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MINI USA and the John Cooper Works Race Team are taking two rally-prepped machines into the forests of Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula this weekend for the Kubota Olympus Rally, the latest round of the 2026 American Rally Association National Championship. The MINI John Cooper Works Countryman ALL4 lines up in the Limited 4 Wheel Drive class, while the compact MINI John Cooper Works 2-Door enters the Open 2 Wheel Drive category, giving the team a presence across both ends of the drivetrain spectrum. With over 200 competitive miles spread across 18 stages and 1,250 feet of elevation change packed into three days of racing, the Olympus Rally is widely regarded as one of the most technical and physically demanding events on the ARA calendar.
The team arrives in Shelton, Washington, carrying momentum from a strong start to the season. A class podium at the Sno*Drift Rally in Michigan back in February marked MINI’s debut in ARA National competition, and both cars followed that up with a run at the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood in March. Team owner Luis Perocarpi has praised the durability and performance both machines have shown on gravel, noting that the stages ahead at Olympus may prove the toughest test yet. The Countryman ALL4 brings all-wheel-drive traction and the added ground clearance of a compact SUV to the loose-surface stages, while the 2-Door channels the brand’s famous go-kart handling and short wheelbase into a nimble, lightweight package built to dart through tight forest roads.
What makes this rally programme stand out beyond the stage times is the way MINI has woven its dealer network directly into the competition. At select rounds throughout the season, top-performing technicians from MINI’s authorised dealer network are invited to join the LAP Motorsports pit crew, turning workshop expertise into hands-on rally service under pressure. It is a move that bridges the gap between the showroom floor and the service park, reinforcing the brand’s connection to the community of enthusiasts and professionals who keep these cars running day in, day out.
The entire campaign is a deliberate nod to MINI’s legendary rally pedigree. The original Mini Cooper S stunned the motorsport world in the 1960s, conquering the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, 1965 and 1967 by outmanoeuvring far more powerful V8 rivals on tight, icy mountain passes. Decades later, the MINI ALL4 Racing dominated the Dakar Rally through the 2010s, proving the brand’s competitive instinct stretches well beyond tarmac circuits. This ARA season, run in partnership with long-standing collaborator LAP Motorsports, picks up that thread and plants it firmly on American gravel, reconnecting MINI with the dirt-road DNA that made it a household name in rallying.
The Olympus Rally is the third of eight rounds in the 2026 ARA National Championship, with the season running through to October’s Lake Superior Performance Rally in Michigan. For MINI, each stage offers another chance to demonstrate that the John Cooper Works badge still carries real competitive bite, whether the surface beneath the tyres is loose gravel, packed dirt or the slippery forest tracks of the Pacific Northwest. With two very different cars attacking two very different classes, the team heads into the weekend ready to prove that big results can still come from small, brilliantly engineered machines.
