MINI John Cooper Works Team Unveils New Car at Circuit of the Americas

TGR Staff  -  05/02/21

The MINI John Cooper Works Team unveiled its latest race car for the 2021 SRO TC America series at Circuit of the Americas this weekend. The #60 MINI, which is inspired by the latest generation MINI John Cooper Works GP, will be driven by veteran driver Mark Pombo this past weekend at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, and for the remainder of the 2021 season. Replacing Pombo in the #61 MINI in the Touring Car A (TCA) class is veteran Derek Jones. Jones will ride alongside Clayton Williams driving the #62 MINI. 

Visually inspired by the third generation MINI John Cooper Works GP launched in 2020, the #60 MINI is a MINI John Cooper Works Hardtop that has been engineered and modified using both original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and components from across the MINI line up and aftermarket performance parts in order to meet the technical rules and regulations required to compete in the TC class. The GP-inspired visual cues presented on the #60 MINI, including the paint scheme and front grill and fender, help to meet the requirements of the series to differentiate the TC versus TCA race cars while on the track.

While this is the first race for the #60 MINI that they will be a contender this weekend and going forward. In the first round of practice, the car was in the top 10 with a fast lap time of 2:28.966. The team is looking to build on the momentum from the start of the season after taking three podiums at Sonoma Raceway in pursuit of the team’s third Manufacturer’s Championship in a row in the series. The MINI JCW Team also won the Manufacturer’s Championship in 2018 in the final season of the Street Tuner class of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Series, where the team finished ahead of BMW, Porsche, and Mazda.

The MINI JCW Team will have their usual full-time race crew supported by two service technicians from Momentum MINI in Houston and MINI of Plano in the Southern Region. These are the same technicians that repair consumer MINIs and have proven time and again that their knowledge transfers to the racing world.