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The idea behind the Mini Challenge CLUBSPORT championship is for MINI racers to enjoy a close competitive series whilst keeping costs low, making the series ideal for amateur drivers with a limited budget.
The idea behind this monthly talk show is to provide a fun community show where we all come together and enable the racers and business partners to gain extra exposure, with guests on the live shows rotating around the partners and drivers, and anyone else involved in the championship. The show is designed to be light and fun, and will also enable us to promote upcoming activities and discuss those that have already happened. Make sure you tune in to the live shows on YouTube and Facebook, and your comments/questions added during the live shows can even be put up on screen (along with your profile name and photo) and answered live in the interactive episodes. But this podcast also enables you to listen back to the shows whilst driving, walking, or working out!! (or in the pub...)
Five, four, three, two.
Good evening.
Welcome back.
Episode four of Mini
Challenge Club Sport Talk Show Live.
Yeah, that's the one.
It's a run up.
Welcome to you all.
The comments have been
coming in thick and fast already.
Make sure you share it,
whether you're watching on
YouTube or Facebook.
Get it shared.
Let's get more of us together.
It's a community.
That's what this is all about.
Dave Taylor says, Evening, you lovely lot.
Just made it back home in
time to watch the shenanigans going on.
It is shenanigans.
The current Mrs. Dawes is
hopefully making me a gin as we speak.
She came back and offered and I said no.
What?
I can't believe I said that.
I got a nosebleed and called
her back and said yes.
The gin's hopefully on the way.
It's fine.
It's not a problem.
Martin Ringer.
Hi to all from Shearer Motorsport.
Shearer Motorsport.
Apologies.
I probably butchered that.
Sorry, Martin, but welcome, mate.
Perfect acceleration.
Hello, mate.
Good evening all from those
and David Taylor says, hey, folks,
that's two different images.
You've got two different profiles there,
Mr. Taylor.
Or is it two different David Taylors?
I don't know.
Listen, welcome along to episode four.
Now, I'm having to do this on the hoof.
The beauty of it being live
means I've got to roll with
it because Andy from
Garmin's not here yet.
He's not in my green room,
so I can't bring him on just yet.
So we're going to shuffle
the order we planned.
Hopefully, he'll be on later.
If not,
we'll have to catch up with him at
another point.
David Taylor's confirmed.
No, he's just changed the picture.
That's all right then.
You confused me then, mate.
By the way, you can all put your comments,
your questions, whatever,
whether you're watching on YouTube,
whether you're watching on Facebook.
In the comments below the video,
put whatever you have to
say or questions you want to ask,
and we can put it up on the
screen with your profile photo.
This is interactive.
We're all in it together.
I say we're all in it together.
I'm still making sure that
the current Mrs. Dawes has
seen my message for the gin.
I've got horrible feelings, you know,
so I might be ginless and
be water instead.
Jake Wardle.
Hello, mate.
Good to hear from you, buddy.
Right.
I'll tell you what I'm going to do.
I'm going to bring our first guest.
We're going to shuffle this one out.
And he's probably been sat
listening to the music I've
been playing and he's been
cussing that we're not using good stuff.
This guy knows what he's talking about.
He also knows how to race.
It was his first year racing
and he's gone with a bang.
Let's bring on Paul Sawyer.
Paul Sawyer,
and of course I've brought on
your number one fan.
There he is, Rob Austin.
Hi, Chris.
Hi, Rob.
How are you doing, right?
I'm good.
How are you, Paul?
I'm glad you mentioned the
music and not me.
Oh, my God.
I'm sure you can choose
something better than that.
Hey,
if you've got some music to provide
that we can use without
getting in any trouble, Paul,
we'll make it.
The trouble is Paul and I
are the only ones who like it.
The others say they don't
like it when they actually do.
No, seriously, Paul,
you've got music you want
us to play instead.
Please set it through as
long as you don't get us in
trouble with the Facebook police,
all right?
Well, I'm sat in the right room for that,
that's for sure.
Exactly.
Paul, welcome to the show, mate.
It's great to catch up with you.
This was your first year racing,
as I understand it.
That's right, yeah.
I've never raced in a car before.
I've done years of motocross
and mountain bike racing,
but I thought I'd give it a
go with four wheels for a change.
I guess several things is that, point one,
generically...
How did you take to it?
Did you enjoy it as much as
you hoped you would?
Do you know what?
I actually enjoyed it far
more than I expected.
As the year went on,
I just got more and more into it.
And to be honest with you,
I enjoyed it from day one.
I had to get over the nerves
a bit because I was so
nervous when I first started.
And I still get nervous for every race,
but it was just so much fun.
And as each round went,
the fun just got better and
better because obviously I
was getting amongst it much more.
And surely,
I guess the key point being is
that if those nerves disappeared,
it wouldn't be as fun.
I think it, well, to be honest,
I've always thought having
nerves for racing is healthy anyway.
All the years I did motocross,
I was always nervous.
Every time I went out to
race on the mountain bike, I was nervous.
So you just turn that into adrenaline,
basically.
And I have to say is that being a DJ,
I've just seen some
pictures of you back abroad
on the decks and everything else again.
And with that crowd and, you know,
I have a well of a time
commentating and whether
it's like the American
Speed Fest with tens of
thousands of people there,
it's an almighty buzz.
But you with that immediate response,
you must just be an adrenaline junkie,
frankly.
Yeah, unfortunately I am.
I am.
And you went looking at it.
So give us give us a background.
So apologies, Rob.
I know I'm hogging at the minute, but,
you know,
I this is new to me with with Paul.
We haven't even had the
chance to catch up properly
at every fall.
But give us a bit of a background of you.
Presumably that I guess we
start with the music career.
Yeah.
So I started in nineteen
ninety three basically.
And the whole house music
scene just was really
blowing up at the time.
And I got invited to go out
to Ibiza and ended up playing,
warming up for the Prodigy
and D Ream and Carl Cox and
all sorts of people.
And
They basically asked me back
for the following year.
So I spent three months
DJing every single night in Ibiza.
And I was resident of the Star Club,
which is now Eden,
playing at Space and S
Paradise and all that sort of thing.
And I started to really make
a name for myself.
And within the second year I was playing,
I was being written about
in Mixmag and everything
and starting to tour the
world as soon as I got back to the UK.
And so I started up my own
event called Ménage à Trois
in Southampton.
And we did boat parties there.
And every single DJ that was
around and Limelight at the
time were ringing me up
wanting to play because it
was such a big event and, you know,
they've talked about quite a lot.
So every single DJ that you could think of,
like Oakenfold, Judge Jules, Seb Fontaine,
all those sort of people
were playing regularly and
So then it just sort of
escalated from there, really.
And I've spent thirty years
travelling the world and
playing in lots of
countries that I'd never
imagined I was ever going to see,
to be honest.
And it's, you know,
it's been a massive buzz.
And then, of course,
the pandemic hit and I thought, you know,
what's going to happen now
is going to all go down the pan.
And Radio One came along and
invited me to play.
to bring our label um
crafted and we hosted a
show for two and a half
years basically so you know
it was perfect timing with
um everybody in lockdown so
couldn't have asked for a
better thing really at the
time I mean it almost
sounds I mean even the way
you were regaling that
story is that I can sort of
almost sense the still that
you still pinch yourself
Yeah, definitely.
