I competed at Sebring this past weekend In the New 06 Cooper S. This was an SCCA Regional race weekend, and we had 15 min practice, 15 min qualifying, and a 15 min race on saturday. I qualified 14th in a field of 35 cars. The first race went well and I finished 10th overall and 1st in class. Sundcay mornings race was great, I started 10the and finished 5th overall, and 1st in class again. The sunday afternoon race was in the rain, and i ran on street tires as I did not have any rain tires yet. Overall a good weekend.

More pictures are available here: http://www.austintheen.com/

 

Great Job

 

Congratulations! Now, do some more Regionals, then get your National License and win in the Nationals and get paid by MINI !

 

I have had a national liscense since 93. This was just the first race since I had my car finished. I may do Savanah in July.
Dave

 

Cool ! I raced a GT5 mini for 12 years in SCCA Nationals and had a blast !

Now I would love to run a new MINI in SSC or something, but want to get sponsorship first cause I can't afford to foot the bill myself anymore, plus my wife won't let me! damn. I am gonna miss her !

 

Dave, congratulations! When do you run again?

 

Congratulations!, were you in SSC? I have raced my Cooper S in SCCA but only in the SPO class....tough class for modified Mini. Now I race mostly with the BMWCCA club racing and also in the North American Mini Cooper Championship which will host the the third race in St. Louis.
Good luck,
Regards,
Steve Diniz D-Modified , class 5 # 53

 

I have raced a GT-5 mini since 93 as well. Mostly in regionals, but I do nationals in our region CFR, but never had the budget for a true competitive national car. But it gets faster and breaks more. So I got the new mini so my son could share the ride in some enduros. The new Mini is great. I took it out this time with a stock alignment to get a base line to start with. Also I have not put in a cat back exhaust yet either, so I expect my lap times to come down as i make improvments

 

Great job. Great weekend for you.

 

Congrats Dave

 

Thanks. I May run the national in July at Savannah, But probaly the Double SARRC at Daytona the first of august..

 

What class is SPO?

 

That is the class for cars they don't know how to classify (run what you brung). Since the Mini is supercharged, it automatically falls into the SPO (Super production over 2.5 liters), unfortunately you will racing againts Vettes, Vipers, Acura NSX's and BMW M3's.
SCCA still does not have a class for Minis with any modifications in which it could be competitve. It would be great int ITS or ITE or even SPU (2.5 liters & under).
Regards,
Steve

 

sweet, another cooper brings the pain!