What a brilliant bank holiday weekend! I believe I clocked something like 31°C in my car on Monday, which was absolutely fantastic! As you know, Friday last week, we were out testing at Brands Hatch on the Indy layout (the shorter circuit), and this was an official 'test day' and not a track day, with the difference being overtaking and timing being allowed. Also, you generally don't have a bunch of track day worriers getting in your way in their Subarus, as everyone on the circuit must be in a race-prepared car with a full racing licence. So test days...

So, Croft; well, as you already know, Croft is a circuit I like, I am still unsure why drivers prefer some circuits over others, but Croft is definitely on my tick list. With the troubles we had at Snetterton in mind, our focus for our day at Croft was for me to get to grips with the car and just put the laps in; wet or dry, it didn't matter. Because we were so down on power at the Snetterton test a couple of weeks back, I haven't really driven this car yet as the power increase (to the correct...

As always, and with the start of the season getting ever closer, it's been a pretty hectic couple of weeks for team Gravett. Since Snetterton, we've been very busy getting everything sorted and ready for the Croft test tomorrow, which by the way, is further away than the moon, or it seems that way at least! So, after the Snetterton tyre test, despite being super happy with the amount I learnt about the car, I wasn't overly satisfied with the amount of power the car felt like it had. But with a minimal amount of time in the car, 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...

Well, that's the MINI Challenge 2020 season complete for another year, and wow, did we end it on a high. Everyone I had spoken to about Donington all said how much of a fantastic circuit it is, but without driving it, I wasn't to know... within half a lap, I knew exactly what they meant. That feeling you get when going through the Craner Curves is like nothing I've experienced before; Donington is a very tricky, unforgiving circuit that, simply put, requires commitment. It's challenging to get right, especially in a low-powered car with its undulating inclines and declines, but...

I hope you've enjoyed the second lockdown as much as we have... not..! Well let's be honest, it didn't feel much like the first; however, it seems to have done enough to convince the government we can all go racing again, happy days. :) So, this round was actually scheduled for the start of November, but obviously, the second lockdown pushed it back to this coming weekend. If I am completely honest, I didn't think this round was going to go ahead, or at least this side of the new year. In fact, I am actually quite surprised the meeting...

Well, that's another eventful MINI Challenge weekend done and dusted. After driving to what felt like the moon and back Thursday evening, we finally arrived at Croft, the Monty Carlo of British motorsport, delivering all the glitz and glam UK motorsport offers; muddy field parking, sideways rain and wet feet. :) As you know, Croft is a circuit I've never driven, and like with all circuits I've never driven, I do like to get a track walk in pre-testing. Fortunately, track walks were being allowed Thursday evening, and with the dying light, we just about managed to get one in....

I can't believe we're about to start the penultimate round of my first session of racing in the MINI Challenge, it really is driving by, and it only felt like yesterday we were gearing up and getting ready for the first round at Oulton Park; as always I just wanted to send you a quick update of what we've been up to since Snetterton. As you already know; I really didn't have a great weekend of racing at Snetterton last time out and was having terrible trouble with the car. We knew pretty quickly after a thorough debrief with dad...

Snetterton, or as I call it, 'Wet'terton… After arriving at a rather cold but sunny Snetterton Thursday morning, I was optimistic that the weather might hold up for the weekend, even though I had been spending the past week glued to the weather app on my phone looking to see if the 100% chance of rain would change… Unfortunately, I think I was being optimistic, to say the least, as these were some of the wettest conditions I have ever driven in, making the damage we thought we didn't have from Thruxton clearly evident. Regardless of the weather, I had...

These MINI races are coming thick and fast, and, if I told you I haven't been feeling like Michael Caine from your favourite Mini film then I'd be lying… although we've not yet blown any doors off, just dented them :) With only four days downtime between Thruxton last weekend and Snetterton this weekend it has been quite a challenge for the team to turn the cars back around and get ready for this Friday's testing. Unfortunately because of how manic the races were at Thruxton, all three cars have had numerous replacement parts fitted. Most of which are suspension...

Well, that was an exciting weekend… The number one takeaway: the drivers in the Mini Challenge may be slightly crazy but do deliver some fantastically close and exciting racing. Pretty quickly after driving Thruxton in the first test session both myself and my teammate realised we were not going to be able to pull a good time unless we worked together to break the wind resistance and create a slipstream. After test session one had finished, my teammate and I sat down and devised a plan of what we were going to do in the second session. In the 45...