12/07/2025
Round 4 – Ramair BMW Championship
Snetterton Circuit
Round 4 brought us to our local track, Snetterton. Unfortunately, the grid was a bit thinner this weekend, with several drivers sidelined due to car issues, weddings, and a scheduling clash with the British Grand Prix.
After a strong result at Silverstone, we arrived leading the championship by two points—but that came at a cost: 40kg of success ballast, bringing our car’s minimum weight to 1190kg, compared to our main rivals running at 1150kg.
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Qualifying
Heading into qualifying, the extra ballast was immediately noticeable. The car felt like it had the stopping and turning ability of an oil tanker. With just 20 minutes to work with, there wasn’t much room for setup changes, so the goal was to put in a clean lap and see where we landed.
Time: 2:15.652
Position: P2 (0.6s off pole)
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In the Pits
Charlie Newton-Derby (CND) ran into a misfire during qualifying. While the competitive instinct says, “every advantage helps,” it didn’t feel right to stand by. I grabbed my scan tool, diagnosed a faulty MAP sensor, and when his spare (a cheap eBay unit) failed, we dug through our own spares and found one that got him back on track. Racing should be decided out on the circuit—not in the paddock.
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Race 1
A slow launch from the rolling start dropped me to P3 behind CND and Matthew Hibbard. They opened up a gap early on, but as the fuel load dropped, the car started to come alive.
Matthew hit mechanical trouble mid-race, bumping me to P2. Not long after, CND had an off-track moment, and suddenly I was leading.
With CND’s lighter car and obvious pace advantage, I braced for a fight. I managed to keep a small gap—until a faster BMW lapping us caused me to hesitate at the final corner. That was all the invitation CND needed, slipping past down the pit straight.
One lap to go. I threw everything I had at it, closing right back up, but couldn't find a way through—crossing the line just 0.2 seconds behind.
Result: P2
Fastest Lap: 2:14.3 (final lap)
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Race 2
Another sluggish start had me in P3 again. This time, the plan was clear: stay close, keep the pressure on, and wait for the car to hit that sweet spot as the weight dropped.
CND and Matthew were having a great scrap ahead, which kept me within a couple of corners. With about 7 minutes left, everything clicked—the handling transformed, and the car came alive.
I quickly reeled them in and was soon glued to Matthew’s bumper. On the final lap, I got a great exit onto the Bentley Straight and drew alongside into Brundle. With the inside line into the left-hander, the move was done.
Just a few corners later, I crossed the line in P2—this time just 0.6 seconds off the win.
Result: P2
Fastest Lap: 2:14.5
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Weekend Summary
Given the 40kg ballast, this was a very solid weekend. Two second-place finishes and strong lap times meant we only lost 4 points overall—keeping us firmly in the championship hunt.
Now we reset and head to Castle Combe in August, back at our base weight of 1150kg. Game on.
Championship Position: P2 (2 points off the lead)
27/06/2025
Exciting stuff coming out of the Tpeprecision factory 😀
https://www.facebook.com/share/16RVtpC96T/
TPE Precision R53 MINI AIRBOX DEVELOPMENT - Part 1
Design & Prototype Stage | JCW Strut Bar Test FitIn this first episode, join George — our lead engineer — as he walks you through the design and prototype pr...
21/04/2024
championship standings are out after Round 1.
Main Event "S" Class: 4th
R53 Sub-Class: 1st
03/04/2024
🏁BRANDS HATCH🏁 🏆🏆🏆
Round 1 of the was held this Easter weekend it was time to see if our pre-season preparation had paid off.
Qualifying was going well with the car feeling good until 3 mins from the end there was a loud bang under braking at druids which turned out to be a snapped wishbone. Our time was good enough for P4 (P1 S53)
New wishbone supplied by and we was ready for race 1.
Race 1 good start but was passed into druids, a great move by . The rest of the race went well defending from a hard charging and . P4 (P2 S53)
Race 2 bad start dropping back to P5, was starting to make progress and then the safety car came out after a car into the gravel at Paddock Hill. By the time the safety car came in we only had a few laps of racing and couldn't make and moves to get back up the field. P5 (P3 S53)
Race 3 Rain and lots of it, we went with wet tyres for race 3 due to the amount of standing water on the track.
Great start moving up a position off the line, then another pass on lap 1 getting up to P3, lap 2 a move on at Surtees got us into P2, now we was charging up on .5 for P1 on lap 3 the pass was made into Druids. The car handling great in the wet conditions we managed to stay P1 across the line. P1 (P1 S53)
Thank you to all the friends and family who came to support us at our home race and thanks to for coming to see how thier fantastic mapping services performed on our car.
Also thank you to the man behind the lens .media for the fantastic photos 📷
01/02/2024
Another amazing development from Tpeprecision 😍
04/01/2024
A great product from a great company, we run this on our R53 race car with good improvement in boost pressure and AIT temps 👌
Something you were asking for a while now!
The R53 charge pipe kit now comes with black silicone bypass hose.
The kit comes with all the necessary hardware for installation.
+7whp at the whole rpm range without tune.
+10whp at the whole rpm range with tune.
Increased boost pressure 1 to 1.5 psi
Lower IATs 3C to 5C
Used by endurance race cars, Mini Challenge race cars, track day and daily cars all over the world.
For more info visit our website or send a DM, email at [email protected]
23/10/2023
Our new video is now live on YouTube. Follow Charlie Heatley at Snetterton in the MINI CHALLENGE CLUBSPORT 🏁
https://youtu.be/zZpHz31088U?si=dSLdbERgpdLBE2-y
Mini Challange Clubsport Snetterton MINI Documentary featuring Charlie Heatley.
Follow Charlie Heatley over a race weekend at Snetterton in the FourFour Motorsports F4M02 with the Mini Challange Clubsport.Emotional highs and lows with Me...
18/09/2023
🏁SILVERSTONE🏁
We came into this round with hopes of a good weekend after all the issues we have had this year surely it was time for some good luck?
Qualifying went well with P4 (P1 S53 class)
Race 1 I got a bit of wheel spin off the line and dropped back a few places but progressed back up the pack to P5 (P1 S53 with fastest lap)
After race 1, six cars were "randomly" picked to have thier Ecu's removed in Parc Ferme and inspected over night, no issues found so all returned without penalty.
Race 2 was going well until I went 5th to 6th on a gear change instead of 4th which dropped me back, but I battled back up and finished P4 (P1 S53)
Race 3 it was raining 🌧️,
I got a good start getting into P2 after a lap one incident the safety car was deployed on lap 3, at lap 5 we got the green flag and racing resumed.
I managed to hold P2 (P1 in class) for the remainder of the race.
Alot of positives to take from the weekend
⭐Thank you to our sponsors⭐
CLC Utilities Ltd
Elysee
AlliSport
TPE Precision
Morris Lubricants
Chameleon LED
Greenlight Insurance
1320 Mini
DanKan Motorsport
Forty4 Electrical Ltd
07/08/2023
It's starting to look like a car again after alot of work over the weekend there is only a few bits to finish to have it ready for Snetterton.
Annoyingly the replacement rear 1/4 panel has a crease in it but as we are short on time and it's probably going to get dented anyway we decided to go ahead and fit it.
Bonnet will get changed after the Snetterton too.
Just waiting for the window Who have been great and are going to have it to us in time for Snetterton.
New diffusers are on thier way from
Thank you to for supplying a door and front wing.
Hopefully this weekend we will have all the parts and will finish the repairs so we can have a relaxing week upto the next race.
25/03/2024
01/02/2024
04/01/2024
23/10/2023
18/09/2023
07/08/2023