Gateway International Raceway
Sunday, June 11, 2006

Sunday dawned wet and stayed wet, much to the consternation of the Phil Wicks NAMCCRS race teams who struggled with tire choices all morning. On the other hand it was a boon for the Phil Wicks Driving Academy participants (about half the number on Saturday) as a slippery track absolutely demands learning finesse at the controls and lower speeds to keep it on the black stuff and shiny side up. Also benefiting was the Teen Safety Driving Course that Phil ran at the same time. There is nothing like a thin sheen of oil floating on water to bring real meaning to the word skidpad. When the track finally dried out around lunchtime, most students were surprised to see how much faster than Saturday they were thanks to their work in the wet.

Race qualifying produced the same race lineup as Saturday with the exception of Graham Barclay who failed to meet the call to grid for the race. Sunday’s race was much closer as Steve Diniz was apparently experiencing mechanical problems in the MINI Madness car that allowed Waylen Hunsucker to pass and lead briefly before being repassed by Diniz. “It just wasn’t making power,” said Diniz later, “I don’t know, it felt like maybe there was a backpressure problem or something.” The fast number 53 car that Steve was piloting made enough power to retake and keep the lead to the finish however, ahead of a field that placed only slightly differently than on Saturday. Late in the race the pack bunched up behind some slow backmarkers which added to the suspense and showed the spectators some real racing excitement as the leaders squirmed through traffic and sprinted to the checker.

Asked for his impressions of the weekend, one Driving Academy participant said, “There's no doubt everyone's heart is in the right place. MINI people are really a cut above; Todd gave up his *car* for crying out loud, and Waylen even contributed the swaybar to help Randy make a go at the race. It's really nice to be around such great people.”

Phil Wicks owns and operates the Phil Wicks MINI Driving Academy as well as the North American MINI Cooper Championship Racing Series. Phil Wicks has been involved with the Mini Cooper since its inception in the 1960s and has been a significant presence in the MINI enthusiast community for fifty years.

Order of finish:

1. Steve Diniz
2. Waylen Hunsucker
3. Randy Webb
4. Brian Black
5. Amanda Graham

blalor has added photos from Sunday here.

More pix from Cooper Kimble, age 11, here.

 

Hmm...technical problems, huh? Is this the MADNESS turbo car that they are using as a marketing tool?

"In short everything you'll need to make a reliable 300hp monster.

Testing: 2 turbo MINI's have been in testing for a long time now, one on the east coast and one on the west coast. Both MINI's have seen extensive track and street use and the east coast MINI runs with no check engine lights and is emissions compliant. The east coast MINI will be competing in the North American MINI series race at Summit Point on June 29th [edit: yes, I realize that this is not coverage from the race on the 29th... ] to further emphasize the reliability of our kit."


Heh.... "Don't count your chickens before they hatch."

How long exactly was the race??

Oh, and, this one's great marketing-talk: "Starting in July Madness will be taking deposits for our MINI Turbo kit, the list is quite long already so call soon to reserve your kit."

 

Easy, ingsoc; Steve developed problems during the race and didn't do *any* diagnosis of the engine before Phil stuck the microphone in his face! Remember, Steve's car is a RACE CAR; It's submitted to hammering that most street cars will never face. Along the lines of "not counting your chickens", "let's not jump to conclusions".

The race is 10 laps. Steve did a couple of qualifying laps, but I'm not sure he was even timed. Based on the results yesterday, barring mechanical problems, there was no contest between him and anyone else (and such is the gap between the street-based cars and full-on unlimited cars). He ran a *strong* race yesterday.

Now, some wiseacre did make a crack along the lines of "see what happens when you let the sponsor drive the car?"; George from Madness took it out for a few laps earlier in the day. ;-)

 

Lol. Good point.

I think it's just funny how varied the "competition" is... Oh, to have money and time...

 

Here are some additional photos from Saturday.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99549233@N00/

 

yourself on a public message board.

