Building upon the popularity in the UK of the John Cooper Challenge, a brand new MINI / John Cooper Motorsport-backed one make racing series has been launched in Germany, called the MINI Challenge.

Comprising seven race weekends at some of Europe’s premier motor sport events and venues, the MINI Challenge looks set to emulate the fun and full grids formula of the John Cooper Challenge. The series will make a prestigious debut alongside the German Touring Car Masters (DTM), at the Eurospeedway in Lausitz, before providing a curtain raiser attraction for crowds at the Nurburgring 24Hrs race. Later in the season the race-prepared MINI Coopers will line up as part of the Formula One race weekend at Spa, and then grace the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) at Oschersleben in September.

The race machinery for the MINI Challenge will be the 200bhp race-prepared John Cooper Motorsport ClubSport S. With a stripped-out interior and racing on slick tyres, the MINI Challenge car will have a more race-specific appearance than the road-legal John Cooper Challenge S, which can still be driven to and from the circuit.

As well as filling the John Cooper Challenge grid, John Cooper also supplies works kits and motor sport parts to a number of other fledgling MINI race series, including championships in Belgium, Bahrain and Scotland, and a street race in South Africa, but the MINI Challenge has been specifically designed to establish an easy-to-follow template for other MINI markets to adopt.

Mike Cooper, Managing Director of John Cooper Garages explains:

‘We have worked very closely with MINI Germany on all the details of the MINI Challenge. Competitors buy an all-inclusive package, which includes technical and administrative support, catering throughout the race weekend and much more.

‘There has been a lot of interest from other countries in what we’ve been doing in Germany and we expect more than one to follow next year.’

04-06 June:            Eurospeedway Lausitz                DTM

10-12 June:            Nürburgring Nordschleife            24-hr race

16-18 July:             Eurospeedway Lausitz                GTP Porsche Weekend

06-08 August:        Motopark Oschersleben              DTM

27-29 August:        Spa-Francorchamps                    Formula 1 (tbc)

17-19 September:   Motopark Oschersleben              ETCC

25-26 September:   Salzburgring                               MINI Trackday