Literally! (More on that later)
Minibeast had it's first race weekend Sept 6th and 7th.
Saturday- Weather was awful. Rainstorms seemed to come through just before every session for the race group. Minibeast spent as much time dodging puddles as other drivers. Otherwise the Mini did itself proud. Driver on the otherhand missed one yellow flag and pitted late for a total 2 lap penalty. (Whoops)
Sunday - Weather cleared and a beautiful day was in the making. Minibeast went out with one of the faster 4 cylder cars and was learning some new lines when the absolute worst happened. Seems a GT3 cup car had blown an oil line heading for the hairpin. Before the corner workers could pull the yellow flag, Minibeast was in the oil with 3 other drivers. Oil and track do not mix especially at speed. Rather than hit the slower moving vehicles in front the Minibeast headed for the wall to try and (scrub) off some speed. Unfortunately, the beast just bounced and ended up continuing to the end of the track and hitting a tire wall as well.
Lots of body damage but it appears so far that there is little mechanical damage other than the radiator and a brake line. Here are some shots of the Minibeast at it's best!




_________________
Mark
'02 Cooper S
MINIBEAST SPONSORED BY

 

And for those of you just insistant on the gory pictures;

 

Poor Minibeast!! What a terrible thing! I know how much you loved your car! Make him better soon! :???: :???:

 

MINIBeast, how far are you from Sarasota? I could use a good tuner down there, instead of going to MINI service all the time once my warranty is up.

 

Ant, they are in the general Ft. Lauderdale area, don't know how close that is to Sarasota. It's a large, clean, seemingly well-organized shop, just as it appears in the photos. They deal with many high-end German autos as well as the MINI. And Mark is a cool guy who truly loves MINIs.