fastest lap into the bargain as he took the flag two seconds clear of Tandy for win number four of the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf the nine wins I’ve had in JCW, that might just be the best – simply for the quality of driver that we have had to beat there,\u201d he said. \u201cFair play to Nick there as he was really strong on cold tyres early on and we had to manage to the pressure and then managed to get a gap as the laps went on.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a bit of a rollercoaster day thinking we\u2019d lost pole and then getting it back again, but this is a day I\u2019ll look back on for the rest of my career as it\u2019s not often you beat someone with a career record like Nick.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The real drama in the race however would come behind as Ovenden looked to try and extend his advantage over Lewis Selby at the top of the standings.<\/p>\n

Unable to get ahead of Tandy, Ovenden found himself forced to go on the defensive in the early stages as Harry Hickton looked to get ahead, with the Mannpower Motorsport man getting up into third on lap two.<\/p>\n

Hickton would later drop out of the race with a mechanical issue, which moved Ovenden back into third ahead team-mate Josh Porter.<\/p>\n

Crucially, by the time Hickton ran into trouble, the chasing pack behind Ovenden no longer included rival Selby, after a clash with Nathan Harrison at Sheene saw the Napa Racing man nudge into the barriers.<\/p>\n

That forced him to make an unscheduled trip to the pits and dropped him off the lead lap, although the team was able to get him back out to at least salvage some points at the finish.<\/p>\n

Ovenden would ultimately take the flag in third place despite having Porter fixed to the rear of his car until the final lap, when Porter had a look around the outside at Surtees and ran wide – clipping the barriers and rejoining having dropped away from the top three.<\/p>\n

It delayed Porter enough to allow former champion Harrison through into fourth and left Porter to take the flag in fifth, with the top six being completed by Charlie Hand, who earned top rookie honours.<\/p>\n

Jenson O\u2019Neill-Going and Harry Campey followed behind, with Alex Solley and Owen Hillman completing the top ten.<\/p>\n

With the top six being reversed for race two, Hand will start from pole with Ovenden in a position where he could now potentially wrap up the championship crown.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy aim was just treat it as a normal race weekend and try to get on the podium,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn’t really know where Lewis was, but me and Josh worked really, really well together in third and fourth for the whole race.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve only had a few podiums in recent meetings, so this is a good way to kick off the weekend and extend my advantage.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Nathan Edwards scored a lights-to-flag win in the opening JCW race of the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE finale as team-mate Tom Ovenden moved closer to the 2025 title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":29347,"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":[1462,1465],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-jcw"],"yoast_head":"\nNATHAN EDWARDS BATTLES TO VICTORY AS JCW TITLE FIGHT TAKES A TWIST - 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\/10\/04\/nathan-edwards-battles-to-victory-as-jcw-title-fight-takes-a-twist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NATHAN EDWARDS BATTLES TO VICTORY AS JCW TITLE FIGHT TAKES A TWIST - 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