MAX HALL SHOWS PROMISE ON WAY TO ROOKIE CUP PODIUM AT DONINGTON PARK

Max Hall showed plenty of promise last weekend (27-28 April) as he kicked off his 2024 Vertu MINI CHALLENGE JCW campaign at Donington Park.

Graduating to the competitive single-make series with multiple champions EXCELR8 Motorsport, the 17-year-old produced a superlative display at the Leicestershire venue to claim a podium finish in the Rookie Cup.

Having shown plenty of promise across pre-season testing and official practice prior to the meeting, the Motorsport UK Academy driver endured a day of two halves on Saturday as his strong qualifying pace went unrewarded.

Featuring inside the top five throughout a frenetic qualifying session on Saturday morning, Hall produced a best lap of 1:13.582 to not only claim fifth on the grid for race one but also finish within a tenth of a second of pole position.

Unfortunately, Hall’s hopes of a strong results were extinguished almost immediately as contact at the rear of his car at Coppice on the opening lap spun sideways and into a rival car - ending his race on the spot.

Hall - who has retained the support of Halls Electrical, Brigade Electronics, Fischer Panda, Durite, PVL UK, GT Installation and Brandfixx this year - emerged as one of the standout performers in race two on Sunday.

With adverse weather conditions meaning that one of the remaining two races was cancelled due to timetable delays, the battle for supremacy proved to be as fierce as ever.

Blasting away from fifth place, Hall hounded the back of former champion Ant Whorton-Eales during the early going however as track conditions rapidly dried, Hall’s brand-new wet tyres began to suffer.

In thick of the action throughout the remainder of the bout, Hall managed to bring the car home in eighth overall and third of the Rookie Cup contenders.

Hall heads into the second meeting of the season - held at Brands Hatch on the 11-12 May - sitting 11th in the Drivers’ Championship and fourth in the Rookie Cup.

Max Hall: “It’s been a bit of a frantic weekend so to come away with a third place finish in the Rookie Cup isn’t so bad. We’ve had plenty of pace but things haven’t quite fallen our way, that’s just the way it goes sometimes.

“After qualifying on the third row I was confident that we could move forward in race one but I was caught out by the car a little bit and just couldn’t hang on to it. Thankfully we had a chance to bounce back on Sunday!

“Given the amount of rain that fell all of the circuit staff and officials did an amazing job to get us out for even one race on Sunday and it was great to be able to have some good battles with the likes of Ant (Whorton-Eales), Nathan (Edwards) and Nelson (King).

“It’s certainly been a weekend of learning but with a trophy to take home there is plenty to be positive about. I’m looking forward to having a quick turnaround now and seeing what we can do at Brands Hatch in a couple of weeks time.”