The penultimate round of this year\u2019s Pirelli-supported MINI Challenge will take place at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit next weekend where British Touring Car Championship driver Paul O\u2019Neill will join the grid.
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Located just 20 miles outside central London, Brands Hatch \u2013 the former home of the British Grand Prix \u2013 was a hive of activity last week when it was used as the venue for the Paralympic road cycling events. Next weekend will consist of three action-packed races as the seven-round series nears the end of its first season with Pirelli as the championship\u2019s exclusive tyre supplier.<\/p>\n
Two classes are entered in this year\u2019s MINI Challenge: the turbocharged John Cooper Works (JCW) class and the Club class. \u00a0Henry Gilbert will be aiming to extend his lead in the JCW class, where he currently leads second-placed Jono Brown by 22 points.<\/p>\n
Former MINI Challenge champion Lee Allen is third in the overall standings but successfully leads the highly competitive Club Class.\u00a0Chris Smith is second, 20 points adrift of Allen.<\/p>\n
The JCW class will be provided with slick and wet options: the 225\/625-17 DH slick and 225\/625-17 WS wet tyre. Pirelli DH slicks and N3 wets will be available to the Club Class.<\/p>\n
Pirelli Tyre UK operations manager, Matthew Corby, said: \u201cBrands Hatch is one of the most iconic circuits on the MINI Challenge calendar with famous corners such as a Paddock Hill bend.\u00a0It also features some very technical sections such as the Druids hairpin that will certainly test our Pirelli rubber to the limit.\u00a0\u00a0 It will be extra special to see the MINI Challenge competing on the same track where Alex Zanardi took an emotional gold in the hand cycling event at last week\u2019s Paralympics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Series promoter Paul Harvey commented: \u201cThe Brands Hatch GP circuit is the one that all the drivers want to race on and it will produce some excellent wheel to wheel competition. Everyone is looking forward to seeing how front-running BTCC driver Paul O\u2019Neill gets on against the MINI Challenge regulars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The penultimate round of this year\u2019s Pirelli-supported MINI Challenge will take place at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit next weekend where British Touring Car Championship driver Paul O\u2019Neill will join the grid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[783],"class_list":["post-1703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-pirelli"],"yoast_head":"\n