I mean,
I always remember when I first
started listening to Pete
Tom when he first started Essential Mix.
And that was actually in
ninety three as well.
And I always would have
loved to have been on Radio
One and even just have
music played on there was
such a big thing.
And then to eventually get
asked to host the show on
there was just unbelievable, really.
You know,
something that I'll never forget.
And hopefully it will be
going back at some stage.
The good thing is I get a
lot of my music played on
the beat as well.
So that's pretty good.
Because that's the thing.
I mean, when people sort of, OK,
I say people, maybe me, think of DJ,
I'm thinking of the events
more than anything else.
But you're talking about
actual released music as well.
Yeah,
so I'm more of a producer nowadays
than a DJ, to be honest.
I spend more time with music,
making music and releasing music.
DJing is great every now and then.
I'm just at the age where I
don't really want to be in
a club till six a.m.
We were doing events in Egg
and the Ministry of Sound till nine a.m.
a few years ago.
It would kill me if I tried to do it now.
Yeah, not that long ago,
I tried to do the walk of
shame in the next morning and went,
I can't do this anymore.
Exactly, yeah.
And it hurts twice as long as well.
I love it.
I know, Rob Austin, you're a huge fan,
aren't you, of Mr Sawyer's music?
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, I mean, I love it.
Paul knows how much I love the music.
And in fact, my wife and I go
all over Europe, all over the world,
and we're going to
California for Dreamstate
in two weeks' time, only for four days.
She does get a little bit concerned now,
you know,
like we went to see a DJ set in
Dubrovnik in the summer.
When I told her they weren't
on stage till two a.m.,
there was a little bit of
resistance there, but bless her,
she made it, and it was great, and,
you know,
Paul knows what an avid fan I am.
But, you know, it's one of those things,
if you know, you know, but
We managed to convert Paul's
love of his music into what
we've had as the Sunset
Garden on a Saturday night
after the races.
So Paul's put a set of music
together for us to try and
create this community after race one.
And it's been brilliantly successful.
We can't thank him enough for it.
That it's, you know,
we can get everyone up
together and hopefully Paul
can sell a bit of music as
well because of what happens there.
But we probably don't
because we're all ignorant.
I think music is probably to
motorsport that's my second
love and um it's such it's
such an important thing in
my life and and you know I
would just love to do what
paul does but sadly I'm
actually tone deaf in terms
of music so I would never
be able to do anything you
know I couldn't I couldn't even try
But no, it's good.
And I mean,
what Paul's done this year has
been brilliant.
And I think that as Tom and
I have discussed with what
we're trying to do for next
year is bringing novices in.
getting novices to race in
the championship is so important.
And that's where we think
the lifeblood and the
future of the Club Sport Championship is,
by just bringing in drivers who, you know,
perhaps haven't done it before.
And that's when we're going
to be talking to Tom later on about the,
you know,
Tom Ison about the mechanic in the cars.
And I think it's great to
see guys and girls coming in,
racing as novices and then
competing and getting in
amongst it and that's where
I believe that our
championship will thrive so
for next year we sadly
paulie won't be eligible
but we've got the novice
cup which is a great prize
uh provided by ravenel one
of our partners um and I
think that it's it's we've
got plenty of inquiries of
people wanting to come in
to do it because
it's a great place to start.
I mean, when you start racing,
as you well know, Paul, you know,
it was many,
many years ago when I started as Chris,
you know, as well, it's, it is, it's,
you know,
it's quite daunting when you
come in and you don't know what,
how to go about it.
You don't know what to do.
The protocols are different
and we want to just put our
arms around people and say,
come on in and have a go.
I agree.
And Paul Sawyer,
I've been sort of seeing
your social media is that, that you,
really seem to have embraced that,
encouraging people to get
involved in it and really promoting it,
even sometimes not overtly.
Oh, we lost you, Paul.
Sorry, my internet went a bit funny.
I missed the question.
Sorry.
That's okay.
Apologies.
We had you absolutely perfect earlier.
So typical.
I was just saying that you
really encourage people to get involved,
Paul, not always overtly,
but you're clearly very
positive about it.
And that's from your own experience.
Oh, yeah, definitely.
I mean, to be honest with you,
I couldn't just do it all
on my own anyway.
You know,
there was so much to think about.
And I was lucky enough to
find the right people to
support me along the way to
make it as easy as possible
for me to actually race
throughout the whole year.
And Rob and Tom and Glenn
have all been a great help the whole year,
to be honest,
giving me advice and helping
on the silliest little things,
even getting myself to the
right place for the
assembly area and things like that.
It's all things that you'd
never think about as a
spectator or anything like
that until you come along
and actually race yourself.
and you do,
you need to be steered because
there is literally so much
to think about when you're
racing a car and I suppose
the trouble is when you're
nervous as well it's
difficult to think straight
so you've got to have
people around you that will
do things to make your life
a little bit easier What
made you in the first place
then select Mini Challenge
Club Sport then?
Well,
it all came about really because I
bought a Mini, well,
my Mini I bought as a track car,
first of all, to do track days.
And I just came across Mini
Challenge Club Sport just
on the internet by chance
because I was looking up Mini Racing.
And I started following Zach,
Zach Blackwell.
And he followed me and we
got chatting and he said to me,
why don't you think about
coming to race your Mini?
And I thought, well, my first reaction was,
I don't think I'm good enough.
And he said, well, you know,
you'd never know.
And he said,
why don't I come to Thruxton with you?
Because he knew I was doing
a track day and see what you like.
And that's where it all sort
of spurred from, really.
And he said, oh, no,
you definitely should come and have a go.
So I blame Zach now for being poor.
you better tell them paul
about your plans for next
year then no nothing's been
announced yet all right
okay we gotta keep him
teasing um martin ringer
said rob always helps us
from the start as well so
that's a great feedback
there and jake wardle says
yeah I found that for my
first meeting totally
different to the spectating
I've done for a couple of years so
It is that great involvement.
Thank you.
My gin's arrived.
Thank you, Mr. Drink.
Yeah, I'm all right.
I'm all right now.
Just quickly catching up
because Ryan Beedon says, Evening Fellas,
and says, get Rob to do a guest DJ set.
So, Rob, you've got to do a guest DJ set.
I'd love to.
I'd love to MC.
Yeah.
The garages at Silverstone
are definitely big enough
to have a DJ set up.
So I think we all speak for Rob.
Absolutely, yeah.
Get on the ones and twos, Rob.
Get on the ones and twos.
You might need some of your gins.
Well, exactly.
Well,
as you can see from the size of my
glasses when I get them,
I've got plenty of that, mate.
It's fine.
David Taylor said Paul's a legend.
And Mark Hume says evening all as well.
Evening to you guys.
Welcome to the show.
so paul anybody thinking
about getting into racing
what's your advice in
racing in general and with
mini challenge club sport I
think I think if it was me
just to give a bit of
advice it's definitely
worth coming down um
and having a look if you've got a chance.
Unless you're going to just
suddenly come into the
series from day one,
then spend a bit of time
talking to some people
beforehand and get some advice.
