MAX HALL ENDURES CHARACTER-BUILDING MINI WEEKEND AT CROFT

Max Hall showed his fighting spirit at Croft Circuit this past weekend (29/30 July) as the Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE Trophy returned to action, with the Westbourne Motorsport driver enduring a character-building visit to the North Yorkshire venue.

Kicking off the second half of his season in the popular one-make series, the teenage racer saw his blistering qualifying pace go unrewarded as he suffered a non-finish in the opening contest before he charged from the back of the grid in race two.

Keen to maintain his push in both the Drivers’ and Rookie Cup title battles, the Motorsport UK Academy driver underlined his speed by posting impressive times across Friday practice - something that he carried forward into Saturday’s fight for pole position.

Setting a number of competitive times early on in qualifying, Hall - who is backed by Halls Electrical, Brigade Electronics, Fischer Panda, Durite, PVL UK, Brandfixx and GT Installation - soon upped the ante as the clock ticked down.

Punching in a best time of 1:40.710, last year’s Junior Saloon Car Championship title originally clinched third on the grid for race one however that became second following a grid penalty for rival Alex Solley.

Unfortunately, that was to be as good as it got for Hall who ultimately found himself out of luck in the weekend’s opening encounter. Dropping a handful of positions in the early exchanges, Hall was involved in a multi-car incident at the Complex which ended his race on the spot.

Forced to start from the rear of the field for race two, Hall showcased his fighting spirit with an overtaking masterclass as he carved his way up the order to score a valuable haul of points.

Despite a lengthy red flag stoppage causing the race distance to be shortened, Hall wasted no time in dispatching cars at every opportunity that presented itself, ultimately making his way up to 15th by the chequered flag.

Max Hall: “It’s been a bit of a challenging weekend but there are certainly some positives that we can take away; one being that we’ve had really good pace in the car - both when running in clean air and in the pack.

“To qualify on the front row was the perfect start but things sort of unravelled from there. We had contact heading into the Complex which caused pad knock-off, and that then sent me into another car - which ended our race there and then.

“The amount of effort the whole Westbourne Motorsport team put in to ensure we were back out on Sunday was incredible though. It was great to be able to reward them with a bit of charge from the back of the grid!

“We’ve got about a month or so until we’re next out at Donington Park so we’ll get our heads down, do our homework and aim to bounce back from this weekend.”

The 2023 Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE Trophy continues on the 26/27 August around Donington Park’s Grand Prix layout in Leicestershire.