I had my first race yesterday in the Mini, and boy was it fun! I ran our wagon last year and have to say it is quite the difference between the cars thats for sure.

The forecast called for rain all day but my run group was lucky enough to not get rained on. Run groups 2 and 3 had to run on a damp pad in the afternoon. Made for some good entertainment while working the course and kept the course workers busy setting cones back up There was only 2 other Mini's there yesterday, a 2013 GP (nice car - first time seeing one), and a 2006 S. I placed first in my class, but 64th out of 83 in the pax times. There were only 3 other cars in my class so there wasn't too much competition. I did progressively get faster over the day after getting some tips from some of the more experienced drivers and also figuring out a better line through the box(see picture) to try and keep a bit of momentum going so the car wouldn't bog down in second coming out of the box. Next event for us is on Nov 16th - can't wait!

link to indexed results

Course map



Morning walk



Pits



GP crossing the finish line



Start line

 

What tires did you decide on in the end?

I notice the results have a space for tire supplier and your is blank.

 

I haven't got new tires yet. I am just running on the cheap Achilles brand tires that the previous owner put on the car. We are still looking for a second set of rims for the car for snow tires.

 

Second event for me yesterday. Weather was great - nice and sunny but cold. Temperature didn't get over 50 deg at the most and the ground temperature was only 38 deg all day even after being in the sun all day. Definitely was a fun day and the course had a few non constant radius corners to mix things up.



We had a good turn out of vehicles for this event, 89 in total and 9 in HS. I didn't fair too well today coming in 7th out of 9. Almost everyone had a hard time getting tires up to temp, so there was lots of spin outs over the course of the day. Looking forward to the next event in the new year.

Link to results

 

Wow! Forgot about this thread - lol!

I haven't been racing much in the last few months, we finished up our slush series back in April with a total of seven events over the winter. The club breaks the classing down into 3 groups - Top Gun, Index, and Novice. I ran in Index this year. They use a points system for every event based on your cars' pax rating and add up points as the season goes on. I ended up placing 10th in the Index class. I would have been first if I didn't miss the first event(the points spread was pretty close) - oh well - maybe next year.

I did finally end up getting new tires for the car a while back - some BFG Sport Comp2's - not the best for the track but a good compromise between performance and tread life. Also got a set of 15" rims with some snow tires for the winter.

I might be able to get one more event in this summer but we are travelling a lot this summer so racing will have to be on the back burner for now.

Happy Motoring!