The Mini Challenge UK is a one-make race series began in 2002 and since 2020 the JCW and JCW Sport championships have run as a support package to the British Touring Car Championship.

Mini Challenge UK
CategoryOne-make racing by Mini
CountryUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
Inaugural season2002
ClassesJCW Class
Open Class
Cooper Pro Class
Cooper Am Class
ConstructorsMini
Tyre suppliersDunlop
Drivers' championUnited Kingdom Dan Zelos
Teams' championExcelr8 Motorsport
Official websiteMini Challenge UK
Current season

The series umbrella includes multiple classes:

Competition is organised into JCW Championship, JCW Sport Championship, and Cooper Trophy championships. For 2024 the first two will support BTCC for 7 weekends of the calendar and the Cooper Trophy will feature at three of those, with the other four weekends at Truck or BARC events.

There are various Cup competitions within this structure such as Rookie Cup and Graduate Cup.

Throughout the championship's history it established itself as one of the main routes into topline Touring Car racing, and drivers went on to do well in the Renault Clio Cup United Kingdom, British Touring Car Championship and British GT Championship. Past and current drivers such as Jeff Smith, Charlie Butler-Henderson, Harry Vaulkhard, Vicki Butler-Henderson, Brett Smith, Paul O'Neill, Nick Foster, Arthur Forster, Stewart Lines, Martin Depper, Chris Smiley and Ant Whorton-Eales.

The cars

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Mini F56 (since 2015)

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Introduced in 2015, the F56 is the first purpose-built race car to race in the championship, a 2-litre turbocharged BMW engine and a 6-speed sequential gearbox means that it is also the most powerful car in the championship with 275 bhp.

Mini R56 (since 2010)

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Introduced in 2010 as the new JCW, it has a 1.6-litre turbocharged BMW engine along with slick tyres and a 6-speed gearbox to produce 220 bhp.

Mini R53 (2004–2010, since 2016)

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Introduced in the third season, the R53 has a 1.6-litre supercharged BMW engine producing 195 bhp along with slick tyres and a 6-speed gearbox.

Mini R50 (since 2013)

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Introduced in 2013 as a replacement for the Cooper's, with slick tyres, a 6-speed gearbox and a 1.6-litre BMW engine producing 135 bhp.

Mini Cooper (2002–2012, since 2017)

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Introduced in the first season, the Cooper is the basic entry-level car with treaded tyres and a 5-speed road gearbox along with an ordinary engine producing 120 bhp.

The classes

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Classes
Car 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Mini Cooper Cooper Cooper Am
Mini R53 Cooper S Open Cooper S
Mini R56 JCW JCW Open Cooper S
Mini R50 Cooper Cooper Pro
Mini F56 F56 JCW
Car 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Champions

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Cooper Cooper S/ Open (2015–2019) JCW Open (2016)/ Cooper Am (2017-2019)
Season Driver Team Driver Team Driver Team Driver Team
2002   Steve Meli Mark Fish Motorsport
2003   Mark Speller Mark Fish Motorsport
2004   Gary Robertshaw Robertshaw Racing   Martin Wallbank Mark Fish Motorsport
2005   Barney Craggs Sussex Road and Race   Arthur Forster Forster Motorsport
2006   Gareth Nixon Nixon Motorsport   Freddy Nordström Advent Motorsport
2007   Jenny Ryan Mark Fish Motorsport   Oly Mortimer Tynecastle Racing
2008   Graham Parsons Advent Motorsport   Martin Depper Forster Motorsport
2009   Luke Caudle Mark Fish Motorsport   Oly Mortimer Team Formula Racing
2010   David Ogden Mark Fish Motorsport   Lee Allen Truck Align   Luke Caudle Excelr8 Motorsport
2011   Ant Whorton-Eales Excelr8 Motorsport   Chris Knox Excelr8 Motorsport
2012   Henry Gilbert Excelr8 Motorsport   Lee Allen Truck Align
2013   Shane Stoney Coastal Racing   Chris Smiley IN:MINI
2014   Shane Stoney Coastal Racing   Chris Knox Excelr8 Motorsport
2015   Nathan Harrison Coastal Racing   Neil Newstead Oakfield Motorsport   Charlie Butler-Henderson Oakfield Motorsport
2016   Max Bladon Excelr8 Motorsport   Scott Jeffs Privateer   David Grady Unitec Motorsport   Keith Issatt Lawrence Davey Racing
2017   Matt Hammond Excelr8 Motorsport   Ben Dimmack Sussex Road and Race   Brett Smith Eurotech Racing   Stuart McLaren Hybrid Tune Motorsport
2018   Kyle Reid Privateer   Will Fairclough AReeve Motorsport   Ant Whorton-Eales JamSport Racing   Alex Nevill Privateer
2019   Robert Dalgliesh Privateer   Dan Butcher-Lloyd Privateer   James Gornall Privateer   Lee Pearce Privateer
2020   Harry Nunn AReeve Motorsport   Nathan Harrison Excelr8 Motorsport
2021   Dominic Wheatley PerformanceTek Racing   Dan Zelos Excelr8 Motorsport
2022   Nelson King Graves Motorsport   Sam Weller Hybrid Tune
2023   Tom Ovenden EXCELR8 Motorsport   Dan Zelos EXCELR8 Motorsport

References

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[2]

  1. ^ "Classes". MINI CHALLENGE. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  2. ^ "JCW 2019 CALENDAR". MINI CHALLENGE. Retrieved 2019-04-14.
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