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Bulldog Racing Team’s MINI John Cooper Works Finishes on Podium at 24 hours of Nürburgring.

BY Sean Loo

Second place and smiling faces among the team after a spectacular comeback.

And this win meant even more to the team, which included Charlie Cooper, the grandson of the legendary John Cooper - the inventor of the Mini Cooper.

Even the qualifying sessions for the famous 24-hour race on the 25.378-kilometre circuit posed major challenges for man and machine. A long series of major tire problems affected several teams, including Bulldog Racing, which had to withdraw its starter in the SP3T race car class at short notice.

Tension could be felt as the team looked forward to the race, as all hopes rested now on the black MINI John Cooper Works with the starting number #126, which started from position nine of its class into the race.

Soon, confidence spread, and in the early stages of the race start driver Sebastian Sauerbrei made up several places in the class and in the overall classification. By the end of the 24-hour marathon, the MINI John Cooper Works 1to6 Edition with start number #126 had made up eight places in class and an impressive 49 positions in the 131-car field, impressively underlining its reliability with a podium finish.

The MINI John Cooper Works 1to6 Edition race car completed 114 laps, the distance driven equating to approximately 2,893 kilometres. On the way to the podium, the race car did 15 pit stops.

"I am very happy about this great result - for the Bulldog Racing Team, for MINI John Cooper Works, for everyone who cheered along, helped and did a great job," says Stefanie Wurst, Head of MINI. "I am very impressed by the whole atmosphere at the Nürburgring. The enthusiasm for motorsport is in the genes of our MINI John Cooper Works models. With the new MINI John Cooper Works 1to6 Edition, we celebrate our legendary motorsport history. We couldn't think of a more fitting opportunity to present this new edition to our fans here at the Ring and also surprise them with this excellent race result."

"Even more than the podium finish, I am delighted that we have succeeded in making the new MINI John Cooper Works 1to6 Edition a crowd favourite," said Alexander Schabbach, Managing Director of Bulldog Racing. "It's impressive how positively people react to our MINI race cars and how quickly our "Made in Nürburg" racers have developed a fan base."

"To start as an underdog and to be able to achieve such a great result right off the bat at the debut, that's typical MINI, says Charlie Cooper. "It feels like history repeating itself back in the spirit of the early 1960s when my grandfather John Cooper was underestimated against a perceived superiority of much more powerful competitors, only to win the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, 1965 and 1967. I'm delighted that together with MINI and Bulldog Racing, we've opened the next chapter in our brand's motorsport activities and given MINI its first podium finish in a 24-hour race."