The local Mini club:
http://www.dynamicminicollective.com/

is organizing a group trip to this race:
http://dynamicminicollective.com/boa...pic.php?t=2129

Hope for some good Mini results

 

Two local Spec MINI drivers will drive the #22 Nuzzo car at PIR.

Randy Smalley and Ali Basakinci

Good luck guys

 

What kinda funding must they put up to do that ? Wondering what Nuzo charges.
Maybe they will get some decent results. It would be interesting to hear how they feel the car performs.

 

They should do well and are hoping to run on one set of tires. That may be hard, the weekend temps will be 100 degrees. Yes, it will be interesting to see their thoughts on the difference between the Spec and GA car. Brakes (lack of), weight (350 +/- lbs less) and tires (slick and big footprint) should be the biggest difference.

They should do well, both are very good drivers

 

Sweet for the local drivers! I echo what Greg said... Heck, Nuzzo will be at LRP in a couple weeks!!! Hmmm...

Practice starts shortly:

http://grandamerican.com/Events/Event.asp?ID=163

http://grandamerican.com/CONTENT/Doc...ledSchedv3.pdf

 

No offense but I don't think posting the cost here is appropriate.

Current Conditions:
High Clouds
Warm 97*

Off to the track!!

 

I understand that Mark... Enjoy! Kindly report back later...

 

Well, Randy and Ali had the #22 car doing pretty well in practice by being in the Top 10 (#10) for fastest lap. The "home track" advantage must help at least a little... The #20 car was like 18th, so respectable thus far. Qualifying next!

It appears that they also qualified 10th as well. Nice job! The 20 car will start 20th. I might be wrong, but I don't seem to recall the 22 car ever out-qualifiying the #20. The Acura's have 4 of the top 5 spots, so they appear to be quite strong on this track... Look forward to Sat!

 

Ali and Randy are good drivers and are fast in the 22 car. A small problem with the 20 car is now fixed. In the past four years the 22 may have out qualifyied the 20 car before I cant remember. Race is today, outside temps expected to be 102+.
We'll see how we do. The TV broadcast will be this Sunday 5-14 @ 1pm eastern on Speedtv. Can someone TIVO it and burn me a copy?
We expect 100+ MINI owners out to the race today. I hope we can give them a good show.
Nice meeting you Mark after all these years.
Tony

 

Tony:

This is Randy. I will Tivo PIR and send you a DVD. I also have Laguna Seca and will send that too.

Thanks for the fun and games. It was great. I wish we could have done better for you and the loyal Mini owners that came to watch . . . but it wasn't for a lack of trying!!

With a little luck, I think we could have done a top 5. Getting knocked off the track at turn two killed our hopes for a better finish.

Thanks again. It was a hoot!!

Randy

 

We had a least 40 Mini owners out there rooting you guys on.
Thank's for doing your best out there. It was hot in the stands, must have been tough in the cars with full gear on. Keep up the good work.

 

I only caught the first 1/2 hour or so of it on Speed, but it's on again this week so I'll record it then.
I did see though that the Mini 22 did get some nice comments when it was passing the Mazdas (I saw that bumping... ) and also the announcers commented on how many Mini owners were there supporting team Nuzo.
Great job guys, I think you looked better out there. Guess you started to drop down, but I'll see that this week.

Would love to hear comments on cars performance. I know that Mini gets a bit screwed being almost non existent factory help.

 

Greg

Ali and Randy do not get on this forum much. I was at the race and with regard to the difference in cars, both Randy and Ali had basically the same comments.

The GA car is lighter and stiffer. It really turns very well and the Hoosiers are great. Very fun to drive. It is very similar to the Spec (which has more power but weighs 300+ more pounds on 205 Toyo's) except the GA car sticks much better. The qualifying lap the #22 GA car ran at PIR is almost 1.5 sec faster than our Spec's.

 

I was impressed with #22 Nuzzo Mini. There are some dramatic differences between the Grand Am car and the Spec Mini racers.

The most telling is the weight. The Grand Am car has a minimum weight of 2200 lbs. My Spec racer has a minimum of 2538. 328 lbs is the equivalent +20 HP (+/-15 lbs per HP). My Spec Mini has a more powerful motor and larger brakes. . . off set by the higher weight. I think the result is about equal engine performance. . . similar acceleration and braking.

However, the Grand Am Mini runs larger tires, wider wheels, huge radiator mounted innercooler, Moton shocks (@ $2500 each! x 4) and lots of tricks that cannot be discussed.

