Bradley Gravett will look to fight back in round three of the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE season at Snetterton after enduring one of his toughest weekends in the series at Brands Hatch. Bradley went into the weekend looking to maintain his position inside the top six in the championship standings, having scored a best finish of fifth during the opening meeting at Donington Park - where he also posted the fastest lap of the weekend. The weekend started in positive fashion for Bradley when he set the third quickest time during Friday testing at the wheel of his EXCELR8 Motorsport-run car,...

Bradley Gravett enjoyed the best weekend of his racing career to date with a breakthrough podium finish as the Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE headed to Brands Hatch for the second round of the campaign. Bradley headed to his home circuit keen to build on the pace he had displayed in the opening meeting of the campaign at Donington Park two weeks earlier, where he had looked well-placed for a top-three finish before an unfortunate technical failure robbed him of potential silverware. Eager to make up ground in the standings, Bradley's weekend started in positive fashion as he ran comfortably inside...

EXCELR8 Motorsport BTCC Development driver Bradley Gravett is feeling optimistic ahead of the upcoming Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE race weekend at Brands Hatch Indy. After a highly competitive showing at Donington Park, where he showcased his front-running pace and set a new personal best in qualifying, Bradley is eager to build on his momentum and fight for podium finishes at the sharp end of the field this weekend. Reflecting on his performance at Donington Park, Bradley said, "Although I was disappointed with the results on paper for the weekend, there are a huge amount of positives to take away from...

So round 2 at Brands Hatch Indy of the Quaife MINI Challenge UK JCW series is complete, and what a rollercoaster of highs, lows and everything in between it was, not just for me but for everyone. Unlike Donington last month, Brands Hatch works to a regular timetable, and by this, I mean Friday testing is actually on Friday and not on Thursday like it was at Donington. It's far nicer to have the race weekend actually as a weekend without a day's break in the middle, although, to be fair, the Friday break last time out at Donington gave...

With the racing season very much underway, we find ourselves once again in race week, but this time for round two of the MINI Challenge JCW series. I'd be fibbing if I didn't start by saying that I'm still floating up on cloud nine. I mean, it's nearly been three weeks since Donington, and you'd have thought the excitement and appreciation for what we achieved would have worn off by now, but it just hasn't. To be honest, my initial reaction in the week following Donington was more on a disbelief level, I mean, I couldn't believe how well I...

So as you know, we've just completed the second round of the MINI Challenge JCW series on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit, and I have to say, this definitely was the most colourful outing so far. Having had such a brilliant weekend at Snetterton just a couple of weeks ago despite having a non-working differential, we assumed that it would give us free time once it was fixed. As theoretically, with an active differential, we'd be able to better drive the car in, round and out of the corners; unfortunately, we were wrong. To be totally transparent, a fully working...

So the floodgates are fully open for the season, and we're here once again, except this weekend we'll be going to Brands Hatch to be racing on the shorter Indy circuit layout. I have done hundreds of laps around Brands Hatch, and above all the circuits I've driven, Brands is the one that I'm confident I know best. And to be fair, it's definitely a track that, as a driver, you need to know. Albeit a very short lap, sub one minute in the MINI, each corner has something just a little unique about it that requires a touch of...

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...