Well, here we are; it's the final round of the British Touring Car Championship and, therefore, the final round of the MINI Challenge JCW series. I can't believe how quickly this year has gone; as I said in my pre-Donington report, it only feels like yesterday we were gearing ourselves up and getting ready for that first round. It's been a crazy year that's just flown by; merry Christmas... well, it's starting to feel that way with what seems to be even earlier than usual Christmas TV Adverts! Anyway, baubles, lights, snow and Wham! aside; It's Brands Hatch GP weekend...

After a tricky race weekend at Knockhill two rounds ago, it was nice to have a strong result at Croft a couple of weeks back. The plan for Donington was to continue building on that momentum from Croft, which I am pleased to say is exactly what we did with solid, milestone progression throughout the weekend. As you already know, Donington is one of my favourite circuits, and because of that, every time I go there, I feel on the front foot, which is a definite advantage for such a high-commitment track. So, we arrived at Donington early Friday morning...

Autumn's an odd but equally a beautiful time of year, just as long as you try and minimise the amount of time you spend walking under conker trees. These should definitely come with a warning sign, as I almost got hit by a falling conker, walking past one the other day, crazy! Anyway, peeling swiftly away from my horticulturist fascinations, it's race week, again, and the penultimate round of the MINI Challenge JCW Championship, which is at Donington Park this coming weekend. I can't believe how quickly this season has gone, it only felt like yesterday we were gearing up...

So at Croft, we seem to have found our rhythm back, which is fantastic! As you already know, I am a big fan of Croft circuit, as it's an absolutely stunning place to race a car. Croft is one of those underrated gems of British motorsport; Because Mr P doesn't own it, I don't think it gets its fair share of credit; although situated high up in North Yorkshire, I'm sure that doesn't help either. But Croft circuit and the local areas have some of the most stunning, quintessentially British scenery and is the reason why I very much enjoy...

So, finally, after a five-week break, we're ready to go back out racing! However, this time, it's at the second furthest circuit away from us, Croft, which is about 6 million miles north of Gravett HQ! To be honest, I don't overly mind a long drive, as long as the traffic's kind and coffee's on tap. Croft; yeah, it's actually a really, really good circuit, and one that I have driven numerous times before; in fact, we actually tested there earlier in the year in the JCW, and that went pretty well until the differential decided to implode on itself,...

So, Knockhill; yep, I can confirm it's a very, very long way away, but I have to say, it's definitely worth the trip. Knockhill Racing Circuit is about 30 minutes north of Edinburgh city. Edinburgh is a place I've never visited before, but it's a place full of culture and character, and somewhere I'd definitely recommend for a long weekend, and somewhere I'll definitely be going back to in the future. We flew into Edinburgh late Thursday afternoon to be there, settled and ready for testing early Friday morning. All week I'd been keeping my eye on my weather app,...

Knockhill is probably one of the most critical test days I'll do all year. As I alluded to in my previous article, Knockhill is not an easy circuit to drive. It has plenty of high-speed blind turn-in points, huge curbs that you need to use and rather large inclines and declines one needs to understand. So, having arrived in a rather wet Scotland late Sunday evening, I'd pretty much accepted that it was going to be a wet test day, and, when we arrived at the circuit the following morning, I was not wrong; it was absolutely throwing it down....

It's like quick-fire MINI Challenge racing at the moment. Because of the delay to the start of the season earlier this year, all the race weekends are being thrown at us thick and fast to try to complete the season on the right side of summer; you know, the summer we're not having! And, because pre-race weekend testing is just such a necessity, it's weekend after weekend of MINI driving at the moment; it's absolutely brilliant! So, Knockhill; yeah, it's another one I've never actually driven, and from what everyone's been telling me, it's one of the highest commitment and...

Oulton Park; I think we can quite definitely call that another headline-worthy event for the MINI Challenge JCWs. Having decided once again to travel up early Friday morning, we arrived at the circuit around 9 am; it worked out pretty well as our first session wasn't until around midday, so we had more than enough time to get everything sorted out. We pretty much picked up from where we left off with setup from our previous Oulton Park test day a couple of weeks back when I liked it most, although we did make an additional damping change to the...

Yep, these race weekends are starting to hit us thick and fast now, with Brands Hatch only a couple of weeks back, Oulton Park this weekend, and Knockhill only two weeks from now. But, there's only one thing I am thinking about right now: Oulton Park. As I have said many times before, Oulton Park is one of my favourite tracks, not only because it's just a fantastic and challenging circuit to drive, but because it's actually just a beautiful place to visit, not just the track but the surrounding areas too; they must pay their greenkeepers a fair wage;...

Oulton Park, well, I have to say that overall, we're all very pleased with how it went and what we learned. As you know, we were very much treating this day as a true 'test day' to allow us the opportunity to make some dramatic setup adjustments to the car to see what it does, and that's precisely what we did, and we learnt some interesting things along the way. Despite Oulton Park being around a 3-hour drive, we decided that we didn't fancy a night in a Travel Lodge on the Thursday night and concluded that driving up at...

Just a quick one from me to let you know that we're back out in the MINI tomorrow at Oulton Park to bag in a test day pre our race weekend later this month. Oulton Park is a circuit I know and like, very much, and actually in the past have been pretty quick at, as last year in the Cooper, on my first MINI Challenge race weekend, in very tricky conditions, I managed to qualify eighth. But, despite that, with the long break between Brands Hatch last time out and Oulton Park in a couple of weeks, we felt...