Mini racing in Australia can be followed back to some of the first Leyland Mini Cooper cars in Australia. You may have seen footage of the cars battling big Fords on Mt Panorama in the highlight reels on Bathurst day, and there are a great many historic and sport sedan minis still in circulation and sheds today. Some of these Minis are quite valuable and it is understandable that owners and drivers are becoming more reluctant to get the older minis on track.

In 2008, The Australian Mini Challenge was formed as a touring car racing category. The Mini Challenge supported both the V8 Supercar Championship Series and the V8 Supercar Development Series. The 25 vehicles were built by BMW Motorsport and were imported for the explicit use of motorsport activities. The Australian Mini Challenge ran for 3 years until 2010.

In more recent years a combined series of old and new minis called the East Coast Super Mini Challenge has been running in the eastern states of Australia and held events in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. A number of categories catered for the many different classes of Minis that exist and the series is still running to this day.

The SuperMini Challenge is a series that focuses more on the BMW Mini cars and consists of 2 Classes of Mini race vehicles. The Unlimted Class and the Cooper Class. The Cooper Class cars are based on the BMW Mini R53 Cooper S which was in production from 2001 until 2006 and is commonly known as the “supercharged” Mini. This class is designed as an entry-level category and as such has a number of Class rules aimed at reducing costs to cater for new participants and close racing for minimal outlay. The Unlimited class Mini is the next step up and allows for significant modification and provides enthusiasts with the opportunity to build and race some very exciting Minis. There are a number of BMW Minis as well as Leyland Minis that compete in the Unlimited Class.