Just hours before practice closed at Nelson Ledges Road Course on Friday, Indianapolis racing driver Stephen Cox learned that a tragic fire would prevent his Ford Mustang team from competing in the weekend’s Champcar endurance sportscar races. Walking along pit row with his helmet in hand, Cox eventually jumped in the Wittenauer Motorsports MINI Cooper for a quick test and was offered a seat with the team.

“I can’t thank (team owner) John Wittenauer and his crew enough for bringing me on board,” Cox said. “I was a total rookie in MINI Coopers. I’d only been on this track once before and I’ve not driven a front-wheel-drive car since 2021, so it required a lot of faith from the team to bring me on board. This team was good enough to win with or without me, so I’m grateful they allowed me to be a part of their weekend.”

Nevertheless, Wittenauer Motorsports posted back-to-back F class victories on Saturday and Sunday along with a 4th place overall result in the 31-car field.

Wittenauer said, “Stephen got our base model 2009 MINI Cooper up to speed quickly with a late afternoon 30 minute practice session on Friday. Nelson Ledges Road Course is a very fast track… the secret to the MINI is being confident enough not to lift in some corners and keep up your momentum. Learning a new car, and a new track, and staying out of trouble all weekend indicates some real talent.”

Cox revisits Nelson Ledges next week to test Blue Thunder, his 400 horsepower Fox body Mustang, before returning to wheel-to-wheel competition at Road America with the Gorilla Sticker BMW team.