“One of the best weekends of my career” is how Kent racing driver Alex Nevill described his home round of the Britcar Trophy at Brands Hatch last weekend, in which he claimed his maiden win in the championship.

The weekend began with a change of plans for Alex and the Dragon Sport team, with Alex’s regular teammate, Travis Coyne, opting to take a step back from motorsport so a new co-driver was needed for the weekend.

The team were able to bring in Harry Hickton, who previously raced with the team at the final round of last year’s campaign and has enjoyed a great start to 2024 as the early championship leader in the MINI CHALLENGE Cooper Trophy.

The duo qualified third for the first race of the weekend, in which Harry started and was able to climb up to second before making the mandatory pitstop and handing over to Alex.

Alex quickly found his rhythm with the formidable Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit and was able to reign in the class leader and take the lead on the way into the Druids hairpin.

From here, he was able to quickly build a lead prior to a safety car period from which the race never restarted. The result was a maiden win for both drivers, and a first win for Alex at his home circuit.

The result also meant a pole position in class for race two, which took place in front of a crowd of 18,000 spectators (including guests from Alex’s sponsor Jackaman Insurance Services) as part of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Powered by AWS support package.

Despite losing the lead at the start Alex quickly recovered, putting the new leader under enough pressure to generate a mistake from them at the famous Paddock Hill bend on lap two.

Their trip through the gravel enabled Alex to reclaim the lead, which he held convincingly until the pit window opened. The rules of the Britcar Trophy require the winner of race one to take a longer pit stop in race two, which meant that after handing over to Harry at the pit stop, the number 12 Dragon Sport Clio rejoined the action third in class.

This is where the pairing were to finish the race, although it wasn’t for a lack of trying on Harry’s part as he set the fastest lap of the race in his stint.

While he would’ve loved a double victory, Alex felt proud of the teams efforts throughout the weekend and is still elated with the win in race one.

“I’d never won at Brands Hatch before and having visited the circuit regularly throughout my life, crossing the line at the end of the first race to take the win was very much the realisation of a dream.

“The circuit means so much to me and my family and winning here is a memory that will stick with me for the rest of my life. We’ve shown great pace throughout the weekend and I’m confident that more wins will follow and although we’re sat in third in the class standings I really do think we can make a challenge and put some pressure on the top two now”.

Up next for Alex and the Britcar Trophy grid is the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit on the 16th June.

Images courtesy of Andy Meakin