Hamish Brandon goes into battle at Castle Combe intending to fortify his championship charge, as the Power Maxed MINI Challenge bursts back into life as part of the circuit’s Summer Race Day (2 August).
With 12 races down and eight to go, the Power Maxed-backed MINI Challenge resumes at Wiltshire’s 1.85mile Castle Combe circuit, which has hosted many prestigious race series and star names, including Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and Ayrton Senna.
Competitors and teams are refreshed and ready to resume battle, and Brandon, who currently lies fifth in the championship standings having raced consistently inside the top eight this season, is more confident behind the wheel of his Exceler8 Motorsport-run John Cooper Works (JCW) MINI following a highly positive outing at Oulton Park last month.
Having raced to a podium finish last year at Castle Combe, the Cooper class graduate is relishing the challenge at hand and will be looking to race among the frontrunners and claim his second podium finish of the season.
“I made some huge strides forwards in terms of race pace last time out at Oulton Park, so hopefully we can build on that this weekend and find that last little bit of pace,” said Brandon. “I believe we have the speed required to mix it with the top four and, if we do that for the duration of the race, it will put us in a very good position to hopefully stand on the podium come the end of the race. If we can achieve that, I’ll be very happy.
“I’ve only raced at Castle Combe once prior to this weekend in the Cooper class, and I remember that it’s a very fast, bumpy circuit where you need to have the correct setup on the car to really attack the kerbs. With it’s fast, short nature, it gives us a lot more laps to hone the best racing lines to optimise our qualifying position, and hopefully set us up for a great weekend.”
Qualifying for Round 13 of the Power Maxed MINI Challenge is scheduled to get underway at 09.40 on Saturday (2 August), followed by the weekend’s two races at 12.05 and 16.10 respectively.