Mini Challenge UK

Mini Challenge UK

Category	One-make racing by Mini
Country	United Kingdom
Inaugural season	2002
Classes	JCW Class Open Class Cooper Pro Class Cooper Am Class
Constructors	Mini
Tyre suppliers	Dunlop
Drivers' champion	Sam Weller
Teams' champion	Excelr8 Motorsport
Official website	Mini Challenge UK
Current season

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.

The series umbrella includes multiple classes:

• JCW Class, based on Gen 3 F56 MINI Hatch, target power 255bhp, circa 1170kg with driver
• JCW Sport Class (added 2024), chassis as above but with 225bhp
• Cooper Class (added 2021), with less aggressive chassis modifications and 130bhp

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, World 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

Mini F56 (since 2015)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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

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

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