But to be honest with you,
everybody makes it so easy from day
the first round anyway um
you know I was quite
surprised how welcoming
everybody was and how
everybody wants to help you
out all the other drivers
all the parents and the
mechanics and everybody is
it's actually quite quite a
good one you know a big
family that seems to help
each other out which is
great and that's I think
that's what really makes it
you know it's it's such a
friendly atmosphere
Well, all I will say, Paul,
is that'll change next year
if you start getting really,
really quick.
Yeah, less friendly, less friendly.
Yeah, on that basis, when I was racing,
I was hated for decades.
Oh, really?
Yeah, but you didn't get quick, did you,
Rob?
I know, Tom will be laughing now.
He is, he is.
He is, yeah, I thought he might.
I think, actually,
I've been forgetting all the... Oh, yeah,
Tom says I still hate him.
Yeah.
Which Tom was that?
That was Tom Halliwell.
Just making sure I've got
that so we can catch up.
Jake Waters says, yes,
we did that with Junior
Fiestas and meeting all the
people in the paddock and
me and my family had no
clue and no motorsport
background before we
stepped into the paddock.
And so that is the important
thing is the mini challenge club sport.
And I know this from Rob and
Tom that I've known for
many years is that that was
what they've deliberately created here.
But I pick up on your other
comment as well,
is that it's not just a
supportive paddock, Paul.
It's actually a very fun
paddock as well because you spend.
more time in the paddock
than on the circuit,
and it needs to be enjoyable.
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, you know, at the end of the day,
there's a lot of time between the races,
and, you know,
you spend a lot of time
talking to the others and
getting a bit of advice,
and it is total fun.
I mean,
I could not believe how much I
enjoyed the year.
You know,
I've always enjoyed everything
that I put my heart into, you know,
with all the sport and
music and everything,
but I've got to say this is
definitely the best sport
I've ever been involved in,
without a doubt.
good I love that one Chris
can you ask Jake Wardle if
he's going to come and join
us next year Jake Wardle
are you coming to join him
next year I think he'd like
to yeah good Ryan Beedon
says as sponsors of a few
championships now must say
that the mini challenge
club sport is one of the
most friendly and helpful
we've been involved in
remind me Ryan Beedon which
one's he from Airtec
Air tech, yeah.
Sorry, I should have known, Ryan.
Apologies.
He's obviously feeling a lot better now.
He had a bit of a bad time a
few months ago.
Jake's comment,
I'm still in juniors for a year,
but would consider it once
I am only fifteen.
Good lad.
So, yeah, he'll be coming through.
I'm commentating on him in
sim racing as well as he's
coming through.
So, a big mixture for Jake,
one of the young
stalwarts he wants to join
me in the commentary box at
some point next season as
well apparently so I've got
to see whether I can make
that happen as well so
that'll be good um Ryan
says much better now thank
you few hurdles to get over
but health is good so there
you go there's the answer
we're waiting for Ryan to
actually enter as well
though aren't we that's
right doesn't he yes yeah
come on Ryan come on Ryan
we've got to get you out
there racing as well
that'll be absolutely wicked um
Right, final couple of questions,
a couple of just quickfire ones.
Paul Sawyer, unless Rob,
is there anything else I haven't asked?
No, I don't think so.
No, no, it's all looking good.
OK, just quickly, Ryan Beedon says, oh,
let's make it happen.
So he's right up for that, definitely.
But Paul Sawyer,
favourite circuit that you
raced at this year?
Funny enough,
someone else asked me that today.
Thruxton has always been my favourite,
but I must say Donington is
a really close second.
I absolutely loved racing at Donington.
down the craner curves in particular.
Yeah, it was amazing.
I'll never forget from the
first lap I actually went
down there to when I
actually started to keep it flat out,
coming down there,
the difference was unbelievable.
It's a grip it and rip it, isn't it?
I love Thruxton as well.
I mean, it's my local circuit,
so I've obviously spent a
lot of time there and I
love how fast it is there as well.
So I'm really looking
forward to going back next year.
I'll tell you what,
you want to see the music
set up that he's got in his car, Chris.
Oh, really?
Blaring out it is.
Presumably not the race car.
Not the race car, yeah.
Can you imagine?
No weight advantage there, is there?
Okay.
What's either the scariest
circuit or the scariest
part of circuit that you
experienced this year?
I think the scariest, actually,
it would be a moment, I should say.
Scariest moment I had was at
Castle Coombe.
And I came together with Mr. Ben Trundley.
I ended up spinning off one
hundred and ten miles an hour.
So that was a bit of a shock.
But luckily, I didn't hit anything else,
just the grass.
That's good there because, as you know,
it's my local circuit and
there's no runoff there.
So you did well to avoid everything.
I knew it would happen at some point.
It had to, didn't it?
But nobody was hurt.
Nothing was really damaged much.
I had a little dent,
but nothing to cry about.
That's all right then.
Final one then.
I know you haven't released
your details for next year,
but if you were to race,
what's the circuit or part
of circuit that you're
looking forward to most for next year?
I'm really looking forward
to racing at Silverstone.
I've never driven there.
And obviously such a big circuit and,
you know, so much races there.
It'd be really nice to
actually race there.
And it's great to have two
rounds there as well.
So, yeah, looking forward to that.
I like that.
David Taylor says you should
put some subs in the back
of the race car and get the
tunes banging.
I'll probably drive better.
Yeah, and get you pumped up even more.
Crikey, they'd be in trouble then,
wouldn't they?
Listen, Paul Sawyer,
thank you so much for joining us, mate.
It's an absolute pleasure to
catch up with you.
Hopefully we'll catch up at
the circuits next year.
um well done on novice year
and thank you for
encouraging other people to
to realize that it's not a
pipe dream you can actually
get out there and do it
yeah definitely it's
definitely worth trying out
I would highly recommend it
to anybody that's got a
mini and they want to race
it around a circuit you
should definitely come and
give it a try definitely I
like it ryan's just said uh
trophy for who can mix the
best tunes whilst driving
AirTech are sponsoring that
by the sounds of it, mate.
Absolutely.
I love it.
Right, Rob Austin,
I shall speak to you again
a little bit later, but Paul Sawyer,
thank you so much for joining us,
and we look forward to
catching up with you again soon.
Great.
Thanks, Chris.
Thanks, Rob.
Next up,
next people we're going to speak to,
we're going to catch up now
with Tom Eisen, who's a mechanic,
so we're going to catch up that side,
and so therefore I'm also
going to bring on
Our mechanical side, Glenn Copeland.
Let's bring them on.
Well, gentlemen, hang on.
Why have I suddenly got Glenn Copeland?
Let me just put him in the big one.
I can see him in the bottom,
but for some reason he's
not showing on my screen.
I'm going to remove him.
Oh, I don't know what's happening there.
Glenn, bear with me.
But more importantly, Tom Ison.
How are you doing, mate?
Yeah, I'm good.
You?
Yeah, I'm good.
I'm going to give away a
little secret here, by the way.
He's in the same house as
Tom Halliwell because he
just wanted to make sure
that Tom was there to support him.
Has anyone ever used that sentence,
Tom Halliwell, to support them?
I have quite a few times, to be honest.
Potentially the only one.
No, exactly, exactly.
You need to really look for
a better support system.
Yeah.
The boys are liability, for goodness sake.
