The fun never ends in Rallycross!

Representing at Coventry Motofest

Rallycross supposedly has a bit of a quiet season during the summer months - not that you'd have noticed in June and July! 

As I said in my previous post, at the start of June we headed to Coventry city centre for the Coventry Motofest. This was, as in 2015, an amazing event. The city's infamous ring road is closed down and turned into a sprint style circuit for the weekend along with static shows throughout the city centre. We took both our classic and BMW Minis for the BTRDA Rallycross Championship static stand and runs on the ring road, which turned out to be a very useful testing session for both cars as electrical niggles were discovered in both.

We went from Coventry, straight to Blyton Park for the Minis and Modifieds Show and Sprint. Midweek checks of the classic Mini showed a worrying split in the lower front bulkhead, which although only small, meant we had to take the engine and front subframe out of the car, ruling the classic out of the weekend. 

Sprinting at Blyton

We were, however, able to take the Supernational class MINI to Blyton to compete in the rallycross car class in the sprint, where we took a pair of victories over the two days. The sprint was completely different to the rallycross I'm used to, it allowed me to focus on picking my braking points and extracting the absolute maximum out of the car, something not usually possible in rallycross due to the ever changing bumps and ruts on the loose sections.

Heat 1 at Pembrey

At the beginning of July, we were finally able to get back to rallycross at my favourite circuit, Pembrey, with the BTRDA Rallycross Championship. Unlike when we were there for the British Championship, there was bright sunshine throughout the whole weekend so I was able to finally really stretch the legs of the Turbo Mini in a Rallycross format. 

The weekend started incredibly well, a poor start in heat 1, lead to me battling my way through the pack to take the win. Two 2nd place results, behind the MK2 Escort Zackspeed of Tommy Graham, in the second and third heats gave me a 2nd place start in the final.

Air intake modifications

Unfortunately, while battling in the final, the car developed an overheating problem - something we hadn't previously encountered. Ultimately we could only achieve a 6th place result on the Saturday. 

The Sunday followed in similar fashion, with top 2 results in all but one of the heats leaving me with 2nd place on the grid for the final. This time, overnight work to get more airflow through the front of the car had relieved us of our overheating issues and despite a poor start, a hard fought race brought me 2nd overall, again behind Tommy Graham. These results took me up into the lead of the all important Star of the Future standings, for all drivers 21 or under.

Classic Mini action in Belgium

The most recent Mini Adventures have been the annual Classic Minicross trip to Holland and Belgium, this year in its 25th consecutive running. The Minicross Drivers Association runs 'demonstration' races at both Eurocircuit Valkenswaard and Duivelsberg Circuit Maasmechelen, while taking the opportunity to have a holiday in the week between the two.  

Although technically a demonstration, the racing always has its fair share of thrills and spills, with Tommy Edwardes rolling his Mini completely on the first weekend, followed by yours truly half rolling on the second weekend in a near identical incident! Both weekends were won by the ever consistent George Edwardes in his repainted 459. 

We now have a fairly long summer break until Lydden Hill on August Bank Holiday Monday, where I'll be out in the turbocharged Supernational MINI as part of the British Championship. It's always one of the biggest rounds of the year, and I cant wait!