ENDURANCE RACING.

"This is the first time I’ve ever competed in a MINI endurance race, it is a 40 minute race with a mandatory pit stop and 2 drivers.

I decided to team up with my dad, Adam Alexander who had never actually raced before but had done a few track days in his MINI.

As this race wasn’t a contribution to the championship, we decided to setup the car for the Open class which is the class above where my car was initially setup for which meant we could run more power.

As it was my dads first time driving Donington in the dry in this car, we decided to limit the power so he could get to grips with how it felt."

"My dad started the qualifying session with good pace and I finished the session and managed to put us in 4th place overall.

We then went onto the actual race where my Dad started the race for his 20 minute stint starting in P4 from a rolling start and we had turned the cars power up to full open class spec.

He maintained his position into turn 1 but funnily enough had exactly the same spin as me through craner curve which put us at the back of the pack.

He pushed on after the spin and made some good overtakes and went from P21 up to P14 before pitting for a driver swap so I could complete my stint.

I went out for my stint with the mindset that it’s the final race of the season so let’s go 110% and see what me and the car can do on its new setup.

Somehow I managed to get the fastest lap of the race after just 1 lap of driving the car and then continued to beat that lap throughout the session getting the fastest lap by 1.5seconds over the next best person!

I managed to make a fair few overtakes and put us back into P4 overall from P14 and had P3 in my sights until I went for a gear change and couldn’t select any gears.

I pumped the clutch pedal to see if I could find a gear and after approx 10 seconds of trying, it finally went into a gear, I pushed again and on my next gear change, it again wouldn’t go into gear which meant we lost sight of P3 overall and also got overtaken for P4, the car finally went into gear and I decided that I’d keep it in 4th gear until the end of the race which meant I had no chance of catching the drivers ahead of me."

"We finished the race in P5 which I was happy with considering the circumstances with us being put last after the spin and then gear selection issues and also the fact that we managed such fast lap times throughout the whole session!

We’re going back to the drawing board to get the car fixed and properly setup for the open class next year so let’s see what happens.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me this season, Sytner MINI, all my family, friends and team, I couldn’t have done it without you all.

Now let’s get the car prepared for next year!"

Images provided by OJL Photos