Press release

The youngest driver on MINI TAKES THE STATES 2018?

If there’s to be an award for the youngest driver on MINI TAKES THE STATES 2018, Gus Pope of Lincoln, Nebraska, is going to take some beating.

At just 15 years old, he is driving – legally – in his parents’ 2016 MINI Countryman S All4 on the eastern route of the ‘Rally to the Rockies’.

In his home state, it is legal for those as young as 14 year olds to drive – but only to and from school – and it was when he was 14 that Gus passed his full driving test, enabling him to drive his dad Scott’s Jeep Wrangler as well as the family MINI.

Scott, who has been joined by his wife Anne and daughter Lily on MTTS, said: “If you live in a rural area like we do, driving at that age is an essential way of life.”

On the drive from Lincoln to the start of the rally in Orlando, Gus provided a welcome break to his parents by taking a two-hour stint at the wheel of their red Countryman, which is nicknamed ‘Francis’.