Steve's Diniz's car ISN'T either of the two turbo cars that Madness has developed. As far as marketing tool goes, that's your opinion, and a lame one at that. I've been following this turbo package developement for over a year now and have even had the opportunity to personally ride in the west coast car when it was here (at AMVIV) when the aftermarket pedal assembly was limiting the car to only 70 percent of it's power and I can say for a fact that that car will SPANK everything in it's path. My car tips the dyno at 255 hp and in NO-WAY, capable of keeping with this car. Now I know for a fact that George doesn't have a damn thing to prove to you, as I'm almost positive a person like yourself is drinking the Kool-Aid and would probably opt out for a higher-quality, time-bomb ticking package like a "twin-screw' (or what ever the hell they call that POS...twurbo I think it is) that has torn-up many new cars due to product UNDER-development, but do us all a favor, if you don't put up FACTS (a.k.a, the TRUTH), keep your mouth shut.

 

Oh punk, have a mental Margarita and cool off. You can express your opinion without getting up in someone's face, can't you? We're all enthusiasts here. No need to be offensive or to take offense either. Life's too short.

 

Exactly.

 

Dear Justacooper,

Are you really omnipresent, or does it just seem that way?

 

I can't really say too much about it, but occasionally a drunk monkey has been used to keep up that illusion.

 

well aight. dave's drunken monkey has just replaced curious george in the monkey pantheon.

 

Just a quick note to all of you guys, the loss of power I experienced during Sunday's race was due to the entire exhaust coming loose from the header flange. Phill had pulled me over after qualifying and said he saw sparks or something under the car while upshifting into 5th gear coming off the banked turn...the two bolts connecting the header to the exhaust were gone and the pipe was hanging below the header flange.The problem however only became apparent once the race started.
FYI, I do not have the Madness turbo on my car, just the stock supercharger like everyone else.
Where did this rumor come from about me having a turbo?
Confused,
Steve

 

Aww, ok, sorry to hear about that! Glad you got it fixed in time to win . You're not getting the turbo?? I read that you were racing in the series and that you were sponsored by Madness, so it seemed logical. That sucks, then! Hope you can talk them into providing it, then!

 

Here is my summary for the weekend.
Saturday, 95 degrees and humid as hell. The cars go out for a practice session to learn the track and get general sense of how far they can push things. Steve's approach to this is calm, cool and collected which is his style when he comes across a new track. A few laps into the practice session Webb obviously felt the need to push harder so Steve let's him by at the begining of the banking section. Webb accelerates with Steve following close behind down the long straight.

According to Steve upon entering turn 1 extremely hot, Steve see's no brake lights from Randy and he proceeds to slam the tire wall extremely hard and sends the back of the car into the air and finishs with a hard slam back to earth. Steve finish's practice and some time later Webb's car is towed back in shambles. Later that day we talked with the corner worker on turn 1 and he verified the above event. Afterwards Webb stated to us that there was something on the track that caused the problem, later that night he claimed brake failure so who really knows.

We were EXTREMELY disapointed that there was now no competition between us and we highly dought he will be at Summit Point. We can only imagine what the sponsors who put up their hard earned cash mush think. Regardless of all this were happy he was not seriously injured and that his family did not have to deal with anything tragic.

So for the race Saturday Steve obviously dominated the slower less modified cars and on the last lap was just starting to get close enough to lap the feild.

Sunday for practice and qualifing the car felt extremely strong as the outside temps were in the low 60's. Come race time the car developed a problem with Steve's custom exhaust which was not known until after the race. Steve finished in first again but by no where near the margin on the previous day. We discovered that the bolts that hold the exhaust to the header had come completely out thereby eliminating almost all the torque from the car. A simple fix but nobody knows how the bolts came loose, that's racing!

As for the above comments on the turbo car from INGSOC, well, we will just leave those be, but we will leave you with this. Our east coast turbo car will be at Summit point at the end of the month so instead of making comments trying to stir the pot maybe you should save your gas money and show up to Summit to see and experience the turbo car in person. Maybe that way you could post some relavent, factual and meaningful comments.


