What a great outing we had with the United States Touring Car Championship (USTCC) at Infineon this past weekend.

The week started with “I’m not even sure if we are going to make it”. My crew made up of my, wife and daughter had other commitments this weekend and would be unable to attend. A co-worker had to back out at the last minute on Friday. So off I go from Southern California to Infineon, a 7 hour drive north, on Friday night at 9:00pm by myself. And I have no crew.

Now if this were a normal USTCC 20 /30 minute sprint, I’d say “no big thing”. But this weekend’s event will be 1 hour race with a mandatory 5 gallon fuel pit stop. Great, how do I re-fuel. I’ve never been in a race of 1 hour nor have I had to pit and take on fuel.

I arrived at the track around 8:30 and missed the first practice at 8:50. Qualifying will be at 11:30. Luckily I find Micky with his MINI S in the paddocks and set up with him. He’s here to be running in the HPDE events, working on moving up to group 4. I recruit Micky as part of our crew.

If you recall we damaged Bagheera at PIR last month USTCC race. In the process of repairing the body damage I decided to rework the front end by modifying the Webb Motorsports Camber Plates. With the stock plates at full negative camber we were still wearing the outside of the tires. With the new mods we can now get close to 4 degrees negative camber. We set a new alignment and we were ready.

Qualifying will be our first test of the new setup. We start out slow to get the feel of the setup and progress with increasing speed. At the end of qualifying we have a time of 2:01 and qualify 10th. Last year we qualified with a 2:06. So we are feeling good with the changes we made. But were still ten seconds off the pace. Additional suspension changes will have to wait.

A little background on USTCC: Some of the top teams are well funded, Dave Brown with the K&N Mitsubishi Evo 8; Opak Racing/ Spoon Sports brought two Acura RSX-R JDM cars, Toby with the Classic BMW 330i, Dale with the new BMW E46 328is, two fast Dodge SRT-4’s and a handful of Honda/Acura’s.

At this point I only needed to find a crewmember with a fire suit for the pit stop and refueling. I talk with one of the other teams and they agree to do the fueling stop for me. Pit stop and fueling is now fixed.

Race time on Sunday, USTCC will be running a 1-hour race within a 3-hour enduro event. USTCC has 13 cars, the total field will be 48 cars. We’re called to grid and out to the track, the USTCC cars will be leading the start of the race. During pit box setup there is a change of plans where the USTCC cars will be pitting. Great, I have no radio to ask where the pit is now going to be but I had set up hand signals when we would be pitting. We had also planned to pit around 30 minutes into the race.

The flag drops for our standing start and I get a good start to hold off one of the Spoon Acura’s and a couple of others. We’re feeling good and the MINI is running well. After a few laps we get passed by a pair of sport racers (1:41 lap times) in T7. By lap 8 one of the sports racers crashes in T11 and a full course yellow comes out. Up until this time I’ve been running with USTCC cars and a few of the fastest enduro cars. On the restart we have quite a train of cars single file. The rules state when the green flag drops at the start/finish, those cars that are not to T11 cannot race until T11. I had three abreast through T11, a Chevrolet Monte Carlo NASCAR on the inside and a Porsche GT3 cup car on the outside. I felt real small through that turn. The field got sorted out on the main straight and I raced with a couple of BMW’s for most of the middle stages of the race. At 33 minutes on the timer I put my hand out on the main straight to signal I’m pitting next time around.

Pit entrance is just prior to T11. The pit lane is also dog legged. Pit speed is 25 MPH and is being monitored. I motor on to pit lane and wonder where my pit box will be. One of the Spoon cars is following me in as well. For what seems like forever I don’t see where to pit, but just at the dog leg I see one of the crew members pointing me in, now I can see the pit box. I pull in and wait. I never knew 5 gallons could take so long. The Spoon car is pitted just in front and I watch all the action going on. I check my refueler and he’s almost done. Then it’s a bang on the roof and we’re off, but so is the Spoon Acura. I follow him out of the pits. Well, at least that part of the race is over. I’m also feeling more relaxed and pass the Acura a few laps later. Now what position am I in? I thought I was in 7th or 8th. The MINI just felt better and better and posted our fastest times near the end of the race. With my time showing 57 minutes I cross the finish line and take the checker. No, I can’t slow down because the other cars in the enduro are still racing. I push one more lap and exit at T11 to the paddocks.

Not until the awards ceremony did I find out that I’d taken the Apex Integration Rookie Award and placed 4th overall with USTCC, behind the BMW 330i, Mitsubishi EVO 8 and Spoon Acura RSX-R. All three drivers are top professional drivers with top teams and sponsors. I was pleased with our 4th place finish, feeling it was well-earned. Our lap times were consistent, made only 1 mistake with 4 wheels off but recovered, giving up 3 positions but getting those back a few laps later.

The MINI has been a reliable platform and has been consistent finisher with little or no problems this year. Our next race is October 7/8 back at Infineon, then October 29th in Las Vegas for the start of SEMA.

I’ll post an edited video in a few weeks when we get our tapes back. There should be some good action.

Great job Rich!

Rich, Fun read. Thanks so much for posting. Great job on setting the car up and also driving it.
Can't believe though that you are going to make us wait "weeks" to see the video!

Greg, We have to turn our tapes over to the director at the end of the race. But we pick up an additional 5 points for doing so. It takes about 2 weeks to get them back. They use the tapes for a video and also help with any contesting that might take place. It saved my neck on one occasion.

What is the schedule for Infineon? I live nearby and am free all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon.?

Rich, that was a nice read!

The MINI is often the underdog in several ways... yet you produced a very respectable outcome, and I'm sure have very fond and lasting memories. Best to you on Oct 7th and 8th!

Great driving Rich, glad to see Minis starting to do well in different events.
How limited are you in the "Mods" dept. for USTCC? Wouls a D-Mod BMWCCA class be able to compete in your class?
Anyway, thanks for sharing.
Best regards,
Steve Diniz

Nicely done Rich . Its good to see the Mini doing well amongst the " big " boys.

Randy
M7 Tuning

Great Job ... You keep us proud ..wish I had been there to help

Great job Rich!

Hope you maintain that conistency for the next two races.

way to go...this under dog has a bite....proud of ya

Great job and great description of the race.

Steve, Suspension is unlimited, engine can be JCW equivalent. Weight with driver can be 2350 if you can get down to it. Here's the link to the MINI Spec Sheet. PM me if you would like more information. Here's a little secret. MINIUSA pays for finishing as well as 1st through 5th.

USTCC has an East Coast series as well. More MINI's would be a lot of fun. Sometimes the field gets too full of Honda/Acura's

Congrats on your finish. Hope all goes as well or better in your next race. Keep up the great work and the MINI name against the big boys.

Here is the schedule for October 7/8 race at Infineon. On Saturday we'll be running with race group A at 8:20; 11:05 and 3:05

On Sunday Practice 8:20; Qualifying 11:00 ; Race 5:30pm

This event we'll finally have a 2nd MINI racing, Canyon Mini from NAM, Bob Scheer.

Also Mickey will be there and I hope a few others for the HPDE events.

Stop on by the paddocks and chat, we'll have cool refreshments. Bring your own folding chairs. The gate charges $10 per person for the whole weekend.