Liam Doran showed America what his MINI was capable of last Saturday at his first stand-alone GRC event at Bristol in Tennessee.

Liam Doran showed America what his Monster Energy MINI RX was capable of last Saturday at his first stand-alone Global RallyCross Championship event in Bristol, Tennessee. Only arriving the day before the event started, the LD Motorsports crew had their work cut out to get the MINI RX ready for race day after the battles in Munich.

Doran demonstrated in practice why the MINI RX is one of the most talked about cars this season. Qualifying second, Doran shot off the line in Heat 1, hot on the tail of Patrik Sandell. Some very clean racing saw Doran finish in 2nd position without problems. Heat 2 saw the eliminations commence, and with it some of the more aggressive racing, with the number 33 Monster Energy MINI pushing hard not to lose out on one of the much coveted places in the finals. A hard-fought battle saw Doran finish in 2nd position behind Sandell, which secured him a place in the final. “It is a crazy track; really a lot of fun to race on. I have never driven on bank turns like this. It’s a weird sensation; the faster you go the more the cars compress and you fly around the turn,” said Doran.

Doran, having lined up second row inside for the final, got a good drive off the line but was then subjected to the ever-tricky first turn that usually decides the rest of the race. Motoring around the first banked turn of the NASCAR track narrowing into a 90 degree left turn into the infield, there was never going to be room for all 9 cars. Doran was hit from behind, causing him to plough into cars in front of him and then hit again from the side, severely damaging his MINI RX, and forcing Liam to pull off the track and not finish this final race. “The first turn in Rallycross is always the toughest part to get through, there was no way all of us were going to get out of there clean – it just sucked that I was the one that suffered from it. But that’s Rallycross, the MINI is awesome and I am really looking forward to LA X Games now.”

Photo: Liam Doran eventually finished ninth overall in the main event. © QBA/ERC24