We will post pictures in a bit, that's right there will be some carnage shots as well

 

I believe Steve still plans to attend the Summit Point event. We have plans to have him test drive the turbo there. Were ready when he is

 

Nope, no twincharge here. I opted for reliability, particularly for the M7 Cosworth Stage 2+. It's seen track days, bumper to bumper city traffic, and all the hell I can give it (8k rpm redline, even!) and never faultered. Until the turbo kits and twin charge rigs can show such reliability, I'll be spending my money elsewhere. My only comment was about my (I'll admit errant, but certainly not mean-hearted) suspicion that his car was one of the ones that Madness is touting. I hope that this answers your questions and perhaps better explains where I'm coming from. I'm that kind of punk .

 

Quoting the whole thing for my records.

Well, I probably speak for most of the sponsors, but this is what I think: I'm glad Randy is ok. That is all I care about. There is lots more hard earned cash floating around, I'll get some of it back later. But there is only one Randy, and I'm glad he is ok.

 

Umm, d00d, don't take everything so personally. Fact is, I was speaking in gest and partly, satire. I am happy that someone explained my error. I hardly see how I could have challenged you personally so...

Anyways, your appraisal of Webb's bad luck sure doesn't seem very relevant and seems, honestly, quite a bit more presumptive and mean-spirited than my comments above. You're not even talking about competition (this is a good-natured exhibition race!), you're talking about someone's health and well-being...and critically at that. Perhaps he didn't have a failure, but what business is that here or of yours?? At least my comment was relevant.

I hope that this post is enough to settle the misunderstanding, just as I hope that you didn't intend malice by your post. Sorry for any offense, but please have a frickin sense of humor!

 

db says Randy definitely plans on making it to Summit Point. Haven't heard whether the Mule will be ready by then, but if the chassis isn't bent, I'd think the chances are good.

And just BTW, ingsoc, from an impartial observer, your post ain't funny. See my comment to the punk above and have yourself one of those Margaritas.

Cheers,
Sid

 

Good! Perhaps he can have something to brag about himself next time!

 

Add my name to the list of potential Summit Point racers -Group 4

I have to work the day before and the day after ...still may make the event

GREAT JOB Steve !!!

GREAT JOB Waylen @@@

Glad to hear Randy was NOT injured ...and remarkable story of others donating cars, parts and time for Randy to be able to still compete !!!

 

Unfortunately I did not get the problem fixed, it happened as the race started. It did however slow me down enough to make the race a little more exciting between Waylan And I, catching & passing him again on the last lap due to missing a shift going into turn one was a lot of fun.

 

Well I just got back from the race, and I have to say Sun was the best race yet. As everyone knows I took 2nd overall and 1st in class. The whole race I was right behind Steve. I just couldn't believe my car was hanging with the Madness car that had at least 50 more HP. Then Steve missed a shift with 2 laps to go and I took the lead making it even more interesting. After leading for 3/4 of a lap and trying to block him, I just couldn't hold off his power on the front straight. As we ended up going into turns 1 and 2 side by side. Steves power finally got the best of me about turn 3, all I could do is hope for another mistake or to get under him in turn 6, but with it being the final lap there was no way I would get by. Congrats to Steve as it made for a great race even if you were just watching. Maybe someday I'll have to put a pulley on the race car. Can't wait for Summit point.

Also special thanks to Donna and SUPER CASPER for the use of Casper's shoes for the race practice in the rain.

 

And thanks to Way and Steve (even if he didn't mean to!) for making the race really fun to watch. Parade laps (even really fast ones) are only so interesting... ;-)

 

LOL, I was glad to loan my tires to you Waylen. After all, Todd generously loaned Randy a whole car. I would have let you or Randy either one use them but you asked first. It was funny watching you tire sharks swimming around looking for the best tread Sunday morning. Just hope it is dry at Summit as Celeste's 12 inchers won't be any help. Casper is staying home for lack of a driver.

Good job all. It was great to see everyone pitch in to put cars on the grid. The Sunday race was most enjoyable.