MINI Challenge JCW Pre Snetterton Tyre Test Report

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 day; I have to pinch myself... However, our focus now is fully committed to continually improving the performance of both my driving and the car, so we can get the results we all deserve.

Tomorrow, we'll be testing the car for the first time at Snetterton on the 300 circuit layout with the remainder of the MINI Challenge JCW field. Our plan originally was to get out in the car before this test, but unfortunately, time got the better of us, with the car wrap being completed only this morning. I've not yet seen it, and the team won't send me a picture, but they've told me, and I quote, "IT LOOKS MEGA!" - so I am very excited to see it.

Tomorrow for Robb, the team and myself, it's all about getting to grips with the car, what it does and how it behaves. Having spent a bit of time around and under the car in the workshop in mid-April, playing around with corner weights and rulers, we feel we've got a 'good' idea of how the car should behave on paper. We need to now translate that information to the circuit and build on what I believe are very, very strong foundations.

Along with the above, we'll also be unveiling the very much anticipated 'part 2 of my announcement'. As you may know, we've revealed the Bradley Gravett, Max Coates and Graves Motorsport MINI Challenge JCW 2021 challenge, but I've yet to unveil my exciting part of the announcement with my partners. I've been creating quite a bit of interest around the part 2 announcement throughout the social media world over the past couple of weeks, so I expect our announcement tomorrow to gain some traction amongst the press.

I've got such a brilliant team around me this year, with a wealth of invaluable knowledge at my disposal from all angles of motorsport; I intend to fully use that knowledge to my advantage absolutely all of the time. Between tomorrow and race one, again at Snetterton on the 11th. 12th and 13th of June, we're planning to get at least 5 test days under my belt to give me the best chance to fully get to grips with the car before the season's official start. But you never know, I might jump in the car tomorrow and be on the pace from lap one; we'll have to see.