Mighty Minis: historic racing on a budget

By Ryan Standen

| 26 Dec 2025

Classic & Sports Car – Mighty Minis: historic racing on a budget

Your teammate is usually your biggest rival in motorsport. But what’s it like when that person is also your father?

“He beat me at Thruxton,” says 22-year-old James Jenkins. “I’ll never hear the end of that.”

A faulty fuel-pressure regulator was the young driver’s excuse, but then dad John posted a faster lap time in the second race.

“Now he’s getting quicker and we battle against each other more,” adds James, who joined the Mighty Minis grid in 2022.

James (right) and John Jenkins compete in the Mighty Minis championship. Is there any father-son rivalry?

James immediately impressed by winning the Novice Trophy and securing second place in the championship, which he followed up with third-place finishes in 2023 and ’24. But now he’s looking over his shoulder for John, too.

“I recently turned 60,” explains John. “Up until then I had never worried about getting older. But then suddenly I thought: ‘I’ve got to do something. Bugger it, I’ll give it a go’.”

Mighty Minis – now part of the 750 Motor Club – celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2025, and the grassroots series is still one of the cheapest ways to go historic racing.

Mighty Minis turned 30 in 2025

As with any form of motorsport, ‘affordable’ is a subjective term, but relatively low race fees and tightly controlled, budget-friendly regulations help to keep costs in check.

James bought his racer – a championship-winning 1994 Rover Mini SPi – in 2021 for £8500.

Not pocket money, but a fraction of the price of the Mini Cooper ‘S’ racers that battle gargantuan Ford Galaxies at Goodwood Revival.

True, the modest Mighty Minis series might lack the prestige of the Duke of Richmond’s world-famous gathering, but it offers sub-£10,000 thrills and a grid full of buzzy, 1275cc tin-tops at some of the UK’s major circuits.

This classic Mini makes around 80bhp from its tuned Rover A-Plus engine

Go-getting James paid for his first year on the grid by buying, repairing and selling ride-on lawnmowers.

“A family friend knew a farmer with a job lot for sale,” he says. “It was quite good fun and I still do it a little bit. It funded my university degree, too.”

That side hustle boosted James’ mechanical knowledge, which came in handy when John decided he wanted to compete in 2024.

“If you get into trouble you can’t lift off – you have to accelerate to pull it back round. If you brake or lift, you just spin”

“We found an unfinished rally-car project,” recalls John. “The owner had sorted the bodyshell and put in a rollcage, and it came with lots of spares.

“Usually when you find a secondhand restoration project, you’re handed boxes of rusty spares, such as old brake calipers that should be scrapped, but he gave us wheels, brakes, a subframe and more – and it was all brand-new. We picked it up for £3500.”

So how do you turn a roadgoing Mini into a racing car on the cheap?

“Strip the interior and try to make it as light as possible,” explains James. “You need all the safety stuff: a rollcage, race harness, fire extinguisher, bucket seat and cut-off switches.”

This championship-winning Mighty Minis car has a lap timer in the centre of its steering wheel

There are some approved upgrades, but the Mighty Minis regulations require mostly standard bodywork (although a glassfibre bonnet and boot are allowed) and an unmodified Rover A-Plus cylinder head.

If you can do the engine work yourself, a race-ready rebuild will set you back around £3500, according to self-taught mechanics James and John.

“If you pay someone to do it, you’re looking at £4-6000,” reckons John.

James adds: “You can do it at home, it just takes a bit more time. Dad does most of the bodywork. I think he finds it therapeutic.

“I don’t mind it, but I get a bit bored after a while. I like to take something apart and put it back together again. Job done.”

The clutch in John’s Rover Mini went AWOL, putting the car out of action for the afternoon – despite father and son’s best efforts

To keep their campaign inexpensive, they have become jacks of all trades.

As well as race preparation and driving, James does a bit of marketing and PR: Witham Motorsport and Crafted Classics Tuning are among the firms he has on board, plus he writes for CooperWorld magazine.

“We are passionate about it,” says John. “We’ve pushed it, we’ve promoted it, we have done whatever we can to help it succeed.”

James and John keep costs down by maintaining their cars at home

James and John agree on most things, but their contrasting race-preparation techniques are evidence of their near-three-decade age gap. “I was well off the pace to begin with,” John admits, “but I’m getting better.”

James says: “It was easier for me because I had done quite a lot of sim racing – I used to practise the tracks before we visited them. It helped a lot.”

John, meanwhile, adds: “I tried, but it didn’t do it for me. On the sim, you can only feel it through your hands, but you need to feel it through your bum.”

James nearly had his maiden Mighty Minis victory at Cadwell Park in 2024

“For me, the trickiest thing was discovering that it’s a totally different mindset from driving a road car,” John adds.

“It’s chalk and cheese. You have got to put your foot on the throttle, push it all the way down, change gears as fast as you can, and brake as hard and as late as you can – at first it seemed so alien.

“Also, if you get into trouble in a Mini, you can’t lift off – you have to accelerate to pull it back round. If you brake or lift, you just spin.

“I’ve done that many times. At Thruxton Circuit I did it twice in two laps.” James interrupts with a grin: “I’ve made a good compilation video.”

