With a new car and a totally revised engine, MINI has succeeded in finishing the Nurburgring 24 Hours. But it was also heartbreaking as the #146 Coupe had climbed its way up to 47th overall early this morning. But ultimately engine issues (which seemed to be software related while watching the race) forced a long and costly pitspot that put it back in the back.

Beyond the engine issues, why didn’t MINI Motorsports do better than a couple of the other professional MINI teams? Remember this is basically a new team with untested cars and untested engines than don’t race the VLN series. They were new comers just hoping to finish and gather data. Why are they gather data? Could it be for a revised JCW down the road? Or is it an updated MINI Challenge engine? Either way we’d call it a job well done.

You can see the first two minutes and last 13 minutes of the race after the break.

The Start

The Finish

<