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2018 Mini Challenge - Round 1
2018 has seen a switch for us back to our beloved Mini, this time with the Excelr8 race team. With our new team we are hoping for big things this year. Our first race meeting of the season at Oulton Park is spread over the Easter weekend, qualifying on Saturday, then both races on the Easter Monday. This year a massive 30 beautifully prepared Mini JCW race cars make this years championship the most competitive its ever been.
The weather held off for qualifying and 30 JCW Minis took to the track, 20 minutes was never going to be enough time and it wasn't long before a yellow flag became a red and the session stopped. With only enough time for two laps it was tough to find the space to try for a decent time, Luke managed this well and qualified a superb 6th for race 1.
Two days later on a very wet Easter Monday we were told the race was to start behind the safety car, this went on for three laps, then on lap 4 they were racing, Luke held 6th comfortably, but it was not long before our teammate in front of us made a slight mistake and left enough room for Luke to slip through into 5th. The shortened race only had a couple of laps left and Luke held position to finish a fantastic 5th on the road. 4th place being Paul O'Neil, a guest driver who wouldn't score points meant Luke was 4th in the Championship. This took another twist when the winner was given a 30sec penalty and put back to 18th (seemed very unfair to me) and moved us to 3rd in the Championship.
Race 2 - The team made some adjustments to our car to dial out some of the issues Luke had in race 1. The reversed top 8 cars put us in 5th on the grid for race 2. This was looking great for us until the weather finally beat the officials into cancelling what was left of the day and robbing us of our 2nd race.
Race 2 - The team made some adjustments to our car to dial out some of the issues Luke had in race 1. The reversed top 8 cars put us in 5th on the grid for race 2. This was looking great for us until the weather finally beat the officials into cancelling what was left of the day and robbing us of our 2nd race.
Our next meeting is at Rockingham at the end of this month the 28th and 29th. It can't come soon enough, a huge thanks to our team and of course our sponsors and friends. Its been a fantastic start, and there's a lot more to come yet.
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