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Looking at the last image. Why did they recess the offside fuel filler but not the nearside ?

It's me again!
When did they change the roll bar configuration from "John Aley 3 centre point configuration? Just out of interest as modern cages seem to be super STRONG now.

The FIA cage mandatory for Internationals (two rear stays and thicker tubing) came in for 1971. I think that was the first year any cage was mandatory. Aley made a version of the FIA cage too. Mine for my first International (72) was an Aley. Famously Abingdon turned up for scrutineering for the 71 Welsh International (with the Culcheth Triumph 2.5 Pi) without a certified FIA cage and had to chase around to get one.
BMC Comps first fitted the original Aley 3 point cage in rally Minis for the first time for the 66 RAC - in 7 of the 8 cars entered. The one who refused to have it then was TM - who dominated the event until fairly late retirement (retirement with idler gear bearing failure, not the engine failure still recorded in too many historical sources).

Thank you for the information. What I don't quite understand is why the nearside petrol cap was not recessed ?

Don't know much about the works race cars but probably using a separate tank in centre of boot fed from one of the fillers and the other one is just a blank for the hole in the shell. I think race regs may have by then required an inset filler (certainly traditional flip up filler caps were banned by then).

At one point bag tanks were allowed in racing, whether homologated or not, for safety reasons. May have been then.

Last pictures show the car with a Lucas number plate lamp on the doors, most probably to illuminate the race number, so these events must have run through the night?

cheers Cpr1