The long wait for the start of the 2011 Super Mighty Minis Championship ended when the Oulton Park Paddock came alive with the rumble of Mini engines as the hazy April morning Sun slowly climbed in the sky.

Before qualifying our man, Alex Comis in the number 41 Mini Spares car, was keen to get the new season underway. The big change to the cars this year was the introduction of straight-cut gearboxes offering better ratios and a distinctive ‘scream’ from the cars on track. The sound alone adds to the sense of speed.

“Unfortunately I’ve not been able to test the car pre-season so there’ll be quite a steep learning curve to see what gear is best through some of corners. I’m sure I should be able to be competitive after a few laps”.

And competitive he was; 5^th place and 8 tenths off pole. A remarkable result not withstanding a steering arm failure on the exit of the Knickerbrook chicane early in the session which spat Comis off the track at an alarming speed before coming to rest in the gravel:

“I was on my 1^st flying lap and just as I clipped the last apex curb I was off in a worryingly straight line trying to control the car with only one wheel steering. It’s fair to say, at the speed I was going, it focused the mind somewhat!” Joked Comis.

Comis went on to explain he couldn’t believe he qualified 5^th after missing the majority of the session:

“I thought I’d be way off. When I heard the results over the Tannoy I thought the commentator had got it wrong.”

Back in the Paddock and repairs were soon underway and competed in time for the race.

From the 3^rd row of the grid, Comis was right in the thick of things from the off as the pack screamed towards the 1^st corner. 

As the lap unfolded, it was almost impossible to keep up with the position changes though the field. And this was only lap one! Comis was deep in the battle for 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and 6^th and probably held all of those positions at some point within the opening laps.

Coming up to the hairpin, Comis seemed to have been out-braked by David Young and Pete Crewes who dived up the inside only to allow Comis the perfect line to out drag them both through the exit. The next lap, and the 3 of them were at it again; this time 3 abreast with Comis in the middle. This was going to be tight: A little too tight as some contact was made. Still, this was epic racing! As the race drew towards the final laps, Comis was now fending off a recovering David Kirkpatrick again conceding the place under breaking, only to get the ‘switch-back’ on the exit of Dear leaper. Right to the flag, the pressure was on as Comis crossed the line in 6^th.

“I don’t think we got the front tracking quite right with the new steering arm and I was fighting a bit with the balance of the car compared to qualifying so I think I’ll be looking at the set-up for the next race. Still, that was a fantastic race. I made a couple of errors that you just can’t afford to do with such close competition, so that was a bit frustrating, but by no means is that a bad result all things considered and a good start to build on for the season ahead!”

Indeed this was heart stopping action from lights to flag! Be sure to catch the action at round 2, Castle Combe in Wiltshire on the 2^nd May.