Hi there, James here with another update from the Mighty Minis racing grid. The Brands Hatch Mini Festival is always a great event to be part of, and this year Mighty Minis Racing was back! A grid of 14 cars would be showing their skills to mini fans from all over the world. The championships racing here would be as follows:
The Fastest Mini in the World
The Swiftune Sanwa Trophy
Minispares 50th Anniversary race
Mini Seven Racing Club
Mighty Minis Racing Championship
Mini Challenge Clubsport
Qualifying on Saturday would be the usual 15 minutes session; this would see how everyone would get on racing around the tricky Indy layout. The change in specification this year would result in the cars going quicker with more exciting racing. The grid was packed with quick drivers, with the former Mighty Mini Super drivers of brothers David and Nev Kirkpatrick returning. Olly Samways was the front running driver taking pole position with a time of 1.00.396. The Kirkpatrick’s showed they are still quick in a mini. Neven flew around the circuit posting a 1.00.765 taking P2, David also showing skill and speed posted a time of 1.00.976. The Jenkins Motorsport cars did well, Car 32 with James Jenkins at the helm set a time of 1.01.340 to secure 5th position. John Jenkins, car 64, managed to only be 2 seconds off the leader’s times, even though this is his first time at the circuit. He did say that paddock hill bend is tricky though!
Onto Race 1…
Race 1 would be the first race on track on the Sunday morning at 10.00. Olly Samways would be alongside Neven Kirkpatrick on the front row, closely followed by David Kirkpatrick and Sam Slater. I would be in P5, and dad would be in P11. Everyone got a good start apart from me, as I dropped a few places, however David, Neven and Olly started well and battled hard all race long, swapping and changes places and putting on a super show of skilful, close mini racing for the large crowd. I had an ok race, although looking back I think I was over driving the car resulting in the tyres not gripping correctly and consequently loosing time around the corners. This ended up with me in no man’s land, I mean by this that you are not close enough to the cars in front to be able to catch them, and a good distance from the ones behind, therefore I was left on my own. Meanwhile car 64 (dad, John Jenkins) was enjoying himself, this was his first time driving the circuit, so he was cautious when driving around paddock hill bend. However, he did manage two trips into the gravel, reversing in at the top of paddock hill, but luckily not rolling. At the end of the 20 minutes Neven took the overall win, followed by his brother David in second place and Olly rounded out the top three. Unfortunately, Sam Slater had to retire due to an overheating engine when he had just caught the top 3 and was the fastest car on track.
I managed to finish in P7 with Dad retiring from the race due to a suspected oil pressure issue. Looking into the pressure issue after the race, it turns out the gauge had failed. The needle had become dislodged from the centre spindle resulting in no reading showing. I have to say he did the right thing by coming in and saving the engine. The gauge was easily fixed.
After the first race everyone checked their cars over, we found three tyres on dad’s car were not useable. One tyre had a gouge in the sidewall; another the tyre had delaminated and ruined the tread and the third had gravel stuck in the bead combined with a delaminated tyre. Therefore, we had to use some spares from the van. Everything else seemed ok and we were all ready for the second race.
Race 2 would see Neven pull P7 out of the bag for the reverse grid, this turned out to be my position. Therefore, I would be starting P1 alongside Ben Butler, Will Burnham and Greg Jenkins would be close behind in P3 and P4. The reverse grid always provides interesting and exciting racing for the crowds. Everyone rolled onto the grid and waited for the lights to go out, all the cars roared away, and some got better starts than others. I had too much wheel spin leading to Olly squeezing down the inside and me dropping right back to P7. From this point I was determined to get back to the top. Olly moved into P1 very quickly resulting in him gaining a decent gap on Neven and David. I quickly passed Will Burnham on the first lap and a few laps later I passed Ben Butler. I had to chase down Greg Jenkins and David Kirkpatrick, which through revving the engine harder and smoother driving I managed to do. After a few laps I was right on the tail of Greg, and I had to go for the move into paddock hill bend, I waited for a good slipstream down the straight and then sent the car to the inside, braking later than Greg and turning and controlling the car within the space of a second. The overtake was successful, I used the momentum to power through and stay ahead through druids. In the meantime, Morgan Bartley was catching me from behind, Greg luckily held him up and gave me some breathing space. All I had to do now was overtake David to secure P3, he was struggling with brake failure but credit to him for staying ahead with this issue. I decided that Paddock Hill would be the place to pass him, this move was completed, and I was up into third position. A lap later the chequered flag was shown, I was so relieved. Olly Samways took the win with Neven in second place and me in third. Dad in car 64 had less trips into the gravel, managing to only be a second off our times at the front. Well done to everyone for some close and clean racing. The 3rd place was a great achievement and made it worth Dads 10 hour round trip to Bristol to get the cars checked over on the rolling road. In previous meetings I was 10 bhp down on power, which when these minis only produce 83-85 bhp is quite a lot! Also, many thanks to Neil Slark for working his magic on the rolling road.
We must thank MSVR and Brands Hatch circuit for organising a great Mini Festival, thanks to all those who came to see Jenkins Motorsport and the Mighty Minis racing. Hopefully you enjoyed the racing. If you would like to see the racing look on YouTube, by searching “Brands Hatch Mini Festival 2025”. We look forward to returning next year. The next stop on the calendar for the cars is the Silverstone International circuit over the course of the 16th and 17th of August. We hope to see you there!
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