The Power Maxed MINI Challenge bursts back into life at the UK’s ‘Home of Motor Racing’, Silverstone, where Panda Racing IN:MINI’s Hamish Brandon will be seeking to continue his podium-scoring momentum in one of Britain’s premier one-make championships (13-14 June).
Opening his account with three podiums – including a maiden race victory in the John Cooper Works (JCW) category – at Donington Park in April, Brandon then followed that up with two further podiums at Brands Hatch to position himself comfortably second in the Drivers’ standings.
On his Silverstone debut last season, Brandon was poised to finish on the podium, before an incident ahead of him caused him to take evasive action and narrowly miss out on a top three result. The Scotsman would go on to record at hat-trick of top six finishes that weekend and is expecting to be fighting at the sharp end once again this weekend.
Feeling physically and mentally fitter than in previous years, Brandon is excited for what this weekend may yield and will be hitting it head on, saying: “This will be only my second time racing at Silverstone, so it’s still a bit of an unknown for me, but we are going to push on and try claw some points back. It’s a circuit that is primarily designed for faster machinery, but it’s still a great track to drive. Due to the length of the circuit, you don’t get an awful amount of laps during testing before you’re thrown into the race weekend, so you’ve got to get yourself dialled in as quickly as possible.
“Slipstreaming will play a huge part this weekend and that could either work in your favour or against. You’ve got to make sure you hang on to the guy in front to get the benefit of the slipstream down one of Silverstone’s long straights and make the pass at the following corner. I’m not one to set myself targets for each weekend, so we are going to go out there and do the best job we can and, fingers crossed, bag a strong amount of points.”
Qualifying for Rounds 7, 8 and 9 of the Power Maxed MINI Challenge is scheduled to get underway at 10.45 on Saturday (13 June), with the first of three races later that day at 15.15 andthe final two races the following day (Sunday 14 June) at 10.30 and 16.10 respectively.
For more information on Panda Racing and Hamish Brandon, please visit the official www.hamishbrandon.com website, ‘like’ the Facebook page or follow @PandaRacingTeam on Twitter.