Time Flies - So Does Bradley Gravett

After the pandemic of 2020, the motorsport industry here in the UK was hit hard, making the sport even tougher to partake in. It wasn’t tough necessarily on the actual driving front, but the commercial side became rather tricky to balance. In line with UK government legislation, multiple industries simply had to shut down overnight. And with motorsport being so dependent on many different forms of industry, it made some of the simplest things nearly impossible to achieve.

Hi, I’m Bradley Gravett, A professional British racing driver and the son of former British Touring Car Champion Robb Gravett. I wrote an article which was published in last year in MotorWerks Magazine and I am happy to say that I will be continuing to write for the magazine. My team and I are also excited that our trials and tribulations will also be included in the new Miniology Magazine. The MINI/Mini crowd are unlike all the others out their, their passion for the brand is out of this World.

In 2022 I’ll be continuing to compete in the lead support series to the UK’s most premier racing series, the British Touring Car Championship. This year, I’ll once again be driving my LIQUI MOLY sponsored red and blue striped MINI Challenge JCW race car that you may remember from that previous MotorWerks article.

With 2021 now way behind us, I’d like to take this opportunity to let you know how last season went for me in the MINI Challenge UK JCW series. But, for those of you who don’t know my history, I’d like to first brush over it; I started my professional motorsport career in 2007, driving for the late, great, Martin Hines in his then named Zip Kart Young Guns karting team. Competing in 2007 in the Junior Rotax class in two back to back British championships, Super 1 and Stars of Tomorrow, I spent 2007 learning my craft, perfecting my race lines, and getting progressively quicker as the year went on.

After 2007, in 2008, I then graduated away from Junior Rotax onto the much quicker KF3 engine class, switched from the Zip Kart chassis to a Tony Kart chassis and ran with an independent team. In 2008, we decided only to compete in Super 1, as at that time, it was recognised globally as the karting championship to ‘do’, with some of the world’s most successful drivers competing in the same races as myself; Alex Albon, Ashley Sutton, and Jake Dennis to name a few.

Despite a successful run in 2008 and a promising future in karting, we decided against the move to continue in the sport to focus our efforts on the move to car racing. Unfortunately, however, due to the global financial fall over of 2008 and my commitment to my education, this short break ended up becoming a 12-year sabbatical away from full-time motor racing. During this time off, however, I didn’t stay away from the sport and very much kept my toe in the water by testing and racing several cars until, in 2020, I secured a

full-time drive for Graves Motorsport in the MINI Challenge Cooper Trophy class. After a very successful 2020 in the MINI Challenge Cooper Trophy class, with a consistent front running pace, we decided to take a jump up a level in 2021 into the much faster MINI Challenge JCW class. With the JCWs being the lead support series to the British Touring Car Championship, matched with the vast number of spectators trackside and national, prime time TV coverage, it was a no brainer move from a commercial perspective.

Branded under ‘MINI Challenge’, there’s a massive misconception that the Cooper class race cars (my 2020 season car) are similar to the JCW class race cars (my 2021 season car); this couldn’t be more wrong. The Cooper class car is a 130bhp, 1.6 litres naturally-aspirated, in essence, Cooper road car, with a standard gearbox, upgraded suspension, slick tyres and a roll cage. Whereas the JCW is a 285bhp turbocharged, flame-spitting thoroughbred touring car with a six-speed Quaife sequential gearbox, a complete JCW body kit and three-way adjustable Nitron dampers, to name but a handful of upgrades, and believe me, the list goes on.

The only similarity between the two classes is the MINI badge on the bonnet and boot. So long story short, the Cooper class car is an underpowered, over gripped race car that’s relatively easy and forgiving to drive. In contrast, the JCW class race car is an under gripped massively overpowered, incredibly unforgiving, ‘literally’ MINI touring car that requires a particular balance of skill, knowledge and confidence to drive consistently quickly and on the limit. So basically, the truth being told; the JCW will bite you hard, and the Cooper won’t, it’s as simple as that. with his previous experience in a JCW matched with his vast wealth of knowledge of front-wheel drive Clip Cup racing, Max was and continues to be a very valuable asset to both myself and Graves Motorsport.

With a relatively limited pre-season testing programme in 2021, due to teething issues with the race car, which were sorted the week prior to the first round of the season at Snetterton in June, I was unsure of what to expect, so I remained openminded as to how this first round would go. And that was absolutely the right mindset for this race weekend, as I was only a handful of tenths off the front running pace and consistently lapping in the top 12 all weekend.

From this first round, the overwhelming confidence I gained from my progress and development as a driver in such a tricky car, with a lack of pre-season testing, cemented my foundational belief of what I knew I could achieve in this car.

Throughout 2021, which was always intended to be my ‘learning year’ in the JCW, like all drivers embarking on a new championship, I certainly had my fair share is highs and lows. Fundamentally, however, any win or loss from last season was always seen as a positive development. Simply put, every correct and incorrect decision from both a driver and a team perspective, in my eyes, was always seen as a positive move forwards, because if it worked, I’d do it again, and if it didn’t, I wouldn’t.

The knowledge I’ve gained from last year is vital to my ongoing development and successes in the JCW class for 2022. I am already thinking about track setups and how they might affect the car’s ability to do what I want it to do. This skill will only continue to develop in time, and with it, I’m loaded up and ready to go for what’s going to be an exhilaratingly successful 2022.

This year, the MINI Challenge JCW race car will see an upgraded Goodyear tyre specification, which should give the car more compliance and reproducibility as the tyre degrades. Along with the tyre change, the JCWs will see an upgraded body kit to bring the championship image more in line with the current JCW road car and a widened drift shaft to help minimise mid-race failures.

All in all, I am very excited to get back out on track this year with Graves Motorsport; we’ve got a solid pre-season testing plan scheduled before the first race weekend, which is at Donington Park on the 23rd and 24th of April.

Team manager David Graves said, “Bradley has been a key element in our progression to the JCW class of the MINI CHALLENGE UK, so we are naturally delighted to continue helping him develop throughout our third season working together. We’ve made significant improvements over the winter that we feel will help Bradley to become a regular inside the top-10 which he showed promise of in 2021. He is also an asset off-track, doing fantastic work with his partners and engaging with race weekend fans at the BTCC events. This is important in our team and Bradley exudes what we stand for in abundance.”

Bradley’s father, two-time BTCC Champion Robb Gravett gas us this quote. “The JCW series in the UK is probably one of the most competitive series in the UK currently. It is the obvious choice for Bradley to develop his driving particularly in viewof the plan for him to step up to the British TouringCar Championship hopefully in 2023. . There is no doubt that Bradley is very fast and does have the commitment and desire to succeed in the series. I think there will be a major step change in 2022 partly due to his year of development from last year and partly due to the team understanding the intricacies of the highly competitive and relatively complex JCW. I would have liked to have spent

To stay up to date with all the cool stuff, don’tforget to follow my socials @bradleygravett / @bradleygravettracing