Cool!!! Thank you for all the info. It's just a curiosity. I keep reading all of the MINI promotions saying "Oh, we won the Watkins Glen again" and I was just curious to see if those guys were racing something special that we, as average consumers, aren't able to buy. I know that money can buy everything when it comes to tuning, but it would just be nice to know how close these winning vehicles are to the car we actually purchase from a showroom.

A little bragging rights, too. That way, if I ever buy a brand new JCW, I can say, "A car basically like this one won such and such a race."

 

Actually, these MINIs won a lot of races over the years when they were racing in the IMSA series and they won the manufacturer’s championship in 2017 (I think). MINI corporate never capitalized on that. Look back through this thread. There was a lot about their races posted in here. They were a blast to watch race. There are a lot of YouTube posts of the races they were in. There should be links in here to some of those races.

Have you ever been to WGI?

 

Imagine how much faster they would be with an aftermarket shift **** .....

I love the brake ducts cooling system

 

And stickers. They need more stickers...

I had forgotten how they did the brake ducts until I posted those pictures. A bit cobbed together it seems. But what is noteworthy is that they were able to get a decent size hose to the brakes. Something that is hard, if not impossible, to figure out for the R56.

 

I really miss watching the LAP Motorsport MINI JCW team cars race....I blinked and it was over....very sad! I do have my racing team jerseys to wear if I can still get into them! lol!

 

LAP raced this past season in the Blancpain GT series. If I remember correctly, there were 4 MINIs in the last race that I watched. But that series is a pain to watch as it is hard to find the posts on YouTube and the Blancpain web site isn’t as good as the IMSA site for finding those posts. It is hard to beat IMSA for broadcastIng and announcing races. I also find that the Blancpain races are not as interesting as their format is more of a sprint format then the endurance format of the IMSA series. Blancpain doesn’t have the presence in the the States as it does world wide. IMSA is the dominant series here.

I very much enjoyed watching the LAP MINIs at Lime Rock and in the IMSA series in general. Blancpain GT races are at Watkins Glen and that is just a bit too far for me to go to see.

 

So the MINIs were at COTA in Texas last weekend. This race is up and YouTube and there is a post about it here (https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...a-03-08-a.html). For anyone in the NE, they are planned to come to Lime Rock Park in Connecticut in early May; I hope to be there.

 

Time to revive this thread...

The MINI team is alive and well, and winning races again. The MINI JCW and MINI JCW Pro both won their respective classes in their recent TC America race at Road America. This was a great race...

 

The Miniac on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/c/TheMINIac) has also been doing live stream interviews with the JCW Team after the last few races. There's some good information that comes out of those live streams

 

That was an awesome watch. Thanks for posting it.

 

You’re welcome...

Race two was both exciting and boring at the same time (watch and you’ll see why). A bit of a spoiler:

All 3 MINIs finished on the podium...

Enjoy:

These sprint races are great to watch...

 

That is a great share...

Here is the interview with the 3 MINI drivers:

 

wait until you see what I have planned for Indy!

 

When is that race?

 

Oct 7-9

https://www.tcamerica.us/calendar

 

Ill be heading to Sebring to represent on the 24th.

 

Thanks - will have to watch...

 

Both TC America races at Sebring are up on YouTube. 5 MINIs were entered by LAP motors. 2 were “new” (built from damaged cars) and it was interesting to see them compete. But, it seems that Sebring is a bit hard on the MINIs. The TC class MINI (MINI Pro) started well, but issues slowed it down. Even so, it made it to the podium in the second race (took second); not sure about the 1st race if it placed 3rd or 4th. At any rate it had overheating issues. The TCA MINI appeared to just not like the track, with the original 2 falling to mid-pack and the 2 new MINIs at the back.

Interesting race, none the less...

Race 1
Race 2

 

The post race live interview with the JCW team was really good and provided some really great information about SRO, the issues with the mini's and other racing bits: