Most liked posts in thread: MINI Challenge w/Speed Ventures 12/5

Alright, we have 3 Mini's signed up for this event. We have Muffy in her '04 MCS (she can tell you what she has), Danny from Minicorsa in his beast and yours truly will be running his Justacooper Convertible for the first time ever on an actual track (the cars first time, not mine). The car has done a bunch of Auto-X events, but as we all know track is a different beast all together. Looking at the list of cars signed up I will be running at least half the HP of everyone else out there, so it should be interesting. I will try to post results after the event.

 

I am going to go and watch. I am going to have to sit on the sidelines on this one due to the fact that I cant swing an oil change a helmet and the entrance fees right by xmas time. Anyone leaving from the oc area?

 

How does that work? Is that for classing only, or do you get a time handicap based on your mods?

 

Add up all your mods and that's the class you are in. Wish I could do this event but no budget, next year for sure.

 

TIRE/WHEEL
0.75 = level 1 street tires (RT615, RS2, MX, CSC3, PS2)
1.00 = tires 225 or wider
1.50 = level 2 street tires (Z1, AD07, RE01R, R1R, 595RSR, NT05, RE070)
2.50 = R-comp (RA1, R888, NT01, A048, PSC)
3.00 = full slick (Hooser Avon R1)

So does that mean 225 wide Avons = 4 points?

 

Kelli and I will come on out and cheer you on, but she can't get out on the track yet.

 

w00t!!! Sounds like it will be a gathering.

 

drat!! i'm sorry i have to miss this...
but then again if Maleficent isn't driving, she won't be need my umbrella services...


Good Luck to all!!!

 

Oh hay, I didn't see this before. I'll plan to show up and say hello.

 

Cool. Looking forward to meeting you.

 

Egguinn down. Clutch blown.

 

I hard day at the track. Cold and windy. But good turn out by the Minis. Both driving and spectating. Thank you all for coming out and supporting.

Personally, I lost my rear view mirror twice after hitting a dip in a fast chicane. Right strut tower is mushroomed. But worst of all the clutch is gone. Oh well. That just means I need to evaluate this opportunity to upgrade. I will have a more complete story and some pics tomorrow.

 

ouch! Yes, sounds like it's upgrade time.

I showed up at about 9:30 and visited with all the MINI folks. It was great! I'll plan on going to the next MINI challenge, too. BTW, congrats to the winners!

 

I quick preview courtesy of a fellow Mininut, Supergimp. Please visit his Flikr page at Streets of Willow - Dec 5, 2009 - a set on Flickr. He is a good friend, a great guy and his photo skills are not too shaby:

In the pic. Two cars going in the opposite direction on the same track is not a good thing. Admittedly, I am the one in the wrong. A spin out in the final turn into the main straight left me facing in the wrong direction. Seeing a train of 6 cars coming at you is something that puts a few extra beats into your heart rate. of course judging by the eyes of the drivers of those cars they were not all too happy to see me on their driving line.

 

So, what tire pressures did you settle on?

 

After we talked, I thought about it some more and dropped to 35 all around. I put my IR temp meter on the tires after the session and only got about 120F. Avon Techs which I was running (as most other slicks) need to be about 170 for their optimal. I think it was a combination of ambient temperature, the fact that Justacooper was just too slow to put the heat into the tires and another fact that Avons historically take longer to heat up. Last time I ran this same set of tires was in much warmer weather on my JCW and they would still take 3-4 laps to get up to temp.

I did take a look at my time sheet. With all the other things happening, the two session I did run were only 5 laps each and the best time came on the last or next to last lap, which tells me the tires were warming up. I just never got there. I feel confident I could have shaved another 2-3 seconds off once the tires got warm and I got my rhythm down.

Additionally (and I know every track rat has used this excuse at one time) I intentionally placed myself in a slower group because I was way underpowered. Lets just say every car in my group was at least 250 hp (maybe except for the Dutsun). I regret that decision. While the group was called Intermidate, it was far from so. From constant spin out (6 off road excursions in one session), to not knowing and disregard for flags (one guy actually said "they did not show me the white flag, so I didn't think I had to let anyone pass) and not understanding track rules and etiquette (people doing point by's by moving off racing line or passing under yellow on warm up laps) it was very hard to relax and get into the groove. I would probably have been better off running in a higher group.

But hey. That's life. To paraphrase, a bad day at a race track beats a good day at work.

 

Sorry I missed you, but we got there about midday. I wanted to say hi.

Here's what three hundred 300whp does to a pulley:

 

I saw a lot of that today from the stands, and I muttered something like, "no you idiot, don't DO that" every time.

 

yes, sorry we didn't meet. There will be other times! I was there until about 3:30PM, but I spent most of the time walking around and also visiting with the MINI folks at the far end of the paddock.