Both cars as they arrived at HQ before all the work began

I have had a very busy winter building not one but 4 Mighty Mini's up well to be exact 2 Mighty Mini's and 2 Super Mighty Mini's, the difference being that the Supers have about 100 Bhp where the Mighty's only have 70 Bhp and the Supers have a lot more race mods allowed from rear anti roll bars to plastic windows and lots more little things, they all add up to about 12 seconds a lap at say Donington Park.

You can imagine I have not had many nights off or weekends since the last race in October 2012, I sold my very successful Mighty Mini number 9 car to young Zack Booth who I am sure you will get to here a lot about in the coming seasons as I feel he is a talented young driver with the world of Motorsport at his feet.

His Dad is involved with the Mini Spares Centres and in fact he runs the Harrogate branch so a rich history of Mini's in his blood from birth, he is a very lucky young man as his dad Neil Booth is right behind him, something I envy him for.

So with my beloved Mini gone to a new home in Gods county of Yorkshire, and me now part of the Mini Spares Centre driver sponsorship scheme I had a lot of work on my hands.
I managed to buy one of Paul Inches' old Mights, it was a little ruff as it has always been their spare car and did not get much love and attention in its life, but the price was right and it had a brand new Paul Inch engineering race engine in it, so at least that part was sorted out.

I have 2 team mates in 2013 as I still have Justin Cooper and now Chris Slade who is  the double Mighty Mini Champion, Chris had a very nice new Super Mighty Mini that he had only raced once at Castle Combe so my task was to strip the car and build it up as a Lewis spec Mini, Justin had sold his old car as well so we set out to get a new Super for me to race alongside my Mighty and a new car for Justin.

I settled on a car  that was for sale near me in Norwich, it had not been used for quite a few years but as it was built from a new shell I knew it would be a good starting point.
I found Justin another good car that was the ex Pete Cruise car this one was built from a new Motorsport shell so again a good car, the only thing was is it was a Super Mighty mini so a little more work for me to convert it back down in spec to a Mighty.

Chris Slades car being washed pre rebuild

I decided to do Chris Slade's car first and stripped it right down to a shell, the car was quite a nice car to start with but a few things I was not happy with so with his Dads permission I put them right and built up a very nice new Team Bailey number 43 car, once that was finished I started on my ex Inch Mighty, this car was a lot of work due to its neglect over the years as well as some very tatty parts, thanks to Mini Spares and there excellent web site I would order the parts needed and by the next day would have them in my hands here in Norfolk, again after a lot of work, I had built up a very nice Team Bailey Mighty Mini car 2 for 2013.

My Super was to prove to be much more work than I had anticipated, yes it was built from a new shell but to put it bluntly it was a shed of a car with some of the worst work I have ever seen on a Race car. Yes I am uber fussy and have worked at the very top of Motorsport but I have seen better class one auto grass cars.
I had no choice but to strip this car also to a bare shell and start again, yet again thank God for the Mini Spares web site as I needed so many parts from window rubbers to all the brakes and suspension.
After a vast amount of work the Team Bailey Super Mighty Mini car 4 is built and to my standard.

In between all this work I was stripping and rebuilding a class one autograss car I have for the odd weekend of fun at Cambridge Autograss club but thats another blog altogether. As well as building the McCain Oven Chips  1275 Gt Challenge replica car that you may have read about in my first blog.

The last car for me and one I am still working on as i write this blogg is Justin's new Mighty car, so far we have fitted the fresh Paul Inch engineering motor and started the rebuild of all the suspension and brakes, Justin removed all its Super parts and has put them to one side so one day when he is ready he can convert the car back to a Super, so Team Bailey Mighty Mini car 4 is still in build.

Lastly while I am doing all this as well as going to the car auctions to buy some cars to sell, I have been working on my new industrial unit at Snetterton race track where my soon to open Classic Mini race road and rally Mini preperation workshops will be.

2 of the Minis off to paint

In the race shop I will look after all of the Team Bailey cars, and customers cars as well as offering set ups for race cars of all types, even single seaters as after all my years involved with Formula cars I can help a lot of young drivers, I am even fitting a new Rolling Road so I can do tuning at the circuit, i believe this will make Snetterton the first circuit in the UK to have an on site rolling road making it a one stop speed shop.

As if thats not enough I have been working on all my sponsorship portfolio for Team Bailey, at the time of writing this I have a great croup of new sponsors for 2013, all leisure industry related.

The list is Bailey Caravans of Bristol are title sponsor, then we have ALKO Chassis, Polyplastic Windows, Whale Heaters and Pumps, Remis Roof Lights, Tracker, Belfield Furnishings, Kampa Awnings, Kipor Generators, WSL Ltd Wheel Solutions, Paintseal Direct Paint Protection, Mini Spares Centres, ZX1 Oil Treatments, Maxview Satellite Systems and Paul Inch Engineering.

All 4 cars are to be in the Team Bailey livery for 2013 so if you are at a track or see the cars or at one of the many trade shows they are booked into come and say hi to us, we don't bite.

The next blog is how our early season testing is going as well as the final build of Justin's new Mighty 4 car.

Jonathan Lewis.

Chris Slades Mini in the paint shop,
Thanks to Premier Paints Norfolk for all there hard work

The number 2 Mighty changing to a white swan from a pink limo

the new Mini Spares Super Mighty Mini front brakes

Inside the Super Mighty Mini of new 2013 team mate Chris Slades car

Breakfast with my good freind ex F1 Lotus driver Martin Donnelly

My new Super Mighty Mini in build

Mini Spares "38 Years" roof logo

Team

The 3 new 2013 race Minis.
Only Justin Coopers Mighty to finish now.