Former Renault UK Clio Cup racer Rob Smith is eyeing a championship challenge in the Power Maxed MINI Challenge this season after confirming a first full campaign in the series.
Smith became a race winner in the category last year at Silverstone during the second of three outings in the series. Those came following an early exit from the Clio Cup, in which a podium finish in the opening race of the season was followed by a couple of tough outings.
The Evergreen, Grouptyre and BMTR-backed driver is piloting one of the brand new MINI F56 cars in the MINI Challenge’s headline class with Excelr8 Motorsport, starting this weekend (25/26 April) with the season opener at Donington Park.
“We’ve been planning to do a full season in MINI for a while now, after driving the development car at the end of last year it really confirmed where I wanted to be,” said Smith, who’s tested his new F56 recently at Brands Hatch and Donington.
“The MINI races I did last year were the most enjoyable time of my racing career so far, the guys at Excelr8 are great and the atmosphere in the paddock, as well as the organisation, is fantastic.
“I’ve got to aim to try and win the championship really, there are only a handful of us with some experience of the F56 and hopefully that will work in our favour. We’ve had some productive test days so far, learnt a lot about the car and now we can’t wait for Donington next weekend.”
