The Endurancekarting.com Mini Cooper prepared by Sneed Speed Shop arrived at Lime Rock Park with a plan. Driver Johan Scwartz was now comfortable with the Mini and the World Challenge Touring Car B (TCB) series. It was time to let loose! Lime Rock was the setting for Rounds 4, 5 and 6. Round 4: Thursday Thursday was a busy day for the team featuring 2 practice sessions, 1 qualifying session and 2 back-to-back races (rounds 4 & 5). We knew we needed to drive a clean race to be able to save the car for the second race. Johan drove the car consistently in the top 5 during both of the practice sessions and was very pleased with the balance and speed. Building on the two successful practice sessions, Johan put the Endurancekarting.com Mini on the pole! Race time. At the start of the race, everything was going well – we continued to lead. On lap 7, it all went wrong. The car suffered a major mechanical failure of the left rear control arm and the entire wheel assembly (shoch and all) detached itself from the race car. Not what you want while mixing it up for the win. At this point, we knew making Round 5 was impossible. We also knew that we needed to scramble to find enough spare items to replace the whole assembly. Most TCB race teams aren’t going to have 100% of the parts we needed. Enter Mini nation! We were able to borrow parts from Brad Davis (Round 4’s winner) and a few of the other parts from local Mini people! The Mini owner group is some of the coolest folks around and really helped get us back on track with a few of the “odd†parts that don’t normally break on a race car. Round 6: Saturday Alfred Lewis and Chris Sneed got the car ready with just enough time to roll the car to the back of the pack. All we can say is that it might not be smart to put Johan Scwartz’s back against the wall! Starting in the 35th position, Johan knew that he needed pass a LOT of cars. Passing lots of cars in spec classes is something that just doesn’t happen since they are SO closely prepared. Over the course of the race, Johan moved from 35th place to finish 15th overall and 5th in the TCB class. Johan passed cars consistently each lap and drove a really impressive race. Our trip to Lime Rock was filled with ups and downs. We KNOW we have a great car, team and a super fast driver and we’re looking forward to Mid Ohio next month.
That was an impressive recovery, way to go "Mini nation" and well done Johan and all involved. Thanks for the report.