No, I'm only joking, Tom Halliwell,
because he's down there.
I can see him,
and he'll be on the private
chat abusing us all in a minute,
so he deserves some back.
Oh,
only one comment you're going to give us,
are you, Tom?
Okay, fair enough.
Oh, two, two.
Probably the bird, isn't it?
And he's drinking coffee, apparently,
so he's got coffee beans on the go.
Tom Ison, obviously, and I'm sorry, Glenn,
I don't know why your
camera's not showing at the moment.
In fact, you've frozen, actually.
I've only just realised in the green room,
you're frozen down there,
so you might want to do a quick refresh,
Glenn, so that we can actually see you.
I don't know,
but if you have a crack at that.
But most importantly,
I'm going to speak to you, Tom.
You are a
I'm going to oversimplify.
So please expand on this,
a mechanic for one or more of the cars.
Um, yeah, pretty much.
So I basically look after
Neil Clark and Andy Langley
for Norfolk cars.
And then we've combined with, uh,
Trondley group racing.
So Ben and Ian for this season.
Um, yeah, been brilliant.
Absolutely brilliant.
Um, one again,
just like we did last season with,
with Neil Clark.
Um,
Andy drove his heart out, to be fair.
He works me hard, as you can imagine.
He's very Nick Piketty.
The competition that we had
at Donington with Oli and
the same sort of awning was brilliant.
It was a good season.
I mean...
I want to take this, actually,
first of all,
I'm going to start with your background.
So your background is that
you were involved in
working on cars before you
got involved in racing, presumably.
Yeah,
so I left school in two thousand and
twelve,
two thousand thirty and I met Tom
Halliwell.
And, uh, that was my insight in racing.
Um, I wanted to go race and I wanted to,
you know, understand a race car,
how it's set up X, Y,
and Z. Tom helped me along the way,
literally through my whole
career in sort of
motorsport and on road cars as well.
Um, so I left school,
two thousand and thirteen met Tom.
We went MG racing.
I remember we went testing
at Donington in December on slick tyres.
It wasn't great.
He'd come out of the last
corner backwards.
So that sort of ended the
day pretty sharpish because
we never had any wets, you know, and then
A few years went by.
We did the MG Championship in,
and we won it.
I also worked in motorsport
full-time in classic motorsport.
It wasn't really for me with
points and things like that,
just over the top of my head.
I then went on to Volkswagen
Racing Cup with Team Hard.
I ran Bobby Thompson.
And a few other guys, you know,
that have sort of been and
done that championship and
been successful.
Also, I did mini-challenge with A. Reeve,
JCWs.
And then that sort of tailed
on to your Keeper S's we did, you know,
when that was a thing.
And then did a bit of touring cars, GT Cup,
and just sort of kept myself busy.
So, it's been good.
No,
that sounds... I love the story of that
because I wanted to make
sure that people are
mechanically minded there.
sort of like know how the
journey and it's so many stories.
So it means we probably did meet when you,
uh,
mechanic in for Tom in the
MG yeah he's just always
sort of like have a banter
with you guys and he was
laughing I could see at the
background when you were
talking about the story of
him arriving backwards he
still is he remembers it
well I can tell from that
big grin on his face and
even like you mentioned
Bobby Thompson I've trained
Bobby Thompson before for
media training before he
went into the touring cars
top bloke one of the nicest
guys you'll ever meet now
The big one I want to do,
and I'm going to end up
bringing Glenn in on this
one in a minute as well,
is that I want people to understand,
and I'm able to say this
because I'm external to the championship,
but you've worked on a
plethora of different things there,
which is great to sort of set that out.
For people that are coming into,
considering coming into
something like the Mini
Challenge Club Sport Championship, how...
And I don't know whether
easy is the right word that
I'm looking for,
but accessible might be better.
Is it to be racing and
working on one of the minis
that will race in this championship?
Yeah, very much so.
I mean, you know,
you could easily purchase a
mini online on eBay, auto trader,
you know, go down to the local garage,
whatever you may call it,
go and get yourself a, you know,
a twenty sixteen mini.
cooper s or something you
know put a roll cage in it
and and not the way you go
sort of thing you know um
cooper's is even you know
it's a little bit more
restricted it's a cooper
car so you know you've not
got all the the tricks and
bits like you have on a
cooper s probably a little
bit more easier I'd say I
think personally it's very
easy to go down get a cooper car and
put some tyres on it,
put some different dampers
on it and send it.
Because that's essentially all it is.
You know, it's a damper,
it's a tyre and a fire extinguisher.
And off you go, you know.
And I think that's important.
That's kind of what I'm
trying to get to here is
that there are obviously
many championships that are
now off supporting the
British touring cars and everything else.
And they're wicked to sort
of be a stepping stone thing there.
But
people kind of go well yeah
but that's that's you know
um complicated it's it's
expensive whatever to start
in uh whereas actually it's
like no this is accessible
this is achievable uh and
and it's and it's worth
looking at and and going
and having some fun I mean
we heard paul sawyer there
that he kind of had this as
a track car and he wanted
to go racing and it's like
well go and do it then and
that was pretty much what
he was told to do
Exactly that.
Like Glenn will tell you in
a short while that, you know,
if you want to, if you've got, you know,
ten thousand quid,
fifteen grand or whatever,
you can come racing at a
relatively high level.
You know, we support some very good series,
you know, like the trucks,
like mini festivals.
And that's brilliant as a
low profile driver coming in as a novice.
What an experience.
What an experience.
You know, I still get a buzz sort of,
you know, working in that now, you know,
like the Donington event we did.
Brilliant.
You know, such a great vibe.
And that's the key thing,
is it's so much fun.
By the way,
just quickly before I bring in Glenn,
is that Rob Austin says,
Spanner in for Halliwell
must have been so rubbish.
It had its challenging moments, for sure.
I mean, I'd say he was a harder...
driver to engineer mechanic
than Andy Langley and he's
bloody hard because he'd
never give you a rest Tom
would never give you a rest
he was always on the case
he knew what he wanted you
know and he mate but I'm
here today you know because
of that sort of click
around the air get on with it you know so
And that, you know,
I know we're joking and winding him up.
Incidentally, by the way,
he was warming up in the back down there.
He's getting ready for a rumble,
but it's that whole nature that it
that's what you're able to get involved in,
you know, that it's not just like,
let's just keep it working,
is that it's so much more expressive.
There's so much more that
you can do to get out there and enjoy it.
You know,
there's a bit more of a challenge to it,
which is, it sounds good.
Yeah, it does.
You know, I left Tom sort of in, sort of,
after we won the Minners, I sort of went,
sorry, after we'd won the MGs,
I sort of went and did my
own bit for a year.
Then we came back and did
three races and three
rounds in the Cooper Ass
with A. Reeve in the Stew Lane car.
I think I commentated on him
one of those up at Alton Park, actually,
and he won.
He did, he did.
A few sideways moments through Old Hall,
I think it was Old Hall, yeah,
and the Druids round the back.
But yeah, you know, I left him and sort of
did my bit in GT Corp and
did a bit in touring cars.
And then I did a bit with a
Mosler last year with
Martin Short and his sons.
So getting the opportunity
to come back to mini
challenge club sport or
getting to the options has come to it for,
you know, sort of supporting Tom in a way,
sort of brought it all back
close and nice.
