The name Andrea Navarra is surely spoken in reverent tones at MINI and Prodrive after this weekend. The Italian rally ace, driving his brand-new MINI John Cooper Works rally machine, claimed the first win for this rally car this past weekend in Italy.
This latest of S2000 machines forms the just one prong of MINI and Prodrive’s return to top-flight rallying, and this early victory has given MINI a confidence boost ahead of their WRC debut next month. For Navarra, his win at the weekend’s Rally dell’Adriatico, who runs as part of the Grifone Team, also showed the speed of this machine staightout-of-the-box.
Navarra was running Pirelli Scorpin K6 gravel tyres at the opening round of the Italian Gravel Rally Championship, and used on three sets of tyres over 100km of stage distance. The Italian ace won the event by 12sec on only the MINI John Cooper Works S2000’s third competitive outing. Navarra said: “It’s a great honour for me to give MINI this first victory with Pirelli and another milestone in our history together. It was a fantastic rally that was competitive from start to finish: we had to push hard but in the end we got the result that we wanted. The Pirelli Scorpion K6 tyres were extremely effective and reliable from start to fi nish, giving me the confidence that I needed to go flat-out. One of the big strong points of the MINI is that it is extremely kind to tyres, and this meant that we were able to use the soft compound throughout the event. I really enjoyed driving the car: the turbo engine means that you can drive with the throttle all the time compared to a conventional Super 2000 car, where you are driving with the gears.”
This championship is highly regarded for its fierce competition and large entry lists, but Navarra and his MINI didn’t allow this to distract them from their task at hand. He won the first three stages, claiming the overall lead
and never relinquished it.
Chasing after Navarra was Andreas Mikkelsen in a Skoda Fabia S2000. This IRC rally sensation is gaining more experience in his new machine and building a database of knowledge for his IRC campaign for his team, Skoda UK Motorsport. Mikkelsen claimed the event’s remaining six stage wins. Despite his best efforts, the MINI driver remained out of touch.
Interestingly, this 1.6-litre turbocharged MINI was running a 30mm turbocharger restrictor for this event, to balance the performance with the other normally aspirated S2000 machines. In the WRC, it runs a standard 33mm restrictor – the same as the World Rally Cars.
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