MATT LUFF WINS PEMBREY FINALE AFTER LAST LAP DRAMA

Matt Luff emerged victorious from the final Mairon Motorsport MINI CHALLENGE Trophy race of the weekend at Pembrey after a dramatic final lap turned the result on its head.

Luff had lined up on pole position for the race after topping the times in qualifying on Saturday, with the Graves Motorsport man making the best start when the lights went out to lead the way down to the hairpin for the first time.

Behind, fellow front-row starter Josh Wilby was slow away from the line which allowed Alex Keens to jump up into second spot, with Luca Marinoni Osborne fourth and Ashley Gregory rocketed up into fifth having gained three spots.

Luff led the early laps as the front four started to break away from Gregory, with Wilby grabbing second on lap three at Hatches only to then run wide coming out of the final corner on the following lap – which saw him drop back down to fourth behind Keens and Marinoni Osborne.

Luff’s lead lasted until the fifth lap when he left the door sightly open for Keens to make a bid for the lead going through the right-hander at Brooklands.

However, his move for the lead meant the Graves Motorsport duo lost momentum on the exit of the corner which allowed Marinoni Osborne to get a run down the inside of the going through the Kink to grab the lead.

Having got back ahead of Keens into second, Luff attempted to regain the lead only to run wide out of the Esses having gone side-by-side with Marinoni Osborne through turns two and three, leaving Keens and Wilby to run in second and third behind Marinoni Osborne’s Westbourne Motorsport-run car.

Heading into the final lap, Marinoni Osborne held the lead running down to the hairpin but Wilby suddenly launched his car down the inside of Keens in a bid to overhaul both of the drivers ahead.

Contact with the rear of Marinoni Osborne’s car saw the leader tipped into a spin and also delayed Keens, which allowed Luff to suddenly emerge from the corner at the front of the field as he headed the final lap to take the win.

“I led at the start and then ended up back in fourth which was frustrating at the time but I felt we could still get a podium,” he said. “I saw Wilby make a lunge into turn one and it just opened up for me. It’s a shame it ended that way but it’s also nice to come way from it with the win.”

Keens would emerge from the final lap in second spot as Graves Motorsport once again scored a 1-2 finish, with Marinoni Osborne taking third despite his car sustaining both suspension damage and a rear puncture following the contact.

“It’s a bit of a heartbreaker to lead for so long and lose it like that,” he said. “Hopefully it doesn’t hurt our championship too much but the pace was there all weekend – the result just doesn’t show it.

“The car felt really dodgy at the rear and luckily we managed to bring it home to at least salvage a podium.”

Wilby would cross the line in fourth spot only to be hit with a five place penalty for the final lap incident, which dropped him down the order and should have promoted Henry Foote up into fourth.

Foote however was also handed a penalty after the race for contact with Ashley Gregory that damaged her steering and forced the EXCELR8 driver to pull off and retire from the race, which instead meant Josh Selvadorai wrapped up a strong weekend with fourth spot ahead of fellow rookies Chris Doble and Leo Richardson.

Harry Smith moved up into seventh spot ahead of the penalised Wilby, with the top ten then being completed by Isaac Doble and Richard Jepp.