Following his maiden win in the championship last month, Kent racing driver Alex Nevill was able to carry this momentum on to a second win in the Britcar Trophy championship as the endurance racing series competed at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit last weekend.

Qualifying at “the home of British Motorsport” proved to be a tricky affair due to the circuit conditions, but Alex and his new teammate Matthew Hyde were able to navigate the damp track to claim a second place starting position in the Clio Cup class for the first race.

Matthew started race one, and after a dramatic battle with the other Clios he was able to take the lead and build a gap to the other cars before handing over to Alex in the pitstop.

It was at this point that disaster struck though. Championship rules require the mandatory pitstop in the race to adhere to a minimum time, in this case 2 minutes 20 seconds, of which the number 12 Dragon Sport Clio fell an agonising eight tenths of a second too short. Following a stop-go penalty the duo fell to a distant fourth place.  

Race two started slowly, with Alex initially dropping to fifth and struggling with high tyre pressures. Following an adjustment in the pitstop from the Dragon Sport team the number 12 car rose to third place during the pit window and ultimately the lead with less than ten minutes to spare following technical issues for the lead car.

It still wasn’t straight forward for Matthew at the end though, who had to nurse the car home with a brake issue which reduced their lead at the end to just over two seconds when the chequered flag fell.

The win helped to elevate Alex to second place in the Clio Cup class standings with a 39 point deficit to the leaders with three rounds and six races remaining.

Although the day was far from perfect, Alex was pleased with the outcome. “The penalty in race one was gutting and to be honest completely my fault as I didn’t pay enough attention to the stopwatch we have in the car. I hated it for Matt who drove an incredible race and for the team who were faultless.

“But I’m pleased we were able to make up for it in race two! We were a little bit lucky with the problems that befell other competitors, but sometimes you have to be. Let’s hope this luck stays with us for the remaining rounds as we try to make further ground in the championship.”

Up next for Alex and the Britcar Trophy grid is the Oulton Park circuit in Cheshire on the 6th July.

Images courtesy of Andy Meakin, Chris Valentine and Eat My Pixels