American Dave Mirra will be driving the Liam Doran MINI RX this weekend in the Global RallyCross Championship (GRC) round at Charlotte in the US.
Dave Mirra is best known for his exploits in BMX and winning more X Games gold medals than any other competitor in the games’ history. However, he has been a regular GRC competitor in a Subaru Impreza. He first started rally driving in 2008, winning his first medal in the sport in 2009.
He will drive the Prodrive developed MINI RX for the first time this Thursday ahead the weekend’s competition. It is the same MINI RX that Liam Doran has competed in this year and which won on its debut at the Munich X Games in July. Doran will not be competing in the Charlotte event, but should return to the MINI later this year.
“I’ve competed against Liam in the MINI a couple of times so I know it has the performance to win. I can’t wait to drive it this week to see how it compares. I know that with its smaller engine it doesn’t have quite the same top end power, but having seen it in action first hand, it seems to more than make up for this both at the start and in the way it handles,” said Mirra.
The MINI RX is based on the MINI WRC and runs with a 1.6 turbo engine with around 50% more power than the World Rally Car.
Images (click to enlarge): The livery of the Mirra MINI for Charlotte. © davemirra on Instagram/ERC24
Main photo: Dave Mirra, from Subaru Impreza GR to MINI RX in Charlotte. © QBA/ERC24