Promising outing for the Wera Alliance Racing Academy squadron at Croft
- MARCO ALBERTINI
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
In the penultimate round of the 2026 Mini Challenge Trophy season at Croft, the all-female Wera Alliance Racing Academy quartet showed promising pace in both races, headlined by Liona Theobald and Beanie Reece's excellent performances in Sunday's race two. Lexie Powell also matched her season-best result in the same race, whilst Ellena Reece collected two top-20 finishes.
Liona Theobald and Beanie Reece were the stars of the all-female Wera Alliance Racing Academy's trip to Croft, as both showed great pace to finish just outside of the top ten in race two, with Lexie Powell and Ellena Reece also enjoying a productive weekend.
On track action began on Friday, with the first three practice sessions. Between the three sessions, Theobald and Beanie mostly hung around the top 15, with the former leading the team's charge in FP1 in 15th, while Beanie was the benchmark in the other two sessions. After a difficult round at Donington Park last time out, Powell was a promising 16th-fastest in FP3, whilst Ellena stayed close to the trio in all three sessions.
On Saturday morning, qualifying took place. Beanie was the fastest of the quartet, posting the 14th-best time just ahead of Theobald, while Powell and Ellena were 18th and 21st. While that set the grid for race one, their second-best laps made up the grid for race two, in which Beanie was once again 14th fastest, closely followed by Theobald and Powell, whilst Ellena was 21st.
Later that day, race one took place. At the start, the quartet maintained their positions as the race was immediately neutralised due to a crash for Adam Curtis on the opening lap. Their progress was halted on the restart, when Theobald and Beanie both retired due to a collision, leaving Powell and Ellena to lead the team's charge. The duo fought valiantly in the rest of the 12-lap race, as they finished 17th and 18th on the road to open up the weekend.
Ahead of Sunday's race two, both Reece sisters were given grid penalties, meaning they'd have to start from the back row, while Theobald and Powell lined up 14th and 15th on the grid. At the start, Theobald ran as high as 13th and hung around her starting position in the early stages, while Powell and Beanie took advantage of misfortunes from Josh Selvadorai and Finley Groom to move up to 15th and 16th just after the halfway mark.
With six minutes to go, Leo Richardson and Harry Smith collided at Turn 1, putting both out of the race and forcing the safety car to be deployed. Ultimately, the race was not resumed, thus sealing an 11th-place finish for Theobald, whilst Beanie completed a mighty comeback drive from last to finish 13th. Powell matched her season-best result of 14th, whilst Ellena bounced back from a spin to cross the line 18th.
Only one round remains on the Mini Challenge Trophy calendar, that being at Brands Hatch on 31 October - 1 November. In the overall standings, Theobald continues to lead the team's charge as she sits 14th overall, whilst Powell is two places behind her in 16th, whereas Ellena and Beanie Reece are 18th and 19th respectively.
