2025 MINI Challenge Trophy season with Podium Finish

Ashley Gregory opens her 2025 MINI Challenge Trophy season with a well deserved podium finish and leaves Snetterton in second place in the drivers' standings.

Round 1 of the season at Snetterton marked the end of a long winter and Ashley Gregory, the 20 year old rising star from Rosendale was ready to open her third MINI Challenge Trophy season in the strongest way possible, following a positive few months of preparation.

Ashley and her team (the only privateer team on the grid) began the weekend with testing on the Friday, in order to make sure their new car was running correctly. After running in the morning, the team realised they needed to make some setup changes in order to improve their performance and the tweaks to the car's setup worked as Ashley ended the day with more competitive lap times, despite picking up a cold and not feeling great herself.

In-spite of being under the weather, Ashley opened the first official day of the season on Saturday in great form and her second fastest lap time (which sets the grid for race one) would see her line-up for the start of a brand new season in third position. Ashley would set the seventh fastest time overall.

Ashley made a good start and was able to stay at the sharp end of the field and despite temporarily moving back to 4th, Ashley was able to not only move past Rhys Hurd for third but also Gabe Fairbrother for second position. Unfortunately, before being able to start a charge for the leader, the red flag was brought out due to an accident. The race restarted with eight minutes left on the clock. Ashley would again move back to 4th but on the last lap was able to move up to third position, and following an off for Fairbrother in front, she took second place in the opening race of the season.

Rain was forecast for Sunday but the first race of the day was held in dry conditions. Ashley started from sixth position on the grid and over the course of the race enjoyed many battles against her competitors. She took the chequered flag in fourth place, just over two seconds behind the race winner.

The final race of the weekend proved to be chaotic. Ashley would set off from ninth on the grid rather than seventh due to a post race two penalty and it soon became apparent that she had sustained damage in her earlier battles as her MINI Cooper was down on power along the straights. Ashley’s oval racing skills came in handy when the threatened rain arrived and the track conditions became treacherous. In the closing stages of the race an incident on track brought out the safety car. Prior to that Ashley had managed to avoid the carnage and move up to 4th place but the red flag was thrown shortly afterwards and the race results went back one lap. This meant Ashley would end the final race of the weekend in tenth position.

Despite the disappointment of the last race, Ashley scored a healthy total of 106 points over the three races and comes away from the first of seven rounds in second place, only six points off the championship leader.

“I’m so pleased to have been able to start the season in such competitive form and to come away from the first round with a trophy. Results like this were just the stuff of dreams last year and it’s amazing to see that all of our hard work and preparations going into this season are already starting to pay off. It was great to get back to wheel-to-wheel racing and to enjoy some great battles. It was just a shame that the damage from some contact in race two hurt our speed in the last race and of course the red flag and losing 4th in the way we did wasn’t great but there are still 18 races to go.”

Ashley added, “I am very grateful to the team for their efforts and also to my sponsors who allow us to come and race. It’s great to be able to reward my loyal partners and our newest sponsors with this result. Now the aim will be to try and keep this momentum going.”

Ashley and her privateer team acknowledge and are grateful for the support of the team's sponsors who enable Ashley to compete in the 2025 MINI Challenge Trophy - Pecometer Software limited | Salford Van Hire | McGowan Transcriptions | HMS Haulage | Gian Luca Photography | Fuchs UK Lubricants | Gymsafe | Glass Assist UK | DJB Business Finance Klarius Products | NEO Tools | Fort Vale Engineering | Woodcocks Haworth & Nuttall Solicitors | Orbital Design | North West Powder Coating | Lancashire DAF.

MINI CHALLENGE Trophy UK Round 1

Qualifying - P7

Race 1 - P2

Race 2 - P4

Race 3 - P10

MINI CHALLENGE Trophy Championship points after 3 races

P2 - 106 points

Ashley’s second round of the season will take place next month on the 10-11 May at the iconic Brands Hatch circuit. The racing will be broadcast live on ITV4 as the championship will race alongside the British Touring Car Championship.