You know, it was really, really nice.
And I'm sort of, you know,
I'm glad I'm there.
And yeah.
Yeah.
That's what I'm doing next season,
so I'm looking forward to it.
I do love it.
I mean,
the comments in the private chat as well,
and I will come to you guys
that are watching as well,
but in fairness,
Tom's confirmed Rob's
comment that it was rubbish
to Spanner for Halliwell.
But he said he was only
nitpicking because he was so slow,
is what Rob Austin said.
But
Tom did confirm that you
spanned at each time that I
was on the lower step,
that Rob Austin was on the
lower step to him.
So, you know, you work, Tom.
Teamwork makes the dream work,
as they say.
Exactly, yeah.
I mean,
Tom and Rob did always have good
battles on track.
They did.
I enjoyed many,
many a battle to commentate on.
Maybe they should return.
Who knows?
That would be good, wouldn't it?
I think so,
although I'm not sure whether
they're allowed to.
I don't know when it's the
Champions League.
No,
probably not in mini-challenge club sport,
but maybe in something different.
It'd be good to see them...
know or maybe do an
endurance race maybe yeah
well I just covered on
sunday the enduro k-a eight
hours twenty minutes and
because my co-commentator
got injured I had to do it
all on my own on sunday
that was fun really I mean
we did the uh the six hour
burkett silverstone with
the tron liz and and neil
and andy and that was it's
extremely long on the pit
wall put it that way
Yeah, absolutely.
Tom's also said he started
off mechanicing for his friends,
so mechanics can become drivers.
Is that a dream, Tom?
I'd have a go,
but I don't know whether I'd be any good.
Normally,
when we get karting with the lads
and stuff, I'm not too bad,
but I think that's because
I watch a bit of motorsport
and understand the lines.
But no, I'd have a go,
but doing it properly, I'm not too sure.
But Glenn, bringing you in, mate,
is I know that we've spoken
about this multiple times,
is that there's always been
this big drive about making it accessible,
making it easy to be involved in.
And, you know,
no one needs to be scared away from it,
do they?
No,
that's been the whole premise of the
championship since Rob and Tom started.
It's meant to be accessible.
The idea is to try.
There are plenty of minis out there,
people doing track days,
racing elsewhere and so on.
and we're trying to provide
a championship that is
friendly close racing as
competitive as you could
want it to be without the
massive budgets that you
would have to I mean I've
been involved in some of
the championships you were
talking about before and
the money that can be spent
in it is scary huge yeah so
I mean when you're talking
six figures to run a cooper
for a year it's a bit
can get a bit scary but yeah
I mean the whole point of
the top sports to get that
racing at a sensible level
and obviously with things
that we're trying to put in
place over the years to try
and make the care the cars
closer for performance make
the racing even closer but
also keep the cost down for
somebody who wants to build
a car because they don't
have to go to extremes to
try and keep up with the
other cars because they'll
all be at the same level
anyway exactly and and I
love this as well perfect acceleration
have said people often
forget the work that goes on in the pits.
People like Tom are worth
their weight in gold.
And, you know,
we talk about those coming driving,
but it's those that want to
get involved with getting
their hands dirty as well,
is that it is a great place
to get involved in that as well.
Yeah, well, that's where I started.
I mean, I started in motorsports
spanner in my own mind and
my friend's cars like going
around europe and just
plodding along trying to
get to different tracks
track days racing all that
sort of stuff and then from
that you build the desire
to do it so I got a job in
motorsport I met tom my
first year actually working
in motorsport properly was
the year tom did his last
year with a reef so that's
how I met him and then
obviously part of a reef I think
I saw you come and I was gone.
No, we did the McLaren event thing.
We did.
And then you did a couple of
rounds with he who should not be named.
I can't remember.
I can't even remember.
I think you were definitely
there because I remember
seeing you at Snatch and all.
I did the McLaren and I
can't remember after that.
I drove the car into the
side of that truck.
Yeah, yeah.
but Tom Tom Ison just and
Tom Halliwell it's fine
I'll bring you on in a
minute just wait is I want
to just quickly say you
know also from your
perspective Tom is that we
talk a lot about for
obvious reasons drivers
coming in and get involved
but equally it feels to me
that it's a great place if
you're if you're
mechanically minded to come
and get involved as well
yeah I think so and
And I don't believe you need
a lot of knowledge to be
welcomed into the
mini-challenge club sport
sort of environment.
They'll sort of put your arm
around you and assist you
and help you along the way
and become a better person,
better mechanic, better driver,
whatever you may be.
For me, I think...
are enough people in our
paddock with enough
experience if somebody
comes in and they're not
sure they can ask questions
or somebody will help them
out that's the whole point
of the championship it's
supposed to be that
close-knit my attitude has
always been all the way
through doing racing and
it's got me into trouble on
occasions is the drivers
beat each other on the
track not in the paddock
not with broken cars you
help them out you get on
track as best you can and
you you win on the track and that's
is the attitude that
everybody seems to have in
the club sport paddock.
That's what we're trying to promote.
So if somebody's got an
issue or missing a part,
you'll find it somewhere.
Somebody somewhere will give
you whatever you need to
get back out on that track.
Definitely.
It's very much the same with, you know,
we had to borrow a timing
chain tensioner.
at Castle Coombe because we
didn't have one
surprisingly we didn't have
one and someone lent us one
which is brilliant and
that's what you want you
know to get all the cars
back on the circuit for the
next race or next session
so it's great everyone
comes as a close family but
we're all competitors so
it's wonderful it's that
lovely fine line I cannot
believe it by the way I've
just seen Rob Austin get up
and sit back down again and
I'm sure he's in his
pyjamas by the way just
thought I'd drop that in
mate it's like left
zebra, zebra skin.
There it is.
He's just showing me.
Hang on.
I'm going to stitch him up.
Look, zebra skin.
There they are.
Look.
I wasn't,
I wasn't going to go down on my
own having seen that.
All right.
So I had to just share that.
It's like therapy, this show tonight.
So I'm also going to bring
him in because he's been
desperate to come in.
He's Mr. Halliwell.
Hello, mate.
You're clearly chomping at
the bit on this one.
Only because you sort of
like hear the stories of how, like,
I got into motor racing.
I wasn't a driver.
I never carted.
I looked after a friend's car, you know,
a very successful driver
who we got as far as Clio
Cup and ran out of money,
a guy called Pete Felix, who's massive.
Jake Wardle now, he's a big,
big guy in Fiesta Juniors now.
And then I decided I want to have a go.
And then I met Tom and Tom
was a young lad.
He just wanted to have a go
and get involved in racing.
And we just used to have the
back of a car and trailer.
you know, he'd look around and Tom,
you know, Tom talks and actually that,
that they're my trophies from MG days.
And that's what we won with
just a pair of mates going
racing one who wanted to
spanner and one who wanted to drive.
And, you know,
We're trying to get back to
that bit of it can be
really competitive out on the track,
but you don't have to have
a massive audience.
You don't need a lorry.
You don't need a huge team.
What you need is the belief
and the want and the desire.
And that's what we want to build.
Or enterprise, man, if you just.
Oh, yeah, that was unreal.
Jeff turning up for Crofton with his car.
