I raced my New Mini Cooper S at Daytona last weekend in a double SARRC race. I am racing in SCCA show room stock class C, which does not allow many modifications. I am running a cat back exhaust (milltech) and a K&N replacement filter. The tires are Hoosiers on stock 16" mini wheels. Of course there is a cage and firebottle and race seat. Oh, one more thing, The car has a 50mm restrictor it breathes through and weighs 3050 lbs. I have 200 lbs of ballast bolted to the passenger floor. On Saturday we had a 20 minute practice & qualifing session before lunch and a 10 lap race after lunch. There were 55 cars in my race group, and I qualified 9th overall and 1st in class with a best lap of 2:29.652 with an average speed of 85.158 mph. I ended up finishing 11 overall and 1st in class. On Sunday, I went 1 second quicker in qualifing with a 2:28.780, but only managed 14th on the grid. Sundays race was ok as well, with a civic si on my tail for a while, but I managed to keep him behind, Look for the yellow headlights in the video. Sorry abouty the quality of the video, I need a light filter on the lens, I think. Maybe next month at Sebring will be better. Here is a link to the video on google
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...85352170984801 The yellow rabbit end up breaking. ( he won ITB on saturday) and the EP pinto fiinshed 7th in class. I ended up with a 24 sec lead over the Civic Si. with a 1st in class and 11th overall. The car would do about 125mph before the chicanne and about 135mph at the breaking zone going into turn one.

 

congratulations..
I am watching the video, and see you drive prety smooth there.. nice and consistent... I wish I was there... can't wait to go tom y next track event in november. Thank you for sharing your wonderful run!!

 

First time I've seen in-car video at Daytona! Thank you. Whatever happened to that 56 car that you were battling with early on?

 

you are welcome! The 56 car ended up 10th, just ahead of me. It was a fun race. I need to work on the camera filter thing though.
Dave

 

Why did you add 200 lbs ballast to the floor?

 

Because the SCCA Rulebook says my car has to weigh 3050LB at the end of the race. Believe me, I would much rather not have it, but at impound when they weigh the car (with Driver), if it is underweight you will be disqualified. I just want to win.. legal