The end result? . . . lap times about 1.5 seconds faster than the spec cars

Tony has developed a nice package that performs remarkably well when you consider the competition. Many of the cars (Cobalt. . .) have rules that are much more favorable.

If the Mini's were given the same consideration, they would be on the pole every race. We were only 1 second off the pole time and it would not take much to make that second up, IF the rules were more consistent across all the car lines.

The Mini's 'owned' the inside lines at every turn at PIR but we were out gunned on the straights. I got knocked off the track at turn two by a Honda who thought he could out-corner a Mini . . . wasn't going to happen. I don't think he will try again. The perpetrator was the HART Honda that won the Daytona Race.

Summary . . . The Nuzzo Minis are great race cars. Watch closely because it is only a matter of time (and little luck, which was not in attendance on Saturday!) before they are standing at the top of the Podium.

Thanks for the support and the kind words.

Randy
co-driver # 22 Mini at PIR

 

Randy, I really appreciate you chiming-in with your opinions and comparisons. Thank you.

Can you (are you at liberty to) elaborate as to what you mean by:

"Many of the cars (Cobalt. . .) have rules that are much more favorable.

If the Mini's were given the same consideration, they would be on the pole every race. We were only 1 second off the pole time and it would not take much to make that second up, IF the rules were more consistent across all the car lines."

You bring-up a topic for which I have alluded to on more than one occassion - the MINI's competitiveness, and the rules that are selectively applied.

This is a major pain-point for me, and I'm sure for Tony and Team; and I'm glad to hear you vocalize it. Much like a coach really shouldn't berate the refs after the game, it seems taboo to mention such stuff as it might not be considered appropriate to do so... I however find that it needs discussing, openly.

The MINI is not factory sponsored, and with BMW having ST entries (330 and Z4), we shouldn't expect such. It seems that factory sponsored cars have beneficial rules, especially those of American makes. In ST, the Chevy Cobalts were an impact their first year, and this year are getting podiums quite often. In GS, the Ford Mustang came on the scene just as impressively...

Randy, thanks again for your thoughts, and congrats on driving the #22 car extremely well! I look forward to watching on SPEED...

 

Was talking with the Turner group a few weeks ago and they said that BMW does little to nothing to support that team. If BMW is not helping the biggest BMW Grand Am team, then that should tell you something.
Chevy is all over Grand Am, practically writing the rules for them. It happens in all types of racing unfortunately.

I would bet, really, that if the Nuzo team organized all the Mini owners here and around the country to address their concern about this to Mini USA then we might get them to start pulling a bit of their own weight with Grand Am.
At this point, even though the JCW kit is now a factory option it is still not legal in Grand Am. Just the addition of the JCW components alone would give Nuzo a nice boost.

Just the mention by the announcers on Speed that there were a bunch of Mini owners at this race supporting team Nuzo is enough to get the ball rolling.

Randy, you did a lot for Team Nuzo at Phoenix by giving them some air time with positive comments by the announcers. What more can you ask for at this time.

Hmmm, maybe it's time that I look into Grand Am ....

 

Tony & Onasled:

The competitive issue is a complicated one and one that should be addressed by Tony Nuzzo directly. He is certainly in a better position to answer the specific questions. He has been doing this for years . . . I only did one race. I will also drive at Lime Rock later this month. If I have any expertise, it is the comparison between the Spec Cars and the Grand Am cars. That being said . . .

The problem (as I see it), is there are a lot of modifications allowed for cars such as the Cobalt that are not allowed for the Mini. One that seems particlarly unfair is they are allowed a different supercharger pulley (i.e. JWC).

http://www.grandamerican.com/Competition/Rules.asp Check this PDF file for all the rules and the specific allowances by car. Section 8

However, in defense of Grand American, they changed the exhaust on the Cobalt's this past weekend and slowed them down a lot. I heard they lost 20+ HP.

Grand Am seems to be 'reactive' instead of 'proactive', After the way the Acura's dominated this past week, I suspect there will be some changes coming for them too.

Remember, Grand Am is part of NASCAR and we all know how the rules are constantly modified to keep everyone in check. Equality is their plan.

To directly answer my prior comment about 'the Mini on pole' . . . Ali and I both said if the Grand Am Mini's had the power of our Spec cars we could run at the front. That is what I meant.

However that will NOT happen with Grand Am. The idea behind Street Tuner (ST) is for the cars to be raced in their factory trim with necessary mods to make safe race cars. Sometimes the 'safe race car' part gets a little ahead of the game.

