Bradley Gravett showed why he is amongst the favourites for honours in the 2023 Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE with his most competitive showing in the series to date at Donington Park. Heading into his third season in the headline JCW category and his first full year with multiple champions EXCELR8 Motorsport, Bradley made the trip to the East Midlands eager to impress at a circuit where he had scored his best result in the series to date twelve months earlier. Sporting a stunning new livery on his car as a result of a major new sponsorship deal with ThinkingitBetter and...

Bradley Gravett and Gravett Racing are gearing up for a thrilling weekend of racing as the 2023 British Touring Car Championship and the MINI Challenge JCW championship kick off at Donington Park this weekend. The team is excited to announce that Bradley Gravett, son of former BTCC Champion Robb Gravett, will continue to race with EXCELR8 Motorsport for his third consecutive year in the JCW series. Bradley has been working hard over the winter months to prepare for the season ahead. He has focused on his physical and mental fitness, simulator training and commercial partnerships. Bradley is ready to hit...

So, yeah, that's it, the season's out, and I literally don't understand how quickly this year has raced by! I mean, and I know I've said this many times in the past, but Donington, round one of the championship back in April, felt like last week. But that aside, let's talk about Brands Hatch, the final round of the BTCC, which of course, is not only the championship-deciding weekend for the Touring Cars, but is also the grand finale for the MINI Challenge JCW Series, held on the world-famous GP circuit layout. For many reasons, the Brands Hatch GP race...

So Brands Hatch GP, the final round of the year is here, and well, I say this every season, but I just can't believe how quickly this year's flown by; I mean, it literally feels like last week we were gearing up for round one at Donington, and now it's almost all over, crazy! So as you know, Silverstone, last time out, wasn't our best of performances, I mean EXCELR8 Motorsport gave me an unbelievably fantastic car to drive from a chassis perspective, the best I've ever experienced in fact, but by the end of that weekend, I'd identified that...

So Silverstone happened, and wow, what an experience that was! Okay, I've got to get this off my chest first; no, we didn't quite have the weekend of results we'd expected or anticipated to have, which wasn't ideal, and I'll get into that later, but just wow, to how EXCELR8 Motorsport run their team, in four words; "Nothing even comes close!" Yep, the results, hmm, yes, they were not at all what we'd expected to get. But, ultimately, I was hindered by minor mechanical teething issues that collectively added up, which in any 'normal' season would have been ironed out...

Being back at the home of British Formula 1, Silverstone is always such a great pleasure whether I am driving it or not; I always love visiting the track. Unlike any other circuit on the BTCC calendar, Silverstone has something other tracks simply don't offer, it's just different and has this unique feel of being cleaner, newer, bigger, and better than the rest, no offence other tracks, I like you all too, but for different reasons! I think it's most likely the vast amount of money being ploughed into the venue each year so the track can support the high...

So yeah, here we are, race week of the championship's penultimate round, and to be honest, and I know I've said this kind of thing many times before, but wow, has this season really flown past. In light of our new EXCELR8 Motorsport team switch, these past weeks have been a little different to how race week build-up would usually be, and, spoiler alert, EXCELR8 have worked incredibly hard to prepare my race car ready for Silverstone this weekend. Upon receiving my race car from our old team, EXCELR8 wasted no time in tearing it apart, and when I say...

So Snetterton, round 5 of the QUAIFE MINI Challenge JCW series just happened, and as you know from my pre-race weekend report, was a weekend of anticipated podium finishes. However, this anticipation quickly faded as the weekend unfolded and was replaced with disappointment and dissatisfaction caused by a plethora of mechanical complications the team encountered with my race car, ultimately hindering my ability to perform. Without getting into too much detail on the negatives of my weekend, to summarise Snetterton; we had very little running in Friday practice due to a fueling issue in FP1 and a tyre-related problem in...

So yeah, I blinked, and just like that, I realised it's race week again, and wow, what a feeling that is! So as far as MINI Challenge JCW racing goes this year, I believe the Knockhill to Snetterton turnaround is one of the shortest of all season, or at least it's the shortest we've had so far. With just a ten-ish day turnaround window between the last time out at Knockhill and this weekend at Snetterton, many teams in the paddock feel the pinch regarding race car prep time. I know that with the seven-car strong team we're in, it's...

So Knockhill, round 4 of the 2022 Quaife MINI Challenge UK JCW Championship is now complete, and over the weekend, I think I clocked just shy of 1100 miles, which is the most I've ever driven in a single weekend, and that's not including the racing miles too, but, the fortunate thing is, I like driving, so we're all good! :) Being an eight-ish hour drive, with a couple of planned pit stops on the way, we decided to make our way up to Scotland early Thursday morning, so we could arrive at our hotel, check in and still have...

So, that's the BTCC summer break over, and by the time we get to our Knockhill race weekend this coming weekend, that'll have been a total of 7 weeks away from the track; it's flown by! Albeit my third full season of car racing, this is the first summer break I've ever had because my last two racing seasons have been during the pandemic, thus causing a very compacted calendar, leaving no time for any big breaks. Having a little time away from the track has been great; it's not only allowed me the opportunity to catch up on a...

So Oulton Park, as you know, it just happened, and wow, did we have another blinding weekend of MINI Challenge racing. Having now fully recovered from the frustrations of our DNF in the final race of the weekend at Brands Hatch a couple of weeks back, I went into Oulton Park with precisely the same positivity as I did at the start of the previous two rounds and boy, did it pay dividends. As Oulton Park is around 180 miles away, we decided early last week that it would be best to get ourselves up and into the Oulton Park,...