MINI Basking in Successful Continental Tire Challenge Season

Steve · Aug 3, 2017

MINI Basking in Successful Continental Tire Challenge Season (imsa.com)

Itâ€™s hard to find a manufacturer in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Street Tuner (ST) more pleased with the 2017 season so far than MINI.

After finishing fifth the manufacturersâ€™ championship last year, MINI currently sits in second place just 17 points behind the defending class champion, Porsche. Headed into Road America, MINI brings a contingent of three cars vying to represent the team on the podium.

â€œEveryone wants to finish as high as possible,â€ says Mike LaMarra, who pilots the No. 37 MINI JCW with co-driver James Vance. â€œIf we can sneak out a win or a few more podiums for the (No.) 37 car, weâ€™d certainly like that. But I think as one of the team players, weâ€™d like to position MINI, as a manufacturer, as high as possible because they do so much for us.â€

The MINI JCW Team also features co-drivers Derek Jones and Mat Pombo in the No. 73, and a few rotating drivers in the No. 52, including Pomboâ€™s brother Mark Pombo, Nate Norenberg and Jay Salinsky.

â€œThe thing thatâ€™s been awesome about MINI has been the MINI owners and the fans,â€ said Mat Pombo, who sits third in the driver championship standings with Jones after recording wins at the BMW Endurance Challenge at Daytona and the Continental Tire 120 at The Glen.

â€œEvery weekend we have huge MINI corrals and fans that honestly have never even seen a race,â€ Pombo continued. â€œBut through the buzz at the corporate level of MINI and the MINI dealerships and local MINI owner clubs, weâ€™re getting a lot of people out to the races who are just excited to see a car like theirs on the racetrack. That really energizes us. I havenâ€™t ever really seen that in racing.â€

For Jones and Pombo, two championship points behind the second-place No. 17 RS1 Porsche Cayman, and 23 points behind the class-leading No. 56 Murillo Racing Porsche Cayman, Road America could prove to be a turning point heading into the final four races of the season.

â€œFrom my standpoint, itâ€™s about wins for us,â€ said Mat Pombo. â€œWe just have to go out and win the races that we can. We have to capitalize on our opportunities. The tracks we have circled, we just have to go out and do what weâ€™re capable of doing. The team has proven that theyâ€™re capable and can do it and us as drivers, I know weâ€™re confident we can do it.

â€œWe just can control what we do and get the results we expect and hopefully that will be good enough. Weâ€™ve got to show up, go through the motions and really not do anything different than what weâ€™ve been doing. We try not to think about the championship even though itâ€™s there. We just do what we have to do and weâ€™ll close the gap if that happens.â€

MINI brings its unified front and loyal fan base to the Road America 12 this weekend. While each car may have its own strategies and goals heading into this weekendâ€™s race, there remains an underlying theme for MINI JCW.

â€œI think thereâ€™s a lot of excitement around the MINI and the MINI brand,â€ said LaMarra. â€œWeâ€™re excited to have the finishes weâ€™ve been having. It seems as though the team has really figured the car out after a few years of development and weâ€™re starting to have some success, so weâ€™re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

â€œNot that itâ€™s over, but weâ€™re starting to see the hard work the team has been putting in, especially this season but also in previous sesons, start to pay off.â€
Click to expand...

IMSA 2017

Redbeard · Aug 4, 2017

Good times. I have been enjoying thier races this season.

Forums

MINI Basking in Successful Continental Tire Challenge Season

Steve Administrator
Staff Member Articles Moderator

Redbeard JCW: because fast is fun!
Supporting Member

Share This Page

Useful Searches

MINI Basking in Successful Continental Tire Challenge Season

Steve Administrator Staff Member Articles Moderator

Redbeard JCW: because fast is fun! Supporting Member

Share This Page

Steve Administrator
Staff Member Articles Moderator

Redbeard JCW: because fast is fun!
Supporting Member