Whorton-Eales returns to Mini Challenge after BTCC season
British Touring Car Championship racer Ant Whorton-Eales is to take a sabbatical from the series to take part in the 2018 MINI Challenge.
The 23-year-old from Lichfield, Staffordshire, will spearhead JamSport’s assault on the JCW Class of the highly competitive one-make series, which gets underway at Oulton Park on Easter weekend.
Ant’s move to the MINI Challenge sees him reunited with the team that carried him to the Renault Clio Cup UK title back in 2016.
His stunning championship winning season, which featured no fewer than nine victories, saw Ant earn a move into the BTCC last season in an Audi S3 run by the AmDtuning.com team.
As well as leading a race at Knockhill, Ant took a best finish of sixth place en-route to second in the rookie standings.
Despite holding talks about returning to the touring car grid for a second season in 2018, Ant has instead elected to take a sabbatical from the series with the blessing of the AmD team to rejoin JamSport for its debut in the MINI Challenge.
“I’d pretty much agreed a deal to race in the BTCC again this season when the opportunity to race the MINI with JamSport came along, and Shaun [Hollamby – AmDtuning.com team manager] said I would be stupid not to take it," said Whorton-Eales.
“Although I really enjoyed my season in touring cars last year, I’m only 23 and there is plenty of time for me to return to the grid in future. That is my long-term goal, but for this year, my focus is firmly on working with JamSport on this new programme and it’s something I’m really looking forward to.
“We were working to try and put a deal together with Ant for 2018 but when the opportunity to join JamSport and to fight for the MINI title came up, we weren’t going to stand in his way," said AmD Tuning boss Shaun Hollamby.
“Some people might think that it is a step back after a year in the BTCC, but as other drivers have shown, sometimes you need to take a step backwards to then take two forwards.
“I have absolutely no doubt that Ant will be back on the BTCC grid again in the future and hopefully it will be with us. We’d love to have him back in our car as he played a big part in the progress we made as a team last year, and ideally it will be with him having added the MINI Challenge title to his resume.”