Yeah, exactly.
Jeff Surrey's van broke down
on the way to Crofton.
He so much wanted to race,
he went and hired a Luton
van from Enterprise and
built ramps to get his car
in the back and got to Crofton.
I mean, that, to me, and bless his,
you know, Jeff's a great guy.
Again, he was part of the
reef team when I raced and
love him to bits and that
is exactly what we want in
you know in our paddock and
you know for me you you can
win races and run it
yourself with your friends
off a car off a trailer a
pop-up whatever but we are
there to help you you know
as a novice we will always
help you and you know and
then it kind of comes back
to the root of it and yeah
It's very close to my heart.
Motor racing, you know,
they're the best days.
Best days I've ever had was
me and my mates, van and trailer,
having a laugh, winning races.
Well,
I still remember you talking about
where you two would have
worked together in the MG.
I remember Snetterton.
It was cold.
It was fairly miserable.
You guys had been busy.
I'd finished commentating
day one and you had ordered
a Chinese takeaway in the
garage with a paraffin
heater on or whatever in the garage.
I could have tried to do a
head gasket if I remember.
It was a late one.
You were definitely on a late one.
And then you were sat with this thing.
And bless you guys.
You were like, Chris, come and sit down.
Come and have some of this.
You want any of this?
And I can imagine the actual
other guy involved was a
guy called Chris Wright,
who I met when I raised an MG trophy.
Well, actually, I was a mechanic.
in mg trophy to originally
and we met um with a
blazing row in the pit lane
at silverstone he
threatened to stab me with
a screwdriver because he
thought nicked his tire and
actually he's one of my
bestest mates now today and
he built my car one in and
that's how you know still
helps tom and things like
that so it's such a huge
community and I love for
racing and as I say you
know and glenn's the same
it's all about the love of
cars and and just go fast in circles
And going and doing the
thing that we love together.
I still, that one night,
I still remember it.
And Chris Wright, bless him,
he's been off doing the
runs down to Ukraine and
all sorts in the van and what have you.
And the massive guy that was
just the biggest heart, so much fun.
And his lad as well, wasn't it?
Yeah, that's right.
And he was a pretty good peddler as well,
even from memory.
And it was weird.
It's one of those nights
that still sticks with me.
It was cold.
It was dark.
It was horrible.
And you guys got this
Chinese takeaway of a mix
of a whole host of things.
And you were just so welcoming, going,
come on, if you want some, have some.
I don't think I did in the end,
as it happened.
So the thing was, when the lights went out,
we would be fierce.
However,
as soon as the checkered flag's done,
it's back to normality so
that's what I'm saying it's
a healthy competitiveness
we promote not only the
camaraderie in the paddock
but out on the track we
want you know serious
racing and and that's what
we promote as well so um
which is why it's all you
know it's all a big social
that's a part of it the
main thing is actually
going to enjoy really good racing
And that was a key thing
when we spoke down at
Castle Coombe and suggested
that we started working
together and doing a number
of things like this and what have you,
is that you know that I get
that as well from the commentators,
from the fans' perspective, you know,
all of that.
And what you and Rob
initially set up to do, and Glenn,
is just to create that for everyone.
Tom,
I love that we've taken this from your
anger as well, Tom Ison, because...
You know,
we're speaking to the drivers and
we desperately are trying
to make sure we're
encouraging plenty of those.
The worst bit is, Mr. Ison,
you talk about your endurance race,
and over my shoulder, that side,
is a big slab of Welsh
slate that me and Wrighty
won with a team off the
back of a van and trailer.
And that was the first ever
race for remembrance.
Eight hours, that was.
And we finished with a
wheelbarrow and about to fall off.
An upper angle seat, presumably, that one,
wasn't it?
Yeah, probably one of the best.
A great, great event.
It's coming up, I think,
weekend after next, but yeah.
No, no, good.
Well, Tom Ison, Glenn, first of all,
is there anything else that
we should be asking Tom
Ison about from that side?
Because obviously this is your baby,
isn't it?
The technical side.
Well, yeah, just it's about, obviously,
the regs.
Harry's
Does he think that we've got it right?
Is he happy with how things
are and what the plans are for next year?
Obviously,
somebody's going to be running
cars or being a mechanic.
It'd be interesting to see
that side of how they feel it is.
Because as drivers,
you're always going to get, no,
I want my car to be as fast as possible.
Whereas mechanics tend to
understand the logic behind
the technical side of it.
Good question.
Good question, Tom Lyson.
Yeah, I think you have.
Yeah.
it keeps costs capped essentially,
you know, you're not going,
you're not spiralling away with, you know,
bigger bank balances and
smaller bank balances, let's say.
So you're not modding your cars, you know,
unrestricted and things like that.
So I think, I think it's a good idea of,
you know, Cooper S,
it'll bring it closer.
Coopers,
it'd be good to see a few more
Coopers involved and,
you know, ten plus would be great,
wouldn't it,
to have a little Cooper race at the back,
because sometimes three or
four is a bit lonely, but... Hang on,
hang on.
You say that, but then three, then two,
three cars.
Yeah, of course.
The racing all year
throughout every class was fantastic,
wasn't it?
Yeah, you watched them three.
If you watched Dan,
Neil and Andy at most of
the races last year,
that was the best racing on
the circuit most of the time.
Yeah.
Just free cars can still
entertain you for... Yes.
Sometimes from a driver point, though,
they want more drivers.
Yeah, I get that.
But to be fair,
though... Neil said it a few times.
He wants to be looking in
his mirror all the time and on it,
you know?
No, to be fair...
He kept complaining that he
had to overtake the cars in front of him.
The key point that I'm picking up here,
if I'm honest, guys,
is that anybody watching
this that's umming and ahhing,
we've now seen it,
that exactly as Glenn and
Tom Halliwell have both been saying,
and I can testify both as a
fan and a commentator,
and we love it when there's action,
is that you're right.
Tom Ison, you're absolutely right.
What was it?
Three, four, five cars, whatever.
Epic battles,
as Glenn and Tom Halliwell have said.
We want more.
Therefore,
that's where you people have got
to come in.
It's accessible.
As Tom Ison has confirmed,
it is designed to be easier,
affordable to get out there and do it.
And the racing is epic.
There's no question about it.
There is racing going on.
up and down through this grid.
And that is what I love
about the Mini Challenge
Club Sport as well.
Tom Ison's confirmed it from
a mechanics perspective.
These two, I know,
we can say they're biased,
but... Can I just say,
it's almost like a ladder as well,
isn't it?
So, you could enter, you know,
with a Cooper and then work
your way up and go into a Cooper S,
fifty-three, fifty-six,
and then even tweak it to
be in an open class or move
further afield.
So,
There's definitely a
progression there with
mini-challenge club sport, for sure.
Agreed.
I like that one as well.
Well, Tom Ison,
thank you so much for joining us, mate.
I do appreciate it.
And now, hopefully,
you can see there was
nothing to be nervous about at all.
It was all good.
No, secretly,
I come round because he's cooking me tea.
Oh, fair do.
I think that's worth him supporting you.
I do love it.
Tom Ison, thank you so much, mate.
I appreciate that.
And we'll let you go now.
I know you'll be in the background.
We might even see you walk
through that door behind in a moment,
but I will let you go.
