Round Three of the 2020 Mini Challenge Cooper Trophy marked a turning point for Alex Nevill, with the Kent based driver achieving his first podium finish of the year.
It promised so much more than that however, with a technical issue affecting his vehicle whilst he lead the second race of the day at Snetterton.
The day began with a qualifying session held in wet but drying conditions which isn’t unusual at the Norfolk circuit.
Naturally this meant a variety of decisions were made up and down the pit lane as to which tyres to fit to the cars, with Alex opting for wet tyres all round.
By the end of the session the circuit was dry enough that it suited cars running on dry “slicks” best, and the best Alex could manage was seventh in the 27 car strong Cooper class entry.
At the beginning of race one, the 2018 Cooper Am champion set about climbing to the front of the pack right away, making his way to fifth position over the first few corners before a technical issue reared its ugly head.
An apparent issue with the ECU on the car saw it cut into “limp home mode,” sporadically, which meant Alex had to restart the car every time the problem occurred.
The issue affected the car on almost every lap of the 15 minute race, which saw Alex’s position fluctuate dramatically as low as 11th and as high as sixth before eventually crossing the line in ninth position.
The top 10 finishers were reversed to set the grid for race two, which saw Alex line up in second place with a shot of redemption after the earlier dramas.
The Motorsport UK Academy squad member looked to capitalise on the opportunity straight away, stealing the lead off of the line at the start and building a 1.3 second lead by the end of the first lap.
It wasn’t to be however, as on lap two the electrical issues from race one slowed his machine once again and dropped Alex back to fourth place.
From here he launched a strong recovery drive, working his way back up to second place and missing out on the win by just 0.440 of a second at the line having also set the fastest lap of the race on the final lap.
Alex’s first podium of the year (and Graves Motorsport’s first in the Mini Challenge) has moved him up one place in the standings to seventh place, and closed the gap to 38 points to the championship leader.
With two rounds left Alex remains a championship contender, and feels their pace over the weekend shows they can still win the title.
He said: “We were one of, if not the fastest in the wet conditions over the weekend and given our last two rounds are in autumnal/winter months I think that shows that we will be contenders for the rest of the year.
“It’s a real shame we weren’t quite able to get the win, but if we keep putting the work in I’m sure our time will come.”
The penultimate round of the Cooper Trophy will take place at Croft on the 10th & 11th October, as a support race to the British Touring Car Championship.
Images courtesy of Jakob Ebrey