Dominic Wheatley admitted it was an \u2018unbelievable feeling\u2019 after battling to his first Vertu MINI CHALLENGE win in four years – and his first since stepping up to the JCW class.<\/strong><\/p>\nWheatley\u2019s last success had come whilst racing in the Cooper class back in 2020 with PerformanceTek Racing, with his title win the following season coming despite the fact he didn\u2019t take to the top step all year.<\/p>\n
Since moving up into the JCW field in 2022, initially with Graves Motorsport before switching to EXCELR8 this season, Wheatley had scored four podium finishes but was still chasing a maiden win arriving at something of a second \u2018home\u2019 circuit following time in the Scottish MINI Cooper Cup earlier in his career.<\/p>\n
Having grabbed pole for race one by virtue of having a second fastest lap quicker than anyone else in qualifying, Wheatley produced a measured drive at the front of the pack as he held off the challenge of Max Hall in the early stages before edging clear when his rival was forced to start defending.<\/p>\n
His winning margin of more than five seconds would ultimately be the second largest of the season, beaten only by Lewis Selby in mixed conditions at Donington Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an unbelievable to feeling to get a win,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter qualifying in P1 I was confident going into the race, but I also knew a lot could happen – particularly around a circuit like Knockhill.<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cI could easily have come away from it without even being on the podium but when I was at the front, it was a case of getting a gap ahead of Max when he was forced to start defending from Dan [Zelos].<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cHe was in a tough position that I\u2019ve been in before when you don\u2019t know whether to attack or defend, and I knew that if he had to start defending and was less focused on trying to get ahead of me, that I\u2019d be able to get the gap I needed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nWheatley added that, having faced a race to get out onto the grid after the team worked to fix post-qualifying damage to his car, he had heard every possible sound whilst counting down the laps to victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn those final few laps, I was sure I had a tyre going flat, then one coming off the rim, then the driveshaft was going and the gearbox was on its way out!\u201d he quipped. <\/em><\/p>\n\u201cIn all seriousness, the team did a great job to get me out for the race as they had quite a bit of work to do to repair some damage after qualifying, and they sent me out there with a car that was perfect.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.16″ background_enable_image=”off” background_size=”contain” background_position=”center_left” custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.minichallenge.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-08-10-at-15.48.34.jpeg” title_text=”WhatsApp Image 2024-08-10 at 15.48.34″ _builder_version=”4.27.0″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.minichallenge.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-08-10-at-15.48.47-1.jpeg” title_text=”WhatsApp Image 2024-08-10 at 15.48.47″ _builder_version=”4.27.0″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.minichallenge.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-08-10-at-15.48.41.jpeg” title_text=”WhatsApp Image 2024-08-10 at 15.48.41″ _builder_version=”4.27.0″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dominic Wheatley admitted it was an \u2018unbelievable feeling\u2019 after battling to his first Vertu MINI CHALLENGE win in four years – and his first since stepping up to the JCW class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":25871,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1462,1465],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-jcw"],"yoast_head":"\n
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