MINI Challenge is Back for the 2014 Season at Donington (26th

The first race of the 2014 MINI Challenge season had finally arrived, starting at Donington where the 2013 season ended. Since the end of last season, Adrian had teamed up with Simon Walton after striking up a friendly relationship the previous year. Together they began their new team 'Swanflight.com TeamScalextric' using the invaluable support of Rob Sims (and his newly formed organisation 'Rob Sims Racing').

Testing and qualification went well for both Adrian and Simon. Adrian qualified in 8th from 14 Cooper Class cars with Simon claiming the 5th spot on the grid.

Round 1

The first race of the season offered fantastic driving conditions and both Simon and Adrian were in fantastic positions on the grid. With the cars away, Adrian got a good start and was able to stay with Simon for most of the race. However, he had to work incredibly as both Mark Wakefield and Grace Williams were constantly pushing him.

Trying hard to defend his position, Adrian found himself involved in a couple of incidents. During a tough fight with Grace Williams, Adrian slid in to the side of her car but, fortunately, there was no damage. Later on one of the newcomers to the series, from the Excelerate team, collided with Adrian damaging the right hand side of his car, completely ruining his brand new orange and blue Swanflight.com livery.

Despite both of these incidents Adrian had a good race and he crossed the line within a second of Simon, finishing 5th with Simon claiming 4th.

Round 2

With worse conditions on the second day Adrian feared the worst, but the track was fully dry once Adrian and the MINI Challenge came to race. With Simon and Adrian starting 4th and 5th on a rolling-start grid they were both confident of a good finish. Unfortunately, it was not to be for Adrian. After a good start, Adrian span through 180 degrees to find himself facing the oncoming field after the first corner. However, Adrian was able to avoid a collision and turned the car around with a hand-brake turn.

The Safety Car came out on the second lap which allowed Adrian to settle down on the back of the 24th car. When the race got under way again he was able to quickly move up the field getting up to 19th (9th in Class). Unfortunately, when going into Roberts chicane Adrian was broadsided by Keith Issatt in his JCW car. Both cars were heavily damaged in the collision, which meant both could not finish the race.

Meanwhile Simon was having a fantastic race and, despite maintaining 3rd place for the majority of the race, fell back in the last couple of laps to claim 7th.

After the race Keith Issatt was called to the Clerk of the Course and received penalties for the collision he had caused with Adrian. Keith also came to apologise to Adrian and both were happy to put the incident behind them.

Round 3

With a DNF ('Did Not Finish') from the previous race, Adrian found himself in last place on the grid in cloudy and wet conditions. However, Rob and Paul had done a fantastic job in getting the car back in order after the collision in round 2. Despite the pouring rain Adrian was focused on achieving a good finish to round off his first weekend back in the MINI Challenge.

Making steady progress Adrian found himself in 8th place in Class after 9 laps. However, another accident at the Roberts chicane ahead of Adrian forced him to slow down, allowing three chasing Cooper Class cars to pass him. This dropped Adrian down to 11th position. While Adrian was prepared to claim his places back, the RED flag was shown, stopping the race and leaving Adrian with no time to mount his comeback.

Simon, however, had enjoyed another good performance and, having briefly been in 2nd place, he finished 7th after being docked a place for passing Grace Williams under a yellow flag.

After the first weekend of the new season, including an incredibly challenging Sunday for Adrian, he found himself in 11th position in Class with Simon claiming an impressive 4th. Hopefully, with the worst behind him, Adrian can look forward to Brands Hatch and another exciting weekend of racing.