Debutant Morgan is the star in Mini Challenge as Whorton-eales wins again

TCR racer Alex Morgan is working on a return to the Mini Challenge JCW Championship after a strong debut in the series at Brands Hatch last weekend.

Morgan, 31, from Bridgend, was a regular in the Renault UK Clio Cup, and was runner-up in the championship in 2013. He then switched focus to European competition, handling SEAT Cupras and TCR cars in the German championship before opting to give Minis a go.

After taking eighth in race one, Morgan was promoted to pole for the reversed-grid second race, and scored a second place in his Excelr8-run car.

“Seeing as it was the DTM weekend and I wanted to give single-make racing a go again it all seemed to come together,” said Morgan. “I’ve not done much racing this year, it’s been mainly testing and the odd TCR outing in Germany and the UK.

“The Mini was great fun to drive, and not dissimilar to the TCR cars, but the braking is very different and I struggled to adapt to that all weekend. I’ll look at the calendar and try to slot another round in.”

Ant Whorton-eales tightened his grip on this year’s JCW title with a brace of wins at Brands to up his lead to 83 points with two rounds remaining. He beat Nathan Harrison and poleman David Robinson in race one before battling past both Rob Smith and Morgan on the brakes into Paddock Hill in race two.