SNETTERTON START FOR COOPER CLASS OF 2025

For the second successive season, Snetterton plays host to the opening round of the year for the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy this weekend with a high-quality field preparing to do battle for the first time in 2025.

A total of 23 drivers are set to take part in the first three races of the new campaign with the prospect of more to follow over the course of a season that will once again feature 21 races spread across seven events between now and November – when the traditional season finale takes place at Brands Hatch.

But who will be on track doing battle this season in arguably the most competitive one-make series in the UK?

The entry list is headed by defending champions Westbourne Motorsport, which secured a 1-2 finish in the standings last season thanks to Harry Hickton and Sam Gornall – who shared the three wins at Snetterton twelve months ago.

With both drivers having now moved on to pastures new, an expanded four-car line-up will be headed by former Rookie Cup winner Rhys Hurd, who joins the team on the back of two seasons with Chandler Motorsport.

Hurd won more races than any other driver in the Cooper field last season, although a run of misfortune outside his control would ultimately prevent him from battling for the overall title in his second year in the series.

Hurd is joined in the team by two drivers who competed in Westbourne colours last season in the shape of Luca Marinoni Osborne and Olivier Algieri, as well as fellow newcomer Jamie Keates.

Marinoni Osborne scored a best finish of third last year en-route to ninth in the championship standings, whilst Algieri bagged a brace of second place finishes from the two meetings he contested as a toe-in-the-water exercise ahead of launching a full championship bid this year.

Keates, who picked up his maiden MINI CHALLENGE win at Pembrey last season, returns to the grid after a part campaign last season with PerformanceTek Racing bidding to also challenge at the sharp end of the grid.

Arguably the man to beat going into the new season leads the EXCELR8 line-up, as Gabe Fairbrother embarks on his third season as part of the grid.

Having taken fourth in the standings last season, Fairbrother is the highest placed returning driver and will go into 2025 having ended last year as the form driver on the grid – scoring seven podium finishes in the final ten races.

Fairbrother was also the only driver to score points in every race last year and will look to replicate that consistency to help EXCELR8 try to reclaim the title it won with Tom Ovenden in 2023.

The teenager is joined this weekend at Snetterton by karting graduate Mackenzie Taylor as he makes the step into car racing for the first time, whilst Simon Sweetland also makes his debut in the series running from the EXCELR8 awning under the Maxtune Motorsport banner.

Another potential championship contender is the current Rookie Cup champion Ronnie Smith, who returns to the series for a second season – albeit with a new team in the shape of Race Car Consultants.

Smith previously competed with the team in the Fiesta Junior Championship so will be returning to familiar surroundings, with his experience in the series being key for the series newcomers

His team-mate for the season is a driver who joins the grid for the first time in the shape of Henry Foote, another youngster with a background in Fiesta racing.

Although Smith has moved on, Chandler Motorsport returns with a four-car entry as it looks to secure the Rookie Cup crown for a third successive season.

Reigning Junior Saloon Car Champion Harry Smith will hope to carry the momentum of an impressive 2024 campaign into the new season, with fellow newcomer Charlie Barre alongside as he makes a return to competition after time on the sidelines.

Cameron Wood is back for a second season with a year of experience under his belt, whilst CJ Morgan commits to a full season having made his debut in the series in the latter stages of 2024.

Over at Graves Motorsport, a streamlined three-car line-up includes another driver who shouldn’t be discounted in the title fight in the shape of Alex Keens, who scored three podium finishes last year and is a former winner in the series.

Keens is again joined by Leo Purches as he looks to build on a promising rookie campaign in which he took huge strides forward, whilst a late addition to the line-up will debut this weekend in Monroe Rennard, who switches over from Britcar.

The final two multi-car programmes come in the shape of Team Avago and the Wera Alliance Racing Academy, both of which take two cars to the opening round.

For Avago, the line-up for 2025 remains unchanged as Joshua Wilby and Louis Fleet return for a second season, whilst the Alfie Garford and Jenson Mason fly the Wera flag as both step into the MINI CHALLENGE for the first time.

Three single-car entrants round out the grid, with Paul Manning returning for another crack at the series with the Mannpower Motorsport team run by his son James, with Ashley Gregory Racing running from the same awning as she returns for another season as the only female driver currently committed to the Cooper grid.

Rookie James Sherrington rounds out the entry running as a Privateer alongside the Westbourne squad.