Mini Festival - Snetterton, Oulton Park & Brands Hatch

11:29

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Motorsport

The love:mini sponsored Mini Festivals are back for 2018!

After a fantastic summer in 2017 another three amazing events have been lined up this year, starting with the Snetterton Mini Festival on May 12/13. 

As the weather hots up, the beautiful Cheshire circuit of Oulton Park will host the next Mini Festival on Saturday July 21.

http://www.mini-festival.co.uk/

And the climax of another sizzling summer will come to a head at the home of British motorsport, Brands Hatch on August Bank Holiday 25-26.

There is something for all Mini fans, whether it be the high octane racing, including the Mini Se7ens and MINI Challenge, or the huge array of Minis and other enthusiasts bringing together the Mini spirit. Entertainment and a funfair will keep the whole family happy too.

2018 also sees the return of the love:mini awards. Last year's successful start has been refined and Mini owners attending will all be in with a chance of winning a trophy!

http://www.mini-festival.co.uk/

 

For Brands Hatch only there will also be a Concours event, which owners need to specifically book in to when buying their event tickets.

If last year is anything to go by, it's going to be a fantastic summer... these events just keep getting better and better!

See you there. 

http://www.mini-festival.co.uk/

 

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MINI Challenge returns for 2018

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Motorsport

MINI UK is proud to announce the return of MINI CHALLENGE for 2018, bringing packed grids and spectacular racing to fans across the country.

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19:26

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Motorsport

The latest issue of the Mini Se7en Racing Club Newsletter is now available to download for free.

There's the latest race reports plus a preview to this weekend's racing at Oulton Park Mini Festival.

Plus find out the history of the Mini Se7en Club over the past half century with our Archive articles.

Download it or read it online for free


DOWNLOAD

READ ONLINE

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Baja Aragon: Two MINI on the podium

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X-Raid MINI ALL4

2017 SWR: Both MINI John Cooper Works Rally vehicles in the top 10

--   Menzies and Al-Rajhi ninth and tenth
--   14th and final stage cancelled

The Silk Way Rally began and ended for the X-raid Team with a major dose of bad luck. Yazeed Al-Rajhi (KSA) and Tom Colsoul (BEL) lost a lot of time on day two, thus dropping out of the contention for the top positions. For Bryce Menzies and Pete Mortensen (both USA), nearly the entire rally went very well and they were fighting for a position on the podium. On the penultimate day, however, they got stuck on a dune and lost many positions. Due to the adverse weather conditions, the organisers cancelled the final special stage. Consequently, with 13 stages contested, Menzies / Mortensen and their MINI John Cooper Works Rally secured ninth place and Al-Rajhi / Colsoul finished right behind them in 10th. Today, the competitors will only roll over the finish podium in Xi’an.

Menzies and Mortensen were able to match the pace of the front runners right from the start. On day seven, the pairing in the MINI John Cooper Works Rally even won the stage and seemed to be on the way to certainly secure a podium. The US-Americans temporarily held second position in the overall standings but the penultimate stage made an end to their dreams: with about 30 more kilometres to go, they got stuck on a dune. “We hit the ground with the centre of the car and the car-jacks just disappeared in the sand,” Menzies revealed. “We had to dig for nearly three hours until we got going again. A real pity as we were on the way to making it to the podium. But that’s racing and this kind of things can happen in the dunes. We have learned a lot in the past days.”

Taking a look at every stage for its own, the 2017 Silk Way Rally was a successful event for Al-Rajhi and Colsoul. But the pairing slipped into a deep hole on day two and needed two hours to get out of it. And to make things even worse, they received a two-hour time penalty for having exceeded the allowed maximum time for the special stage. Due to this incident the MINI John Cooper Works Rally pairing dropped back to the end of the field but on the following days they worked their way back up step by step. In the penultimate stage, however, they also got stuck in the soft sand. “The car hit the ground at once and the hydraulic car-jacks also got lost in the sand,” says Al-Rajhi. “We had to wait for 45 minutes until a truck came to tow us out. Our bad luck in the early stages that cost us our chance of securing a podium was really annoying. But I could keep on gathering experience and I’m happy that we made it to the top 10, in the end.”

On Friday, the Baja Aragon in Spain was started simultaneously to the end of the Silk Way Rally. There, the Trebur based team also is represented by two MINI John Cooper Works Rally pairings – Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) / Andreas Schulz (GER) and Jakub Przygonski (POL) / Xavier Panseri (FRA) – and Orlando Terranova (ARG) / Paulo Fiúza (POR) with a MINI ALL4 Racing. On Friday evening, the Baja was kicked off with a nine-kilometre special stage (Click here for live timing).


Overall standings after stage 14:
1. C. Despres (FRA) / D. Castera (FRA) Peugeot – 41h 46m 25s
2. C. Lavieille (FRA) / J.-P. Garcin (FRA) Baicmotor – 42h 51m 04s
3. W. Han (CHN) / L. Min (CHN) SMG Buggy – 42h 57m 54s
4. E. Amos (ITA) / S. Denaunay (FRA) Ford – 43h 58m 37s
5. S. Peterhansel (FRA) / J.-P. Cottret (FRA) Peugeot – 44h 23m 52s
…
9. B. Menzies (USA) / P. Mortensen (USA) MINI John Cooper Works Rally – 45h 52m 15s
10. Y. Al-Rajhi (KSA) / T. Colsoul (BEL) MINI John Cooper Works Rally – 47h 15m 44s




 On Sunday, one day after the finish of the Silk Way Rally, the Baja Aragon competitors also rolled over their finish podium. All three MINI that contested the event made it to the top 10, with two of them even securing a podium. Orlando Terranova (ARG) / Paulo Fiúza (POR) took their MINI ALL4 Racing to second place, right ahead of Mikko Hirvonen (FIN) / Andreas Schulz (GER) in their MINI John Cooper Works Rally. Jakub Przygonski (POL) / Xavier Panseri (FRA) in the second MINI John Cooper Works Rally finished sixth.

On Saturday morning, in the second special stage, Terranova took the overall lead but in the afternoon, his team-mate Hirvonen passed him for the lead – only to be defeated by Nasser Al-Attiyah in the final stage. “It was a tough battle right from the start,” explained Terranova. “The car was just great. Contesting the Baja one again was big fun and even more so as so many spectators lined the route. On Sunday, however, we unfortunately weren’t fast enough.”

For Hirvonen, it was the first event he contested together with his new navigator Andreas Schulz. On Sunday, he wasn’t able to defend his lead and had to settle for finishing third. “Being first on the road wasn’t that easy,” revealed the Fin. “Of course, it’s a bit of disappointing to finish third in the end. On the other hand, my first rally with Andi ran really well and I can say that we have begun our preparations for the Dakar.” Meanwhile, Przygonski had a lot of bad luck, on the final day: gearbox problems and a puncture cost the young Pole a lot of time and he consequently finished sixth.

The next round on the FIA Cross Country Rally World Cup calendar is the Hungarian Baja, held from 10th to 13th August in Hungary.


Overall Result after Stage 4:
1. N. Al-Attiyah (QAT) / M. Baumel (MCO) Toyota – 6h 40m 20s
2. O. Terranova (ARG) / P. Fiúza (POR) MINI ALL4 Racing – 6h 42m 55s
3. M. Hirvonen (FIN) / A. Schulz (GER) MINI John Cooper Works Rally – 6h 43m 26s
4. N. Roma (ESP) / A. Haro (ESP) Toyota – 6h 48m 43s
5. L. Poulter (ZAF) / D. von Zitzewitz (GER) Toyota – 6h 55m 05s
6. J. Przygonski (POL) / X. Panseri (FRA) MINI John Cooper Works Rally – 6h 57m 25s

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MINI CHALLENGE: Open Class Report

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Race Report

WORDS: MINI CHALLENGE     PHOTOS: David Young

Race 1 
Saturday PM Weather: Bright/Dry Duration 15 minutes

All assembled and ready to go, a small but quality grid. Ben Dimmack is always fast out of the blocks and is usually followed by Rob Austin and Aaron Reeve. Aaron’s car is now working well and he has been on the pace for the last 2 meetings. As his team are managing 9 cars this weekend it is a surprise that he finds time to race! A great race to watch with Ben Dimmack way out in front, with new tyres. At the chequered flag, his gap had been pulled down to 0.55 seconds with Ben slowing down to preserve his tyres.Rob was having a great battle with Aaron for the whole race. P1, P2 and P3 are how these 3 started and is also how they finished. Tim Bill was looking strong and stayed in contention for a podium throughout the whole race, he was slow off the grid allowing Kevin Owen to snatch 3rd, Tim overtook him halfway through the 2nd lap and stayed in P4 for the rest of the race. Chloe Hewitt had a great race with Neil Ginley and Andy Montgomery, Chloe getting the better of Neil but could not get passed Andy. So it looked great with 2 races going on at the same time. The 15 minutes passed and the chequered flag waved and they finished as:

Race 1 Results:
P1 Ben Dimmack
P2: Rob Austin
P3: Aaron Reeve

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MINI CHALLENGE: Cooper Pro/AM Class

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Race Report

WORDS: MINI CHALLENGE     PHOTOS: David Young

Race 1           
Saturday PM           Weather: Cloudy/Dry      Duration: 15 minutes

Sam Weller made a great getaway and just left the rest of the field in the dust. His lead just grew and grew. Matt Hammond was quick but he had Owen Walton and Jessica Hawkins to worry about. Halfway through the race, Sam seemed to slow but more importantly for Matt, his car just came alive, quickest lap after quickest lap 57.607 in a MINI Cooper! Matt passed Sam with ease but Sam stayed with him. Owen Walton and Jessica Hawkins had a great race but Jessica could not overtake. She dropped a few places then came back eventually finishing in P4. In the Am Class, Stuart McLaren got P1 as predicted as well as fasted lap. A big surprise was for Chris Day with a P2 on his first time out, Chris Middleton had to settle for P3 So a win for Matt Hammond and Stuart McLaren.

Race 1 Results:

Pro:
P1: Matt Hammond
P2: Sam Weller
P3: Owen Walton

Am:
P1: Stuart McLaren
P2: Chris Day
P3: Chris Middleton

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MINI CHALLENGE: Brands Hatch JCW Reports

08:00

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Race Report

WORDS: MINI CHALLENGE     PHOTOS: David Young

RACE 1
Rob Smith withheld intense pressure to secure his first MINI CHALLENGE JCW Championship victory since 2015 in the first race at Brands Hatch. The MINI UK VIP driver produced a superb defensive display to score a lights-to-flag win and keep championship leader Brett Smith at bay. Rob, who scored his second pole position of the year in the morning, made a rapid getaway but was pursued by Brett throughout, taking the flag just 0.193s ahead.

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Mintex’s racing scholarship gives promising drivers the green light

08:00

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Motorsport

Premium aftermarket brake brand, Mintex, has developed and launched the Mintex Race Star Scholarship, to support drivers entering the MINI Challenge Championship.

The initiative has been developed to assist talented drivers with the cost of entering the JCW class, which currently stands at £7,950 plus VAT per season. Mintex has partnered with the MINI Challenge to offer sponsorship to motor sportspeople who show incredible potential but are unable to justify or afford the costs.

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