With James at the wheel - accompanied by two other drivers - they put their Mini Cooper S - John Cooper Works to the test at the recent Bathurst 6 Hour event in central west NSW.

But before they could get to the magical Mount Panorama, a lot of blood, sweat and gears had to go into fine-tuning the car.

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"We try to do as much in-house as we can," James said.

"Any engine changes that need to be done, we do ourselves, most mechanical work we do ourselves within reason but tuning of the car we leave to the professionals because it's an area that's risky when you don't know what you're doing."

The car was purchased back in 2020 with the goal to race it in the Whiteline Rallysprint Series in Sydney. Lockdown put a halt to that idea and it's been a "two year COVID project" ever since.

"We joke that there's about 10,000 five-minute jobs," James said of the work that goes into race preparation, before Trevor added that "there's usually about time for 5000 of them."

"We work on it mostly on weekends, some of the specialised jobs like the electronics I'll spend an evening on though," the dad, who himself first started racing in 1985 and competing on a national level since 2001 said.

"We tend to keep it to the weekends and during the week we're just waiting for all the parts to arrive."

As for the race itself, there was some great results on the track as well.

"It's probably one of the biggest production car events of the year," James said of the event.

"Besides our standard season, the Bathurst 6 Hour tends to bring the best from all around Australia. It brings the best cars out on the best track."

Things started off well for the team as well.

"We got a pole position (in D class) and we pulled out a cracker lap in qualifying," the son added.

"Just before the race, we had a boost leak which off the race start we hadn't resolved properly which caused us to drop eight laps. Once we got it resolved, the thing was a rocket from there."

They would end up completing 111 laps across the six hours, good for eighth in their class and 39^th overall.

"It was a good weekend and given it was the car's first race meeting, we were happy with the results we got," James added.

"To get it to Bathurst and to finish is an achievement in itself, but to get a pole finish along the way is a successful weekend."

After spending the past few years in a "holding pattern" due to COVID, the Keenes are optimistic they can next race the Mini at the APC United Racing Series later this year, with interest also garnered to run a second car in Bathurst next year as well.