End of the line for the Doran-JRM link

Helping in the progress of the Mini Countryman RX in the second year of the model, Liam Doran had his season participation in the FIA World Rallycross Championship cut in half as JRM ended its relationship with the British Bomb.

JRM Racing in fact only released a short statement about the fact, stating that Doran’s last World RX participation was the Höljes round at Sweden, where he didn’t go past the qualifying heats, finishing 18^th out of 19 entrants. His 2016 season was somehow like his previous ones with his privately owned Citroën DS3 RX with unimpressive results, although car reliability wasn’t the main problem here. Doran’s highlight this year was his participation at Hockenheim, with a semifinal win and a fifth place in the final.

Team boss James Rumsey limited himself to say that the contract between Doran and JRM was terminated and this was an internal matter, although the undisclosed reason for Doran to be axed may have been a messy situation at Norway where the British driver and some friends started a fight with the security staff of the event, having even the need of calling the police when things got out of control. There were other things that were mentioned, but those still need confirmation.

Even though JRM is without Doran, the team will continue the Mini RX quest this year, although no substitute driver was announced at this moment, meaning that they can secure a deal for the rest of the season or do race by race deals like it was done last year, where drivers like Danny Way, Dave Mirra, Guy Wilks, Guerlain Chicherit, Patrick Carpentier and LP Dumoulin were in the British cockpit. The most secure bets may be Wilks himself, as he was active this year in an Olsbergs MSE Ford Fiesta outside of his World RX commenting duties, and Finnish driver Riku Tahko, who was racing in a Mini in the European Rallycross Championship.

PHOTO: JRM Group