Well it's been a long road but we finished rebuilding our USTCC #58 MINI Cooper S. We've been down over 18 months and we're glad to get back on the track for a shake down. No, not testing but running a full race with USTCC.

I must say it was a real test to finish the car for an annual inspection and approval of our new roll cage. We struggled through Friday and Saturday finishing the details of the car. Tech approved us late Saturday afternoon with the exception of the harness that had expired 2 months earlier. I hunted down a set of belts and harnesses, even going to a Ferrari owner that had crashed his car. Someone beat me to his belts by 10 minutes. I did later find a set and was ready to go for Sunday.

It looked like we would have three MINI's for this event. Jerry Bradbury #37, Bob Scheer #4, and my MINIDeck Motorsports #58. It seemed that it was not to be. Bob Scheer broke his LSD and towed the car home, only to replace the transmission and tow back up Sunday morning.

Jerry had been doing well, but on a qualifying run he spun the #37 car and was t-boned in the right rear quarter panel by a Honda. The #37 was towed in and the damaged was too extensive, so Jerry packed up and went home. I will miss racing against Jerry, as it was his stories about HPDE events that got me racing again.

Bob went out for practice on Sunday and was doing well but experienced some problems and came back in to spend the rest of the morning repairing the #4 MINI and missed qualifying. They did finally get the MINI finished and made it to the grid.

We missed practice due to the seat belt/harness issue but made it out for qualifying. Now this was the first time on track since the rebuild and the only driving I had had with the car was around the block ( 2nd gear). I took the #58 out on the track behind the rest of the field and slowly brought it up to speed. The alignment had been only sighted, as we had run out of time. Needless to say it was not right and felt more like an autocross car. Not good on the high speed sweepers at Buttonwillow. But we were able to better our best time for this track configuration #13 CCW.

One of the USTCC teams heard of my problems and offered to align the car. Now this is not just any team, but one of Spoon Racing's Accura cars. They spent about 2 hours and finished the MINI with a half hour to spare.

Bob's #4 and my #58 were gridded at the back. At our standing start Bob shot to the front. That car is developing some great horse power. But Bob Scheer's #4 suffered what appears to be a broken valve while contending for the lead and was out. We stayed up with the pack and the new alignment was working great. This was to be a 40 minute race. At this point I was not trying to win but to continue sorting the #58 MINI out. We finished 5th but when you only have 7 cars in class that's not real fantastic, but we finished. This is our 10th finish in USTCC and have never DNF.

With the information we gathered from our Max-Q-Data data acquisition system, we hope to improve for round 7 at Infineon in November. Until then, the driver just needs to get over the fear of hitting anything. But it's real fun to be back on the track.

 

In the paddock. My car has been sitting idle for awhile and the battery is down. With the help of Bob, Hubie and Dan, I get it bump started and take it for a spin to find out what the changes feel like. My sponsor, Bay Bridge Motors, has installed a new 15% supercharger pulley provided by my other sponsor, Mini Mania. It’s good for a 4% increase in boost from the supercharger. In addition, the interior of the catalytic converter had come loose and was stuffing up the cat like a bad cold until it was found and removed, freeing up the exhaust route. As I run it up through the gears out on the Lerdo Highway next to the raceway it feels really strong and sounds raspy and brutal. Nice. Thanks, guys!

Canyon Bob has had some good runs in the morning but as the car comes by now it starts backfiring loudly, the sound bouncing off the wall like gunfire. He pulls in. The hood comes off and flying fingers check connections. Everything is tight. Maybe it’s starving for fuel in the corners. Add some more. Go out again. Nope. Pull in. Recheck. Change distributor. Aha. Loose connection. Lash it down. Go out again. Uh-uh. And to complete the snafu, the differential detonates coming out of Turn 3. Hubie is convinced the transmission can be changed out in time for Sunday’s race so we load the car on the trailer and they’re off to the shop to rebuild it on Saturday.

I’m first on the grid for qualifying. The starter whirls his arms and I accelerate out onto the course. Two Honda Challenge cars pass me and I step it up a little. It’s the first lap so we’re not going full out but I hit the Bus Stop apex as if we were. It unbalances the car and the rear end starts coming around. I stay on the gas and counter steer but it fishtails around the other way. The rear wheels hit dirt, throw up a cloud, lose traction and snap around the other way. Again I try to catch it but I can’t and it gets away. I go all in, feet trying to push both pedals through the floor. The car slides screeching sideways down the track and comes to a stop perpendicular to the traffic flow. I find first gear and just get it rolling when out of the dust cloud come two cars side by side at speed. There is nowhere for them to go so I just grit my teeth and the outside car slams into my right rear wheel at about 60 mph, spinning my car 180 degrees. All the safety gear inside the car does its job. On impact my helmet bounces off the safety net on my right and slams into the padded roll bar on my left. My HANS (head and neck safety device), held firmly in place by my very tight six point harness, limits the travel of my head and the racing seat and harness combine to keep my body in place. When it’s over all I have is a slight headache and a severely bent race car.

Whenever we screw up, the temptation to find someone or something to blame is overwhelming. But there’s no use blaming anyone but myself for this incident. As I tell my students, accidents don’t come out of nowhere. They are the culmination of a chain of events, any one of which, if eliminated, would not result in the accident. I made 6 mistakes in a row and the car ended up on the trailer.


Read the details in my sponsor Mini Mania's blog here.

 

Sorry to see everyone had a tough weekend. Glad you're OK Jerry.

Its also good to see other teams helping out.

 

You have to have the lows to enjoy the highs, your highs are just around the corner waiting for you