Vincent Parker driving the Mini Mania/ Bay Bridge Motors #96 Mini Cooper S competed with NASA on 6-28-9 in the USTCC (United States Touring Car Championsip) finising 4th and taking the Dupli Color Top Rookie Award. This was the best result this year and lifts Vince up to 4th in season points and 1st in the Rookie of the Year points. A special thanks to Hans Dinse and his brother Jim for thier pit crew work this race. Hans is the Service Manager for Niello Mini of Sacramento, CA so he brings a lot of Mini knowledge. Saturday was Hot! 104 in the Bay Area is unusual. The track was greasy after a few laps so times were a little slow for everyone. It didn't help that Nascar was here the week before and left thier cheap rubber all over the track. Saturday is a practice day for the USTCC. We run a warm up session, then a qualify, then a practice race. Qualified 5th with a time of 1:58.9 Since this is a practice day we took the oportunity to test tire temps with a new Longacre pyrometer. Results were very good, showed even temps across the tire surface, but with the air temp at 104 we were getting up to 200 degrees during the race. Sunday was a little cooler, down to 100 degrees. We decided to add more front camber just to see what the tire temps would do and to see how it would handle. Seemed to work well, turn in was better and the qualifying time was improved to 1:57.6 which put me in 6th for the race. Sunday race. Standing start. Our group starts first with serveral other groups spaced out behind. Just my luck for the 2nd race in a row the car in front stalls, I had to go right but got a slow start so I lost a couple of positions. The race is 30 minutes long and I was able to pass up to 5th and follow close to 3rd, Michael McColligan in the Mazda RX8 and 4th, Rich Woo in the Honda Integra. About half way through the race our group catches the slower groups and we have a lot of traffic to deal with. On the second to last lap the RX8 spins, I look in my mirror and there his is, at the same time I have caught up to the integra and attempt a pass in turn 7 but come up short on the exit. I end up 4th, 1 second behind 3rd. I finish first in the top rookie race. [ame="http://vimeo.com/5540023"]USTCC Race #3 Infineon 6-28-9 on Vimeo[/ame] http://www.finaldrive.net/FD-10.wmv Overall a great showing for the Mini and I appreciate the help of Hans and Jim as pit crew. Next up is August 1, 2 at California Speedway in Fontana Ca. We will be on the Roval which is about 3/4 of the Nascar oval then an infield road course. Thanks to the Sponsors Mini Mania Mini Cooper Parts and Accessories Online! BMW MINI Cooper and Classic Mini Coopers! Baybridge Motors Bay Bridge Motors - Mini Cooper & BMW Repair Pointsix Racing/ Valley Motorwerks Texas Speedwerks Texas Speedwerks Home Page and Niello Mini of Sacramento for thier help.
Well done! According to the write-up on the USTCC site the driver of the 3rd place Honda sounded pretty worried you might take away his podium posn on that last lap. Keep it up!
Added lastest episode of FinalDriveTV from Infineon Racewaay to the first post.. http://www.finaldrive.net/FD-10.wmv