Even with a cloudy sky above, the North Yorkshire countryside surrounding the 2.1-mile Croft Circuit would see further progress being made by Silverstone UTC student and MINI Challenge Trophy driver Louie Capozzoli.

The LDR Performance Tuning racer has impressed on his début season in cars, having moved up from racing in karting. In qualifying, the top 16 drivers were covered by 0.907 seconds, but Louie would make an instant impact early on in the session to take provisional pole with his fourth lap in the 15-minute session.

He would end up remaining in fourth for Round 10, posting a 1:40.817, a mere 0.122 seconds behind pole sitter and fellow rookie competitor Lewis Saunders in the #298.

He would then go on to put on a strong drive to cross the line first after 11 laps of racing in Round 10, battling hard with the rest of the competition, making his way into first on lap 6.

He also ended up taking the fastest lap of the race, earning a further six points in the process. However, Louie would be demoted down to eighth, after receiving a five-second time penalty post-race for an in-race incident.

Round 11 would see a welcome fightback from the #199 from eighth on the grid, as he would make his way up to fifth by the end of the first lap, before even running as high as fourth until lap eight. This included battles with Saunders, the #27 of Alfie Glenie and #77 of Alex Jay amongst others.

This would give Louie a total of 66 points after both races going towards his tally, which puts him fifth on 290 points overall, which also sees him move up to third in the Rookie class.

“I’m a bit disappointed after what happened after the first race, where I made my way up to first and took the flag first before receiving the penalty. I know that gives me a big positive sign that I am capable of winning races, but at the moment, luck hasn’t been on my side,” admitted the LDR Performance Tuning driver, who was denied a maiden win at this point in the year.

“Even with that, to still have a good haul of points means I still am in contention when we head back to Thruxton. I’m hoping for a better turnaround at the circuit, unlike what happened earlier this year.”

The 2021 Quaife MINI Challenge UK Trophy season will now make a return to Thruxton in just three weeks’ time on August 28th and 29th, where it will be part of the TOCA support package for this year’s Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship.