So round one of the MINI Challenge JCW Championship went remarkably well for us, which is nice considering we were dealt our fair share of bad luck by this point last year in the Cooper class. As you already know, over the testing season, the team has been trying to sort out an ongoing boosting issue with my car that was found and sorted mid-last week, just in time for round one. As I have already said before, it's great this issue was rectified in time for the first round; however, having the problem during the testing season was not...

So, it's finally the first round for the MINI Challenge at Snetterton; actually, I believe it's rounds 1, 2 and 3, I think, but I like to call it round 1; it makes things easier. So, first of all, and most importantly, the car's boosting issue has now been sorted. It's been quite a stressful couple of weeks for the team to find and sort out this issue on the car, but I am pleased to tell you that they have. As you know from my previous emails, the car wasn't picking up its boost pressure correctly, which meant I...

Well, that was one interesting and very busy tyre test, shakedown, test day, and media day all blurred into one! Like with any new racing car, there's always going to be day one, the first time you drive the car, and there's always great anticipation of how both the driver (myself) and the car is going to perform. The biggest takeaway I learnt from the day; the absolute importance of a pre-test setup. As I said in my previous article, dad, myself and the team in mid-April spent a whole day around the car just getting our heads around dynamically...

Wow, it feels like an absolute age since I last drove a racing car; in fact, it will be exactly 156 days and 17 hours, not that anybody's counting... okay, maybe I've been counting a little, but hey, what's wrong with that?! With that aside, it's been one hectic journey for team Gravett over the past six months to get to where we are now, finally, about to get into a MINI John Cooper Works racing car, and wow, are we all excited. We've all been working incredibly hard on my racing programme to 'make this happen', and still, every...