And I'm not even going to play the,
what do I call it?
The transition,
because I'm going to
straight away bring Rob
Austin on and I'm going to
let Tom Ison be relieved there.
Because we're going to carry
on the discussion that we
were really getting into.
And actually,
someone's asked a question
that leads us into this.
David Taylor says,
is there going to be any
major changes to the Cooper
class regs for twenty
twenty five for Glenn and Tom?
Cheers.
And that's really one of the
things that we wanted to
finish off this show was
just pick up with you guys
about regs changes.
Glenn, go on.
Who wants to start with that one?
Cooper wise,
an answer to the question from.
Mr. Taylor,
Cooper regs aren't changing a great deal.
We're making a few very
minor tweaks just to bring
things in line for twenty
twenty five that we wanted
to do last year,
but just didn't get the
infrastructure in place to do it.
So the coopers themselves,
very little changes.
Nothing that's going to cost
anybody a fortune.
That's the main thing.
As we've said all along,
this is not supposed to be
open wallet racing.
This is meant to be cheap
club-based racing,
really good club racing.
So anything we do do is
based upon that principle.
That's fine.
Do I get the impression there are some,
Rob Austin,
I'm going to turn to you
because we've just added you back here.
Welcome back, mate.
And your zebra pants.
I think there was... No, no, no.
That's true.
That's true.
Making a lot of fuss over a little thing.
Is there any Reg's comments
that we did want to touch on?
No, I leave the regs to them.
Look,
I think the bottom line is that we're
in such a great space for next year.
You know,
we've got a good infrastructure
of partners, drivers,
a fantastic calendar.
It's really exciting.
I mean, you know, if you've got a minute,
you want to come racing with us,
we're going to make it.
make it happen,
we're going to make it available to you.
It's just such a good time.
We're so relaxed, actually.
This time last year,
everything was up in the air.
We'd had a hell of a season.
Tom and I were overworked, underpaid.
Same this year, really.
But Glenn came in and he
really provided some stability for us.
And it's been brilliant.
So we've now got everything that we want.
And we've got a fantastic
new partnership with Silverlake.
which we'll announce very shortly.
Silverlake are coming on
board with us in a multi-year deal,
which is fantastic.
All of our drivers will be
able to get discounted parts through them,
which will be available on
site at each meeting.
So it's a great thing.
We've got stability in the
championship and it's fantastic.
I think Glenn, Tom, myself,
we would just love to be racing in it.
Yeah, no, I agree.
Incidentally, by the way, what I will say,
and hopefully we'll get a
chance to get Andy on when
he's not away or anything like that,
but Garmin,
obviously you've got this
Garmin Catalyst.
Don't necessarily steal
thunder from when we do get Andy on,
but this Garmin Catalyst
seems like a pretty amazing
thing for the drivers.
Who should I aim that one to?
Who wants to pick up that one?
Glenn will tell you all about it.
Catalyst is a very,
very good tool for the drivers.
What they've done, I'm going to
managed to develop a system
there that is very very
intuitive for people to use
for not only just doing
basic stuff but the way
that it works for giving
driver coaching like it
built in optimization of
lap times all that sort of
stuff and for the for the
cost of it it's it's a no-brainer really
And obviously through discussions with us,
Tom, Rob,
they are developing it as they
go along as well.
We've made requests.
They're looking into doing
that to make it more
motorsport-oriented and all
that sort of thing.
But as the original tool
that they came up with,
there's nothing like it on
the market either, I think.
It is very, very good at what it does.
It was actually developed in America.
Yeah,
but all of our competitors... It was
developed in America by... Go on.
I think you know and with
that comes the partnership
is that actually the all of
our competitors
get a real good discount
well over and above on what
they can achieve elsewhere
um on the product so most I
would say probably nine on
all but one or two drivers
have actually got a
catalyst in their car that
they've not you know it's
not just been a given you
know they've gone out and
bought it so it's out of
their choice as well it's
not oh you have to run it
it's not written in the
regulations they've chosen
to like spend their money
there so it's a massive sort of um
endorsement for the product, really.
I think the thing is that from, you know,
if you look at the partners
that we've got involved,
from Airtec to Ravenol,
to Garmin and now to Silverlake,
we've got people involved,
we've got companies
involved who want to give
something back to the competitors.
So our guys can get cheaper oil,
they can get cheaper parts,
parts that need to be on the cars.
They can do something with
the Garmin Catalyst.
It's just helpful.
Every little bit helps.
And I think that they're
lucky to have that really.
And the key one that was
really nice is that the
winners of the different
class championships
actually got Garmin watches as well.
They do.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, which is, you know, where else,
where else can you,
where else can you race
where you can end up with a, you know,
with a watch at the end of the season?
No, exactly.
Jake Wardle.
It might actually help some
of them get to this
assembly area on time and
also to the driver's briefing.
The driver's briefing.
Briefing, do you know?
Yeah, briefing.
No difference whatsoever.
Jake Wardle says,
got to go and revise for mocks next week.
Chris, but enjoyed listening.
Thanks, mate.
And good luck with your mocks.
Yeah,
I've got a load of dishwasher in a
minute and all.
Yeah.
Jason McKinnis says,
I can see the catalyst is,
I can say the catalyst is very good.
It helped me out a lot.
And Rob,
you were saying to me earlier that
I think you've got,
was it like two or three of
them that are available for
people to try out?
And it's like the uptake has
been absolute pretty much, hasn't it?
Well, it's been fascinating, actually,
because we started off with
three and then Andy Hayman
managed to get us a couple
more last year or one more,
I think it was.
And every time we ask the driver, you know,
we give it to a driver and
then after two or three races,
we want it back.
And they go, oh, okay, well,
I better buy one then.
What's the discount?
And also, it was interesting.
It was developed by one of
their guys who was a
motorsport fanatic in America.
He came up with this thing
and just ran with it.
And Garmin said to him, okay,
give it a go.
See what happens.
And from that,
it's now the Garmin Casas II
is coming out this year,
of which we're having some
involvement in its development.
So it's brilliant.
Yeah.
And I'm hoping that the
three of us will be able to
go to America to help develop it.
Of course.
We're all in on that one.
Yeah, we're all in on that one.
That's absolutely fine.
So, yes, Silver Lake, obviously,
the new partnership that's
involved there that you kind of...
blamonge announced there, really,
didn't you?
Yeah, well, I mean, it's official now.
Silver Lake have sponsored
Paul Sawyer this year.
They were keen to be
involved with the championship.
As we well know,
they're heavily involved with the C-Ones.
It's not to take anything
away from the C-Ones,
but they fancily go at the minis.
They've got an awful lot.
Their setup is huge.
It's mad, isn't it?
I had a tour around it,
and I was absolutely blown away.
It's like a sweet shop, isn't it?
It's unbelievable.
They've got just so much stuff there.
And, you know,
they're really heavily into
their marketing.
It's going to be wild having
those guys on board next
year because they just love
their motorsport.
And we'll have our work cut out,
keeping them quiet, I think.
But, no, it's a great thing.
We've also got a new social
media set up with Jay Jones.
who's involved with Silverloaf.
So that's something else
that we'll announce on the next podcast.
But it's all looking really good.
That's awesome.
