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What a great event! There were 272 cars registered, and a ton more that attended just to see what was happening. It was a great mix of new and old cars, and I believe some bridges were built bettering the new/old relationship.
MINI Meet Events
Phil Wicks Academy
There was more than enough to keep all enthusiasts busy at the Meet. The Meet went from Monday through Friday, with the Phil Wicks Driving Academy running at Blackhawk Farms on Monday and Tuesday. This was a great experience and gave many MINI/Mini owners the chance to get out on a road course for the first time. There was also a chance to get a ton of track time!
Autocross
Following the Driving School, there was a day of motorsports at Blackhawk Farms. There was a Solo event with over 80 cars registered, including Charles Rossier from RDR and Eric Savage from Helix 13 - great guys. For those of you unfamiliar with a Solo 1 event, it is a track run instead of a coned course. You still get one lap through, and you run alone. The Webb Motorsports cars dominated the Solo event, with the Mule taking top time of day and an over 4 second lead over the second place car - another Webb Motorsports car driven by Cooper Stofer in his first ever track event. Congratulations Cooper!
Ultimate Mania Challenge
Also run on Wednesday was the Mania Challenge. All of the New MINIs were plagued with belt failures - something we are working on. Fortunately the Mule just kept plugging away all week! Before the start of the race, everything looked good, with the Mule being the fastest new MINI at Blackhawk, turning a 1:23.9 second run on our Toyo tires. Due to differing qualifying rules - a "qualifying race" rather than fastest times, the grid was somewhat mixed - which made for a more exciting race start! During the Qualifying Race, the Mule was gridded 5th or 6th based on when the car reached the grid if I remember correctly (the starting positions changed at each run). When the green flag dropped, the Webb Motorsports car rocketed from its mid-pack position to pass the Mini Mania "Super Cooper S" on the inside into turn one and take the lead. After turning a few hot laps, we returned to check pressures and make adjustments for the race. Of course, this was without the knowledge that we were doing a qualifying race rather than timed qualifying, so it hurt our position for the race. We ended up qualifying 7th for the challenge.
When the race started, there were 6 classic MINIs ahead of the Mule, and by the end of the first lap, we had climbed to second behind the classic Mini of Jim Firstenburg, a local with a very nicely prepped car. For the rest of the challenge, we raced - the Mule outpowering, and the classic out braking. With less than one lap left, the Mule lost its belt, and the event was done. Even with the car losing a belt on the last lap, we finished first in class (new MINI).
The belt was replaced (with help from Eric at Helix - thanks!) and a scratch race with the FMD performance new MINI and several classic Minis, including Jim, was put on. The FMD car was directly in front of the Mule on the start, and at the green flag, the Mule again was in second place by the end of the first lap, behind Jim's classic. We again fought hard, and several lead changes took place, but the abbreviated race ended with the classic on top by a little less than the front wing! Again, the Webb Motorsports Mule finished first in class, but was just nipped for the overall win.
A great event with definite comraderie from some of the other tuners - classic and new. Thanks to Eric from Helix and Anthony from FMD.
From Blackhawk, it was back to Rockford for the remaining two days of funkhana, rally, and concours events. There were also several vendor displays, and a few pulley installs. Francis from Florida had a very nice new MINI with a shaved boot and full body color aero kit. There were so many nice cars to behold - woodys, delivery vans, pickups - great stuff.
Many friends were made, and I very much look forward to the 2005 meet, and the next Mania Challenge - we expect to win!
What a great event! There were 272 cars registered, and a ton more that attended just to see what was happening. It was a great mix of new and old cars, and I believe some bridges were built bettering the new/old relationship.
Man I would have loved to have been there. I had planned to awhile back until I realized all the events were scheduled for Monday through Thursday. Between my recent long trip to the UK and it being a crazy busy work week I wasn't able to make it out. Good to hear it was a fun time though!
Cooper phoned me today and filled me in on all I missed! Now I feel guilty
I'll for sure be there next year
Also heard all about the assorted drama, yikes! Hopefully some people can learn to play fair and not be such sore losers, definitely not the Mini/MINI way
It must be nice to see all of your product development, track and dyno testing come together to make for a class win, and near overall victory. Please do share how the mule was outfitted for this challenge...
It was great hangin' with Randy, Cooper and the gang. I promise no embarassing anecdotes...go on twist my arm..the drama was unfortunate and we don't know who keyed(6 f8kin inche!) DVLMINI2's roof right above the driver door on the eve of the Meet.
And no, I did not go home with the Mini Pajamas model...
Ok Randy come on now, the autocross field was made up of novices and intermediate drivers with you in the mix with years of racing expierience. How can you claim a victory when you went against no competition for you. Also 1st in class in the ultimate challenge, when again no one to challenge you as you were the only new mini able to run the event. So how is all of this a true victory. In my book if it were me I would not consider this a victory at all. I am very competitive myself and am a good sportsman about competition, I hope, I just don't see how you can claim a victory in a race you did not finish as none of the other new mini's did either. A DNF is not a win in any circle. Just my 2 cents, and I am sure that is all it is worth.
