Charles Rainford, youngest Mini racer
“I started racing when I was 16. I have raced mostly my dad’s Marcos 1800 GT and Lenham GT Le Mans, and as an instructor now with Jonathan Palmer I have a lot of experience driving modern GTs – but all rear-wheel-drive. The only time I have driven a racing Mini was in a shootout at the Festival of Speed.
“I started in qualifying driving the way I know, so braking in a straight line, coming off the brakes then turning in and gradually feeding in the power. That doesn’t work in a Mini at all. You have to keep the power on and hope the rear follows the front, and if it understeers you have to give it more steering and more throttle. It’s all very backwards from what I know but all really good fun, and sometimes just a little scary too.
“The car was built by CCK from the most rotten Mini we could find, and is the car in the book we have just published called How to prepare a historic racing Mini. It was originally built for the Brands Hatch Mini festival in 2016 and doesn’t have all the fancy bits on it. It’s far more like a racing Cooper S was in period, so we were always going to be towards the back of the grid. I like to be able to see what’s happening in front of me…”
Ed’s note: Charles started the final in 26th spot and finished 24th.
Photography by Pete Summers, Drew Gibson and Jayson Fong.