Zolder - Belgium

Super Mighty Minis Championship

After the excitement of Brands Hatch, the Super Mighty Minis Championship moved on to the infamous European track of Zolder, Belgium, for rounds 5 & 6. After the baptism of fire for the new Mini Spares paint scheme and subsequent side repairs courtesy of Ryan Cowley of restoremymini.co.uk, our man Alex Comis was keen to be at the front for Zolder.

The weather for the weekend was perfect; a little too perfect as the temperatures nudged the mercury towards the high 20’s. Qualifying and again Comis was looking strong amongst those who had been testing earlier in the week. Still learning the track, 4th grid slot was outstanding.

“This is an epic track; love it” exclaimed a somewhat perspiring Comis: “It’s incredibly technical and tests the balance of the car at all speeds but it rewards you when you get it right.”

The first race of the weekend was held on Sunday morning. The remnants of an overnight thunderstorm was still in the air and the clouds looked threatening. With the cars on the grid, the red lights saw the usual response of throaty Mini engines keen to be released. Lights out and Comis made a solid start holding position in to turns one and two. Coming around to the start-finish straight, and there was now a gap to 5th and the trailing pack while Comis was sizing up 3rd. At half distance, Comis had dropped a little to 3rd, but seemed to be closing up again. The lead 3 were unfortunately not fighting, and therefore not slowing each other down so it was hard for Comis to capitalise. At the flag, Comis finished a solid 4th.

“The first half of the race was going well, but I made just a couple of consecutive mistakes which you can’t afford to do in these cars as you’ll just be left behind. I closed up again, but not enough to be able to challenge. Still, that’s a strong finish and puts me in a good place for race 2”

Race 2 saw the return of the baking afternoon sun. At the start, Comis got another fine launch, but  would remain in 4th place through the fast flowing turns 1 & 2. It wasn’t long before he was under pressure from Elliot Stafford who ended up passing Comis under breaks in to the first chicane. Comis held on and looked like he had the switchback but backed out of it for a better line in to the following chicane. Comis held 5th place for much of the remainder of the race as a 4 car battle developed for 2nd place. On the penultimate lap, there was nothing to separate the now 5 car pack but then contact as they braked for the 2nd gear hairpin. Cars were rattling off each other with one ending up in the gravel, and Comis inheriting 4th.

“That was a mega battle” exclaimed Comis back in the paddock: “I think the contact was avoidable as it seemed to happen before the usual breaking point. The car was starting to overheat too, so once I knew I was safe in 4th, I backed off a little but all-in-all, a fantastic circuit and weekend!”

Join us for rounds 7 & 8 at the brilliant Oulton Park, Saturday 5th July for more action packed Mini Racing.

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