James Higgins made it two podiums in as many events in the McLaren Trophy Europe this past weekend (June 26-27) as he and team-mate Edgar Pierre claimed a second place finish at Spa-Francorchamps.
Hot on the heels of clinching silverware on his debut in the single-make championship at Monza just a few weeks ago, the CSA Racing driver continued his scintillating start to the season by going oh-so close to victory in Belgium.
Taking centre stage on the support bill of the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, Higgins and Pierre quickly got to work during practice as they dialled in their McLaren Arturo Trophy EVO car around the 4.352-mile Ardennes circuit.
Edgar remained behind the wheel for the opening stint of the contest too, and the Frenchman demonstrated his prowess behind the wheel to progress up the order, before handing over the reigns to Higgins with them sitting second overall.
Quickly finding his groove, Higgins – who is backed Autoglym, a leading British manufacturer of premium car care products – soon became the driver to watch as he punched in a string of rapid laps to close the gap to the outright leader.
Moving to within striking distance of first place, the chequered flag unfortunately came a handful of laps too early for the Surrey-based rising star – as had he had a lap or two more, the win could well have been his and Pierre’s.
Buoyed by their podium performance in race one, Higgins then produced a valiant performance in qualifying for race two as he had to contended with overheating issues on his way to securing fourth on the grid.
The multiple single-seater race winner closed out his weekend at the world-famous venue with a measured drive, before handing over to Pierre who brought the car home inside the top-five.
James Higgins: “It’s been another great weekend for myself, Edgar and the CSA team. Coming into the weekend I’d had a few opportunities to drive around Spa and that really helped as it meant I was able to hit the ground running.
“We moved the car into a good operating window in practice and then Edgar produced not only a great lap in qualifying, but also a fantastic opening stint. Him getting us up to second place allowed me to go and attack for the win, we just didn’t have enough laps in hand to get it done.
“To bank more valuable points in race two was a great way to close out the weekend. Two podiums from two events is a great start to the year and given that we’re still learning and developing, I’m excited to see what’s still to come.”
The 2026 McLaren Trophy Europe season continues on July 17-19 at Misano in Italy.
