Red Bull Crashed Ice World Championship Final in Québec. MINI Rookie Award winner is named.

Note: This press release is a 1:1 copy of the original issued by MINI headquarters in Germany. No adaptations have been made to cater for the UK market.

Munich/Québec. Arttu Pihlainen (FIN) succeeded: at the weekend he became Red Bull Crashed Ice (RBCI) World Champion of 2011. At Saturday’s final in Québec, Canada he managed to prevail against tough competition from around the world to wild cheering from an enthusiastic crowd of spectators numbering around 110,000. MINI was in on the action as official Automotive Partner of RBCI. Dr Manfred Bräunl, president and CEO of BMW Group Canada, handed the newly crowned World Champion the key to his new MINI Countryman. The MINI Rookie Award for the best newcomer at the race in Québec went to Canadian Philippe Poirier.

MINI is a keen promoter of young talent, which is why it introduced the MINI Rookie Award in 2011. The prize was presented four times during the Red Bull Crashed Ice World Championship. At the opening event in Munich on 15 January, Fabian Mels from Germany made his mark as the best newcomer: he put in a remarkable performance in all the races, finishing 34th in the final and taking 11th place overall after all four races. At the second event in Valkenburg, Netherlands on 5 February, Hrvoje Starjacki from Croatia took the rookie prize, while the third stage of the World Championship, held in Moscow, Russia on 26 February, saw Russian Pavel Kryukov presented with the MINI Rookie Award.

As official Automotive Partner, MINI supports the Red Bull Crashed Ice Championship in a continuation of the successful partnership launched in 2010 with Austrian energy drink producer Red Bull.