Evergreen Tyres backed racing driver Rob Smith has today, Friday, 17th April, officially confirmed his return to action in the hugely popular Power Maxed MINI Challenge, piloting one of the brand new 275bhp MINI F56 cars in the championship’s headline class.Becoming a race winner in the category last year at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit during the second of three outings in the series, the Telford 22-year-old is back with top team Excelr8 Motorsport for his first full campaign in the MINI UK-supported championship. Alongside continued backing from Evergreen, Rob will also enjoy support from long-time sponsors Grouptyre and BMTR.Targeting a title bid from the outset, the former Renault UK Clio Cup podium finisher is thrilled to be returning to action in the MINIs and cannot wait for the season-opener next weekend, 25th/26th April, at Donington Park National Circuit.“We’ve been planning to do a full season in MINI for a while now, after driving the development car at the end of last year it really confirmed where I wanted to be”, said Rob, “The MINI races I did last year were the most enjoyable time of my racing career so far, the guys at Excelr8 are great and the atmosphere in the paddock, as well as the organisation, is fantastic.“I’ve got to aim to try and win the championship really, there are only a handful of us with some experience of the F56 and hopefully that will work in our favour. We’ve had some productive test days so far, learnt a lot about the car and now we can’t wait for Donington next weekend.”The brand new third generation MINI Cooper JCW car, the F56, is based on its road-going MINI Hatch cousin and runs on slick Pirelli tyres, features a sequential gearbox, 2.0-litre turbo engine, three way adjustable Nitron dampers and limited slip differential.In terms of its capability, the latest racing MINI is a major step forward and brings the category ever closer to the British Touring Car Championship. Indeed, during recent outings at Brands Hatch and Donington, Rob says the evolving performance is moving the MINI Challenge ahead of the Clio Cup.“I’m so impressed with the spec of the F56, in testing so far the car has been slightly quicker than the Clio Cup and that performance is only going to increase as the teams and drivers work on set-up and improvements as the season gets underway”, he added.“The chassis is classic MINI, handles like a go-kart, and is a step above now with the extra power and sequential gearbox. The new car is a lot more driveable too thanks to the increased torque, it’s really put the performance somewhere between Clios and touring cars.”Following next weekend’s opening round of the Power Maxed MINI Challenge at Donington, the headline F56 category will visit Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit, Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit, Brands Hatch Indy Circuit and Oulton Park before returning to Donington in September. The season finale takes place at Snetterton over the weekend 31st October/1st November.