‘Could you lap Cadwell Park quicker for less? Some sub-£10,000 hot hatches might run it close, but we’re one of the fastest things out here’

The youngster from Norfolk is still chasing his debut win, although he’s been racking up podium finishes.

“My first was a third place at Brands Hatch,” he says. “I very nearly won at Cadwell Park last year – it was a 20-minute race and I was leading for the first 15 minutes.

“I got a good start and pulled away from the drivers behind, but gradually they reeled me in. When you’re chasing someone, it pushes you along and you go a bit quicker, but when you’re being chased, that’s when the adrenalin is pumping and mistakes begin to happen.

“I missed two gearchanges – I only lost a split second each time, but that probably cost me the win.”

This Mighty Minis car has a Cobra race seat, plus room for a passenger

We’ve joined the pair on a test day at Cadwell Park.

In 2025, Mighty Minis moved away from standard road tyres and switched to stickier Yokohama rubber.

It’s knocked a few seconds off the lap times, but James and John are still experimenting with set-ups.

After pumping some more air into his new semi-slicks, James coaxes me into the passenger seat for a few laps of the 2.2-mile circuit.

Cadwell Park is an undulating, sinuous track that is perfectly suited to the agile Mini

Unlike the rather flat, former RAF airfield-based tracks common across the UK – think Goodwood, Silverstone, Castle Combe and Croft – Cadwell Park, nestled in the Lincolnshire Wolds, is a rollercoaster ride.

Christened Britain’s ‘mini Nürburgring’, it is more like Knockhill, Oulton Park or the Big Dipper at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

“This is flat-out,” shouts James as we approach the first bend, Coppice.

It doesn’t look flat-out to me, but sure enough the little Mini is happy to be flung through the first few corners with the throttle pinned.

The Rover Mini racer’s fire-extinguisher pull and power cut-off switch are located next to the gearlever

The circuit dips through Park Straight, then there are a couple of fast right-handers before you arrive at the challenging Gooseneck and plunge downhill towards Mansfield.

“Here you’ve got to brake, try not to lock up, and change into second,” he explains, deftly managing all three while chomping at the bit to pass a modern MINI we’ve reeled in.

Then you arrive at The Mountain, Cadwell Park’s most Instagram-friendly spot.

Here, some of the fastest cars briefly lose contact with terra firma over the steep hump, and even the Mini’s tyres release a chirrup on the crest.

The boot-mounted fuel tank is one of the Mighty Minis modifications

You’re then thrown from right to left, then right again through Hall Bends before tumbling out and back round to the startline.

All I can do is cling on to what’s left of the stripped-out Mini’s door card.

It’s over in no more than a couple of minutes, but it feels like going through a washing machine’s spin cycle.

Could you lap Cadwell quicker for less? Some sub-£10,000 track-prepared hot hatches and modified Mazda MX-5s might run it close, but it feels as if we’re one of the fastest things out here – a quasi-GT3 Audi R8 aside.

A ready- to-race Mighty Minis car will cost upwards of £11,000

What’s next for James and the Mighty Minis series?

The 22-year-old has dreams of one day competing at Le Mans Classic and Goodwood, but for now he’s fully focused on helping John grow the Mighty Minis championship: the father-and-son team will take the reins of the series in 2026, as founder Rodger Tello retires after three decades at the helm.

Plenty to do off-track, then, but James will also be doing his best to reach the top of the podium for the first time – hopefully with his dad by his side.

Yet James reckons that winning isn’t necessarily the most important thing: “It’s great to do it with Dad. He really enjoys it and it’s terrific to race against him.

“Even spending an evening together, pulling a CV joint apart, it’s fantastic to do it with him. It’s time I’ll cherish for ever.”

Images: Jack Harrison

Thanks to: Cadwell Park; Javelin Trackdays

Mighty Minis: budget for 2026

James and John Jenkins are both hands-on

Want to go racing? Here’s a rundown of what you’ll need to spend to get on the grid.

For 2026, the entry fee is £375-395 per weekend, so set aside around £2300 for the full year’s 14 races, split across six weekends.

“For someone without sponsorship, I’d say you are looking at £1000 on top of that for a year’s worth of fuel, tyres [budget £432 for a set] and spare parts,” says James.

“Old-spec Mighty Minis that need to be upgraded with the latest engine, gearbox and suspension components are available for £6-7000.

“The upgrades will cost £4000, so if you do the work yourself the cost of a car will be around £10-11k.”

Alternatively, ready-to-race cars are sometimes offered for £11-14,000.

The Mighty Minis series is an affordable route into competitive motorsport

But what if you want to start from scratch? “Mini bodyshells are available from £500,” continues James. “Standard engines and gearboxes can be found for around the £500 mark, too.”

If this is your route in, however, then you’ll need to be sure you know what you’re doing!

“A race suit and helmet is £1200-1500, depending on where you get them from, and every year you have to renew your competition licence, which is about £180,” James continues.

“If you’ve never done it before, you’ll need to complete an ARDS test – like a driving test, but for racing – which costs roughly £500.”

You’ll also need to factor in how you are going to get to races – have you got a trailer or a suitable van? – and once you’re there, are you happy to camp or will you be living it up in a five-star hotel?

Depending on how you do it, you’re looking at £12-17,000 for your first full season, all in.

No form of historic motorsport is cheap, but Mighty Minis (see mightyminis.co.uk) is doing its best to make racing more accessible.

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