After the seemingly endless winter break, Silverstone welcomed the return of the Super Mighty Minis Championship and the start of the 2008 season. With the sun beaming down on an clear April spring day, everyone seemed bright eyed and bushy-tailed for what many have predicted to be the toughest, most competitive season yet.

Our man Alex Comis was raring to go with the number 4 Minis Spares car. Even though qualifying was as much a shake down test as it was a 15-minute chance to put in a quick lap for Comis, He was soon on the pace and any cobwebs were blown away.

Even with untested new brakes, and a new rear subframe and suspension set-up, he was only 6/10th of a second off pole. The close competition, however, meant that this was only good enough for 8th on the grid. “That’s not too bad all things considered” explained a relaxed Comis;“I haven’t been able to do a shake-down test before this weekend, and I haven’t been near a race track since the last race 6 months ago. The new brakes took a few laps to work, and there is plenty more to get out of me and the car.” Between qualifying and the race the predictably unpredictable April showers kept all on their toes. As the dry track was being threatened with spots of rain, the field of Super Mighty Minis lined themselves up on the most famous of Starting grids. As the red lights were extinguished, Comis made a solid start and was up to 5th midway round the first lap.

The opening lap saw some hair-raising moves as everyone fought for the ideal piece of tarmac. As the race unfolded, Comis was the man on the move scything thought the field with some perfectly calculated moves. By half distance he had climbed from 8th to a remarkable 2nd and was now challenging for the first as the leading cars swapped positions like a finely choreographed dance at 100MPH.

An unlucky tap into Beckets corner pushed Comis wide and let the chasing train of Minis passed him onto the Club Straight. With only 4 minutes remaining, Comis was not out of the running and made a valiant effort to recover to 6th, just 3 seconds behind the winner; Phil Hetherington. It was a mighty fine drive which would other wise have been a podium if not a win but for unfortunate punt, which was almost inevitable with such close racing from start to finish. “That was by far the most intense race I’ve ever done” beamed a jubilant Comis. “I’m thrilled with my performance and I was in the fight for the win throughout the race.

The contact was unfortunate, and made it difficult to challenge at such a late stage, but so what, both the car and I are looking very strong for this years Championship!” Rounds 2 and 3 move on to Snetterton in Norfolk, another favourite track for Alex, on the 3rd and 4th May.