MINI Cooper’s JCW Rally Team Scores Another Podium at Rally Colorado

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The MINI John Cooper Works Race Team is quietly building one of the more compelling storylines in American rally this year, and this past weekend it added another result to the pile. At Rally Colorado, held July 18-19 in and around Rangely, in Rio Blanco County, the two-car MINI squad brought home a podium finish in the fifth round of the 2026 American Rally Association (ARA) National Championship.

Rally Colorado Results: MINI JCW 2-Door and Countryman ALL4

Drew Quillen and David Quillen took their MINI John Cooper Works 2-Door to third in class in the National Open 2 Wheel Drive (O2WD) category, running the fast, twisting stages of gravel, clay, and hard-packed dirt that define Rally Colorado. In the Limited 4 Wheel Drive class (L4WD), Felicia Killman and Luis Perocarpi piloted the MINI John Cooper Works Countryman ALL4 to sixth in class.

“‘Rally Colorado’ was a success for our MINI JCW Team this weekend,” said Luis Perocarpi, team owner of LAP Motorsport. “We have been making progress with our two MINIs as we continue to fight for podium finishes in the 2026 ARA National Championship. Both the John Cooper Works 2-Door and the John Cooper Works Countryman ALL4 delivered strong performances throughout the Colorado stages. We’re looking forward to keeping our progress going for the next rally in August.”

Two Rally Cars, Two Philosophies

What makes this MINI rally program interesting is the pairing of vehicles. The John Cooper Works 2-Door is the car most MINI enthusiasts picture when they think “rally”: short wheelbase, low weight, that go-kart handling MINI has built its identity on since the original Cooper S. The Countryman ALL4, by contrast, is MINI’s answer to modern rally’s demand for all-wheel-drive grip and the added versatility of a compact SUV platform. Running both in the ARA’s minimal-modification classes means what you’re watching is close to what you could buy at a MINI dealer, a point MINI is clearly happy to make.

A Rally Program With Deep Roots

MINI USA’s rally push isn’t a one-off marketing exercise. The brand’s relationship with LAP Motorsports, run by Luis Perocarpi, dates back to 2015, originally built around IMSA ST competition before expanding into SRO and TC America’s World Challenge series. Rally is the newest chapter, and it’s one that connects directly to MINI’s actual motorsport DNA rather than borrowing someone else’s.

That heritage is worth remembering: the classic Mini Cooper S, engineered by Alec Issigonis as an efficient city car and turned into a giant-killer by John Cooper, won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, 1965, and 1967, embarrassing far more powerful cars on icy mountain roads. Decades later, the MINI ALL4 Racing program dominated the Dakar Rally through the 2010s. A JCW-badged MINI fighting for podiums on American gravel in 2026 is very much in that lineage.

What’s Next for the JCW Team

The ARA National Championship runs eight rounds from February through October. With Rally Colorado in the books, three events remain on the 2026 calendar:

• Ojibwe Forests Rally: August 27-29, Detroit Lakes, Minnesota
• Overmountain Rally Tennessee: September 18-19, Newport, Tennessee
• Lake Superior Performance Rally: October 9-10, Marquette, Michigan

Expect the MINI JCW Team to keep chasing that class podium as the season heads into its final stretch, and expect us to keep tracking it.

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