The Mini John Cooper Works Rally is an off-road competition car based on the
Mini Countryman
The Mini Countryman, also called Mini Crossover in Japan until 2024, is a subcompact crossover SUV, the first vehicle of this type to be launched by BMW under the Mini marque. It was launched in 2010 and received a facelift in 2014. The sec ...
, which is built and used by the German racing team
X-Raid around team manager Sven Quandt. The John Cooper Works Rally was first used in the
2017 Dakar Rally
The 2017 Dakar Rally was the 39th edition of the event and the ninth successive year that the event was held in South America. The event started in Asunción, Paraguay on January 2, then ran through Argentina and Bolivia, before returning to Buenos ...
.
Competition history
In its first outing, the 2017 Dakar Rally, the X-raid MINI John Cooper Works Rally Team started with the following driver pairings:
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Mikko Hirvonen
Mikko Hirvonen (born 31 July 1980) is a Finnish former rally driver, and a current Rally-Raid driver, who drove in the World Rally Championship. He placed third in the drivers' championship and helped Ford to the manufacturers' title in both 2 ...
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Michel Perin - red MINI John Cooper Works Rally
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Yazeed Al-Rajhi
Yazeed Mohamed Al-Rajhi (; born 30 September 1981 in Riyadh) is a Saudi businessman, entrepreneur, and business magnate. One of the sons of businessman Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdulaziz Al-Rajhi, his origins trace back to the Al-Qassim region (Al ...
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Timo Gottschalk
Timo Gottschalk (born August 28, 1974 in Neuruppin) is a German Rallying, rally co-driver, most notable for being on the winning team of the 2011 Dakar Rally alongside Nasser Al-Attiyah and in 2025 Dakar Rally, 2025 with Yazeed Al-Rajhi.
Career
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- green MINI John Cooper Works Rally
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Orlando Terranova/
Andreas Schulz
Andreas Schulz (born 5 October 1951) is a German rower who competed for East Germany in the 1976 Summer Olympics.
He was born in Freital
Freital is a town in the district of Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge in Saxony, Germany. The town is ...
- silver MINI John Cooper Works Rally
In 2018, Al-Rajhi and Gottschalk won the
Silk Way Rally
The Silk Way Rally () is an annual rally raid held in Russia and neighbouring countries. The first Silk Way Rally was run in 2009 from Kazan, Russia, to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. It is organised by the Silk Way Rally Association.
The race is part ...
in the passenger car class with a John Cooper Works Rally.
the same pair also won the
Rally Kazakhstan
The Rally Kazakhstan is a rally-raid which is held in the country of Kazakhstan since 2017. Motorcycles first took part in 2021; with the original debut cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was part of the FIA World Cup for C ...
in the same year.
See also
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Mini
The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, and finally ...
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Mini All4 Racing
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Mini Countryman
The Mini Countryman, also called Mini Crossover in Japan until 2024, is a subcompact crossover SUV, the first vehicle of this type to be launched by BMW under the Mini marque. It was launched in 2010 and received a facelift in 2014. The sec ...
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Mini John Cooper Works WRC
The Mini John Cooper Works WRC is a World Rally Car debuted by the Mini WRC Team during the 2011 World Rally Championship season. It is the first rally car to bear the Mini label in top-level rallying since the 1960s. The car was entered in a li ...
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Mini All4 Racing
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X-raid
References
{{Reflist
External links
X-raid website
Rally cars
Rally raid cars
Mini (BMW) vehicles