It was great hangin' with Randy, Cooper and the gang. I promise no embarassing anecdotes...go on twist my arm..the drama was unfortunate and we don't know who keyed(6 f8kin inche!) DVLMINI2's roof right above the driver door on the eve of the Meet.
And no, I did not go home with the Mini Pajamas model...
The final times that were posted on the challenge are somewhat tainted. I do not believe that any of them are accurate. Remember this is the same timing that gave you know who a 1:24 during pre-qualifying.
And by the way randy I had you beat before they started to black flag me for noise every 5 laps. The only area that you would gain on me was under breaking. Remember stock brakes can only do so much. Even with stock brakes I was still faster.
OK Richard, except that Eric at Helix, Charles Rossier, and several other folks with a ton of experience were in the autocross. I was very happy with the accomplishment of fast time of day and the overall win in the autocross. Several cars had Hoosiers and were decked out with all the good stuff. Cooper was a novice, and finished second overall, so it looks like the cars from Webb Motorsports seem to be a more common link.
Christian, I think we both know who was faster - we were both in the scratch race, and I beat you there as well. The lap times from Anthony, who was your support team, had me ahead of you by one full second. I'm not going to get in to it with you, but all there saw who the fastest new MINI was. You were definitely fast, but I could catch you at will, and passed you (you were gridded in front of me for the scratch race). We've autocrossed in the past, and I have always been significantly faster, so I'm not sure why you think you will magically be faster at the track. We have both done several new things to the cars. If you really feel that way, we can take it to Second Creek - I'll be there next week - instead of getting downright silly on the forums.
As far as being the only new MINI in the challenge - that still equates to a class win. There were more than one registered, and I was the only one who made it to the start. As you stated, I have been racing for some time, and a win is a win. If I hadn't been fast, I wouldn't have felt good about it, but knowing that the belt was the only reason I wasn't able to challenge for the overall win, I do feel good about it. The car was fast.
Since this was a limiting factor in your on track performance could you share with the forum this little not so insignificant bit of information.
What brand and part number of belt were you running that broke??
Norm,
I had a 19%, and was running the NAPA 25-060539. The issue as I see it is the heat of running th track at 7000RPM for extended periods. The 19% was on all the new MINIs I am aware of, and all had multiple failures using the 060535, so I was happy with the performance of the 539.
I had a 19%, and was running the NAPA 25-060539. The issue as I see it is the heat of running th track at 7000RPM for extended periods. The 19% was on all the new MINIs I am aware of, and all had multiple failures using the 060535, so I was happy with the performance of the 539.
Hope that helps.
Randy
Randy, you seem to have broken more belts than all of us. (that's a good thing, kinda) It just means that you put your mule through the paces more than many of us. Could you please install a Gatorback belt and beat the snot out of it? It claims to be a far superior belt. I have it with my 19%, and abuse the heck out of it. It has not been on the track, however.
It was great meeting you Randy. Thanks for straightening out Louie's oil cap And yes I did buy the pajamas I actually enjoyed the autocross & didn't do too badly. The Ultimate MINI Challenge was super. Sorry you broke that belt-but it was fun seeing the Classics try to outrun each other. The rest of you guys missed a great time
Lois
__________________ GIMLI 08 CLUBMAN S
TRYING TO STAY OUT OF TROUBLE
Randy, you seem to have broken more belts than all of us. (that's a good thing, kinda) It just means that you put your mule through the paces more than many of us. Could you please install a Gatorback belt and beat the snot out of it? It claims to be a far superior belt. I have it with my 19%, and abuse the heck out of it. It has not been on the track, however.
Bisch, thanks for putting me on to these belts, mine is used with a 17% Helix pulley. The tensioner is in the same position as OEM pulley was with OEM belt indicating to me that the tensioner is not over or under loaded.
Here is the part number and specs.
Goodyear part# 4060537, part# 6PK1365, 6 rib effective
Lenght 53.75", outside Length 54.5"
Refered to as the Poly v Gatorback.
I have broken one of those as well with the 19%. The weird part, and I have a few theories on it, is that I haven't had any problems at all with the 15% pulley and the stock Continental belt.
I'll throw another one on there from Goodyear. I also tried the Dayco belt, which looks very similar to the Goodyear. The one I have now is the Gates belt, and so far, so good.
All of the other new MINIs broke several belts - so they break them more than I do! I think that was for two reasons - one, they did not have the inner fender liner on the cars, so gravel and such can get into the pullies and wear the belt faster. The other is that I believe they may have been using a bit too much tension (too small a belt), but that is a theory. I plan to talk to Anthony here about their car to see what the tensioner looked like with the belt they were using.