I would not be disappointed with the Mini's performance (I'm not). Tony has done a good job of setting the cars up and making them competitive. Their day will come!

One last comment . . . superchargers (and Turbos for that matter) suffer more from high ambient temps than the normally aspirated cars. At 105 in the shade on Saturday the cars were well down on HP. If the temps were 25 degrees cooler, the results could have been dramatically different. We were handicapped by the temps a lot more than most of the other cars.

Again, thanks for the support on Saturday.

Randy

 

Hope to see ya at LRP Randy.

 

Randy, thanks for the thoughtful reply.

Yeah, I saw that PDF info last year I believe, and even commented on it here (NAM)... the reasoning for the Cobalt having a reduced SC pulley, and not us. Don't want to come across like we are whining or anything, but I just don't see the equity in that decision...

The fact that the Cobalts must now curtail the power with a more limiting exhaust seems like a convoluted way to address the issue. Make them revert back to the stock pulley size, or allow the MINI, and any other SC'd car to do the same...

I think one of the reasons Grand Am attracts fans is due to what you said about these cars: "The idea behind Street Tuner (ST) is for the cars to be raced in their factory trim with necessary mods to make safe race cars."

Yes!

Folks want to see what these cars can do in relation to each other. Heck, we can put a mini van out there, allow it the sky (even less constraints), and it too can be competitive. The aim here is (or should be, so I thought) is for us to see these cars for what they essentially are...

- Let each car lose up to 15% of it's stock weight (just picked this %). Don't give all cars the same min weight, or allow some to lose a higher % of its mass...

- Engine performance-enhancing mods should be limited to certain areas, but constant (allowed or not) across all cars. For those cars that have FI (forced induction), they must not be permitted to create additional boost, or if so, set a limit of not max boost, but again, a certain % over stock, like 20% (at a certain temp of course). Improved cooling, whether it be for the intake, charged air (intercooler), or engine bay in general, needs to be consistently applied to all. If one team is not allowed to enlarge or create a hood openning, so should all others. If one team is allowed to relocate their intercooler, so should all others...

- The same logic should be applied to other competitive aspects such as transmission opportunties, braking and suspension...

Apply this universally, without consideration to anything else, enforce it, and let the chips fall where they may. Hey, if Cobalts rule the roost under such "fair conditions", then kudos to them. It is then incumbent upon the other manufactuers to step-it-up in order to make a better performance car so as to better compete (we all win in that regard). And if one is not in any way competitive, Grand Am shouldn't make for special, unfair rules to artifically make for such... Again, if this makes for any semblance of dominance of makes/models, so be it. As a consumer, this is helpful info...

Am I out of line here wishing for such equity?

Randy, I'm glad that you'll be at LRP. I'm guessing that you've probably been there before... If not, Onasled has some very nice video of the track that should help a bit. Thanks again for your reply, and I don't expect you to address my tirade. As you said, it's not something you should probably delve into... Best to you, and the Team!

 

Someone asked that I post a picture of my Spec Mini. Here it is . . . at Laguna in turn 5 (I think?).

 

Oops! I screwed this up, The Spec Mini picture now appears in all my prior posts. The #22 Grand Am car disappeared.

Here is the Grand Am pic again . . . screen shot from SPEED.

 

Very cool Randy. Care to share what you've done to your spec racer?

 

It's pretty straight forward.

Stock motor w/ 15 % pulley, ECU mapping is open and mine is mapped to 100 octane with oversized injectors w/ air intake.

Dyno sheet is 173.6 hp at the wheels which appears to be a little lower than some others. I have 6000+ race miles on it.

Bilsteins / 25mm rear sway bar / Stoptech brakes / bolt in roll cage / fire system / stock shifter / OZ 17x7 wheels w/Toyo RA1's.

Miltek exhaust with header (Cat included)

Car is at minimum weight at 2540 lbs. I have a VIS carbon hood. The car is licensed and drivable on the street but I rarely do it.

That's really about it. There isn't a whole lot else you can do.

Randy

 

Randy

You found NAM, welcome!!!

You forgot to mention you have a very slick duel video setup in your Spec.

Chat on that would be a whole new thread.

Enjoy Lime Rock, you will love the West Bend. Wish I could join you

Mark

 

Thanks Mark:

Actually I registered a while ago on your recommendation.

I hadn't posted because I didn't have much to say. But there was so much interest in the Grand Am that I decided to answer some of the questions that were popping up and hopefully fill in the blanks.

It's a good site and informative.

Randy