Looks like he's already got the old one on the lift and is stripping all the parts to put in the new car!

http://timjmeyer.lv.googlepages.com/petetoejamracing

scroll down to the bottom - ouch!

 

I think it is a shame that there were some racing incidents, and I wasn't there to comment on them, so I don't know who was or wasn't at fault.

What I do know is why I wasn't there. Most importantly, I wasn't there because of the time the series took from my business last year. It is expensive and when I return as the one running the show, I am months behind from a week of racing.

The series is a great idea, and Phil is definitely taking the right steps to mature the race rules. I think the rules put in place this year are great ones, and more structure can be added to make this a premier motorsports series.

I may return to the series, as I want to defend my self-proclaimed status as the fastest MINI racer out there! Steps may be underway to make that happen without huge time and cash investments at the detriment to my business.

Yeah, the Lotus was just $12,000 car to curb!!

Randy

 

Good timing though as you needed the money to pay bills . You get the front clam rebuilt from your accident yet?

-Brian

 

Judging from some damage pictures I saw, it looked like Waylen tangled with someone also. What happened there?

 

That would be my "car to car" accident in question. I thought I could finish the first race on my set of worn pads. Turns out the answer was "NO STUPID!". I took a tighter line, Way to a wider one... I hit his rear quarter panel while trying to slow the car. Those who were watching us know how close the battle was up until that point, so its no wonder I got into him when a failure accured. Bad judgment on my part to not swap to my street pads. A hard lesson learned, but one that made an impact (no pun intended).

-Brian

 

Now I'm glad I didn't waste my time at the track. I can't believe there are no "mature race rules", all you have to do is see what ProAutoSports (for an example) does for rules.

Also some people have a big stupid mouth in public, hope someone appologized to the wife for that.

 

We would have paid the bills somehow, always do.

My accident was all cosmetic (which is what usually happens at 2 mph), and it is all buttoned up (just threw a new front clam on it) - the pics posted a while back in my R56 thread were recent. That was my first "car to car" and we know what the cause of that one was.

 

A Porsche was added to the (supposed) all-MINI NAMCRS race grid? What kind of idea was that? Oh, wait. Just like the Corvette at Laguna and the Miata last year at LVMS. (BTW, Sammy's Miata passed everyone but the race leader starting from the back of the grid at LVMS, so maybe that wasn't such a good idea.) Seems there's gotta be a lame duck in every race. Why is that again?

An instructor with many many laps around SMR who should know better, then proceeded to make the most amateurish mistake of them all - lifting in the last turn - and ploughs said Porsche into the K-wall. The whole farcical thing was just too much to believe. I wonder if he was paid to make a spectacle? It's hard to believe an instructor would make such an elementary mistake except on purpose.

 

It's called screwing up. Some of we humans do it from time to time.

 

Racers crash, even the best of them. You shouldn't be dumping on the guy. His accident involved no one but himself, and his presence there wasn't something he forced. But to postulate a purposfull dump that ruined his car has no basis in fact and is really out there. You can do much better.

Matt

ps, Tim and I have exchanged some e-mails. He was a volenteer there, with a total compensation of track time and a busted car. And some insults that his family overheard. I'm not holding my breath that he'll volenteer for the Mini stuff again. Too bad. He offered help and all some could do was complain about his Porsche. Not a proud day for the arrogent Mini fans there.

 

I don't see the issue with allowing the Prosche to race. Was everyone up in arms because he crashed or because it wasn't a MINI?

-Brian

 

didn't like the fact that it wasn't a Mini.....

Matt

 

Yah, my big mouth has been getting me in trouble for years. I should probably grow up.

Sounds boring. Probably won't happen.

 

I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the incidents since I wasn't at the track, however, a couple of good questions have been raised for the organizers.

Why have you been putting higher performance cars in the MINI races? It is well known in racing that mixing cars of different performance, while done sometimes, leads to more opportunities for problems.

Why reinvent the wheel in setting up rules and regulations when you could get sanctioning from NASA and adopt their basic regulations? There are many groups that do this and it seems to work, including the MINI racers in Arizona. The BMC CCA has an active club racing program that already has MINI classes, that might be an even better solution, but would diminish the role of the current organizers so probably wasn't considered. We've had a car on the track with both groups in the past without problems. There were plenty of officials and procedures for protests, if needed. I would be very reluctant to enter a car in the type of event described in this thread.

 

It's been said the Porsche had 140 HP. True/false? (It's been called a 944, 911 and 928)

 

I don't know, as I said, I wasn't there. Generally though Porsches and MINIs aren't in the same class.

 

it was a 944, certainly not a high horsepower car. The MINI racecars were far away from it when it crashed, and it was nearly in last place at the time (or at least not at all near the front runners).

 

I spent some time talking to Tim, both before and after his mishap.

Matt

 

Here is a vid of the bump in question.........
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...oID=2017785956
Now you can make up your mind on what really happened!!

 

well that's just too far away and a bad angle... but deffinetly some poor driving....

 

Question......are you still associated with Phil Wicks and the driving school?

 

it's safe to assume not. He was at the track, but wasn't instructing. Jerry, when did you show? A bit before lunch?

Matt

 

In regards to contact between the orange car and the gray car, it looks to me like the orange car is maintaining his line and the gray car makes a quick move to the right to correct a poor exit or to block. I don't see the orange car cut left into the gray car. The angle is not great so it's hard to know for sure.

Were there in car cameras from MavTV in any of the race cars?

 

Yes, there were 4 camera's. I believe there was one in Gareth's car, not sure about the USTCC.

-Brian

 

Hello
Gareth Nixon here. Sorry that I created so much stink. I was committed to the turn and did try my best to coax the car around the rear of the number 4 car and almost did. I hope the guy in the number 4 car understands that when committed to a turn there are only so many adjustments that can be made. I did think that something happened the number 4 car on the exit because I had very little time to adjust.

This is not the impression I wanted to make. The trip to the USA ment a lot to us as a small race team. I hope you can re-evaluate what happened and see that this was not intentional.

Thanks.

Gareth Nixon