Business has come early.
No,
it's so good to hear that the future's
bright, the future's healthy.
That is awesome.
Glenn,
anything that we do need to make
sure people are aware,
whether it's on the regs or
anything else that we haven't said yet?
No, nothing that they need to be aware of.
Obviously, everything will be getting,
I think, entries open first of December.
That's the thing they need
to make sure they're aware of,
get their entries in as soon as possible.
Calendars out so they can
see what great circuits we're going to,
what the great series we're
supporting again this year.
So, yeah,
I think anybody that's got a Mini
that doesn't race with us
has kind of lost the plot a little bit,
I think.
No, that is good to get that out so early.
By the way, Wendy May says,
big thank you to Glenn for
helping and looking out for
Miss Media Bracket Sophie
again this year.
Couldn't do it without you all guys.
And I just love that.
So many lovely stories about, you know,
all the other bits that you
guys are doing and helping
with and everything else like that.
I think we've covered everything,
haven't we guys?
Is there anything else?
Just one final thing.
Oh, Rob first.
Yeah, just one final thing.
You know, for us,
we've got this mini festival this year.
It's fantastic for us to be back on that.
You know,
MSV have been brilliant in
getting us on board.
In fact,
they've actually asked us to headline it.
So,
We've got the garages,
we've got trade space,
and it's back to its best.
So for us, that's a brilliant meeting.
I think the guys and girls
racing at it won't believe how good it is,
but the three of us know how good it is.
And you know, in fact, you know, Chris,
how good it is.
Yeah,
I've been in the commentary box
leading the team for that
one several times,
and hopefully I'll be back
there with you guys for that one.
It's just such a cool event,
both on and off track.
So that is a great one to be
involved with.
So that's wicked.
Tom Halliwell,
anything else that you want to add?
We've got one other big announcement, Tom,
haven't we?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
My old business partner has
gone off on a bit of a sidetrack here.
So we're going to announce a
couple of big things,
one being Silver Lake involvement,
which is absolutely massive for us.
and our competitors,
because what it does is
allow the spare parts that
like Tom was saying, they all, you know,
try and find between the
vans at the moment, that'll be there, uh,
in abundance.
Um,
but one of the big things that we are
going to announce and we need,
we want to announce it now
because we want to release
regulations is that we have
signed a multi-year
agreement with Devante Tires.
to provide tyres for us for this year,
about twenty twenty five to
twenty seven at least.
I'm sure Maddox at Devante
has been so keen and so
supportive of the championship.
So that's now written into
the regulations.
The support they've given is
unbelievable for what we
would deem as a club level series.
The costs are fantastic.
The full support from BMTR
again that we've had this year.
So it's a huge thing for us to announce.
Sadly,
my partner in crime logged in a bit
early with some of the others.
But yeah,
it's a huge thing for our competitors.
I mean,
we've actually reduced our costs
from this year going into
next year and probably the year after,
which is huge.
That is wicked because you
even kept that one from me.
So that was really cool.
We wanted to leave the best to last.
I mean, Devante,
we've been talking to them
for a few months.
Some of the guys tested the
tyres at the Birkett and
were very impressed with them.
So having them on board for
a club series like ours is phenomenal.
And I think the drivers are
going to really enjoy the tyres.
Yeah, definitely.
Longevity looks good.
Certainly going to enjoy the costing.
Yeah, the price is unbelievable.
I'm not going to put numbers out there now,
but you're talking less
than ties for this year.
So in a world where it's Wednesday,
we've all had a budget
release and things have gone up,
we're actually reducing the
price of something that
actually is on a like-for-like basis,
if not slightly quicker.
Yeah.
I think we're going to be
the envy of a lot of
championships with an
advantage because the name
is well known through,
obviously through Dan Zelos and, you know,
the JCWs.
And I think that actually
now we've seen the product,
it's phenomenal.
And the support for the series is amazing.
Yeah.
That sounds really, really cool.
I have to say,
we've been getting comment coming in.
Jay Jones says,
looking forward to working
with the series.
Plus Silver Lake is exciting
to get stuck in as well.
So that's really cool to
hear that as well.
Absolutely awesome.
I just want to go back to it.
I mean, you know,
we go back to how we are now.
You know,
we're at the back end of twenty
twenty four.
We're looking at twenty twenty five.
But we still must like remember, you know,
our partners Airtec, Garmin,
Ravenol and Norfolk Mini,
who've all shown huge confidence in
you know,
to help us get to where we've got
to and continue to support.
And without all of them,
this wouldn't be possible.
And what our guys, you know,
the calendar we get and the
kind of cost to go racing,
which in a modern day world
is relatively cheap.
What they get is good.
I think one of the big
things that I can say, stepping out of it,
you guys are obviously internal,
is that what I love,
and this kind of backs up
something you said to me multiple times,
Tom,
is that, I think I'm mistaken,
he called them sponsors.
And you went, no, no, no, no, no.
They are not sponsors.
They are partners.
And I thought that was a
throwaway comment at the
time because everyone dresses it up.
But it's like, no, no, no.
They actually genuinely are
partners because everyone
is providing something that
helps these people go racing.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
It helps the championship thrive.
Yeah, you know,
what lots of people think is, oh, well,
you know,
they take an entry fee in magnitude.
You know,
people with the greatest respect
who go racing, and I'll be honest,
up until probably me and
Rob came up with this
stupid idea to take it over,
we hadn't got an idea.
Circuit costs, insurance, general of the,
you know, fees, blah, blah, blah.
And all of a sudden you go, hang on.
to keep the budget where we want it to be,
we need the support and
also then to discount the
products to the competitors.
So totally, I mean,
I think we can both say
we're so proud of where we
are now with who we've got
signed up and our
competitors are involved with it.
It's fantastic.
I love it.
I love it.
Glenn,
I'm all conscious I didn't come back
to you.
Is there anything else that
you want to add before we wrap up?
No, I think the two old fellas have
covered most of it yeah
tough paper round no listen
guys that's so exciting
we're taking a little bit
of a hibernation on this
show but we'll be back I
believe is the plan isn't
it at some point to be
discussed basically I think
people are into Christmas
mode now they've got to go
and buy presents for young
children and stuff
All they need to know is
that the championship is there.
We're ready to go.
Everything's done.
Tom and Glenn are going to
get these regulations out
very shortly now that we've
got the Devante tyres sorted out.
It's so good.
Make sure you get your
entries in nice and early in December.
Absolutely.
Watch this space and
hopefully we'll be back
with Episode five in due course.
It's been an absolute
pleasure to see this this
fun that you guys have had
with the tail end of of
twenty twenty four season guys.
Really impressed to see how
you've grown it.
And to me,
twenty twenty five looks
incredibly exciting.
And you look incredibly excited,
excited about it as well, is fair to say.
Keep up the great work, guys, genuinely.
And I still love the fact
that it is running a
championship how you wish
it had always been run for
you guys as well.
Thanks very much.
Cheers.
Well done.
Glenn looks like he's in a prison.
Hold up, hold up.
You're the one that looks
like you've got prison trousers on.
I should lend them to Glenn then.
Oh, my God.
On that note,
we bid you a very good evening.
Thanks, everybody.
Have a wonderful Christmas.
We'll see you again very soon.
Cheers.