WOW! The 197 qualified in 6th! Great job guys!
198 in 17th

 

Holy cow batman! That's takin it to them! Great job guys...

 

Wow indeed! My lucky number is 6, so I feel especially good about this placement.

I just looked at the practice runs, and this qualifying was certainly no fluke as the 197 car was 9th and 6th in those runs, less than a second off the leader. I'm sure they must be very encouraged!

 

Impressive guys

Can't wait to see what it could do at Trois-Rivieres if you are so close at Barber....

 

Great job guys!

I hope the race goes even better!

Good luck.

 

Well I was one of Three Mini's in the Car club parking across the away today. Both 197 and 198 looked really fast out there.
Shorty I will have some video of the day up on Youtube. I will post the links when I get them up.
See you guys again tomorrow.

 

videos are up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rWLE7O-NDI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PmOq1Lu1zo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iaf0YN8clDU

 

Make sure you stop by and introduce yourself!

We appreciate the support and look forward to the videos!

Randy

 

magic mini, thank you so much!!! The only thing missing was the smell of the track... Looks like no rain tomorrow, but low 90's though... Bring it home RSR!

 

Randy, I came by the pits yesterday but you guys had just come off the track so things were a little busy .

I just seen you a PM.

 

I wish the pit stops were easier to follow from the audio and the Live Timing grid... It appears that after everyone pitted, we lost four places. We were in 6th, and closing on 5th; and as a reference, like 15 or seconds ahead of driver Armengol. Just afterwards, we are about 40 seconds behind that car, an RX8. Haskell is now driving the RX8, and while he's proven to be a fast driver, it seems that our pit stop was relatively long.

Looks like Trinkler is our 2nd half driver: http://www.porschedriving.com/instructors/Trinkler.htm

The 197's lap times are very competitive, and sometimes better than the leaders. Not much time left though... No yellows the whole race thus far! It appears that we have sufficient time (18 min) to close, and take 8th...

Congratulaitons RSR! Both cars fininshed, 8th and 14th. Looking forward to hearing your commentary...

 

Congrats RSR!!! This old fart salutes you. Well done guys, you are moving to the front of the grid.

Way to go.

 

Great job! Finishes are getting better every race and getting closer and closer to the front!

 

Great job guys you all were in the fight all day nice move on the last lap.

 

Fantastic - especially after having to rebuild one of your cars in practically no time! Well done - congratulations!

 

 

I have one video that didn't posted yesterday. It was of the pit area.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0YB57ogfU4

Now for today. Both cars looked great out there. I'm so glad I came back. I had planned to go to the phil wicks thing.

There was some kids that come and set down in front of us. Now I had my Mini right behind me but everytime the 197 and 198 went by the kids pointed and said "look Mini cooper".
I guess I need some numbers on the side or something for the Kids to notice.

Anyway I think we had 4 or 5 Mini's in the car club parking and I know of one Mini owner that came by that didn't know about the clubs here in Alabama.

So I got alot more video today too. I will post them latter tonight or tomorrow.

 

Great result RSR.

Fantastic to see both cars finishing well.

I wish GA would devote some ink to you guys on the website. Your progress this season has been fantastic.

 

A very good weekend for the RSR Team. We are all very pleased.

#197 With BJ Zacharias and Owen Trinkler posted our best finish of the year at 8th place. Owen drove the second stint and pulled a last turn pass on the #75 Kensai Acura to score the 8th spot. These guys are good !

The race was driven completely under green with NO cautions. A green flag fuel/tire stop occurred at lap 44 where Owen took over for BJ which put the car down a lap...it remained down a lap for the rest of the race.

The Colbalts were the class of the field this weekend. They boycotted Watkins Glen in protest over the 'prize weight' Grand Am has added to their cars. The boycott seemed to work because the weight was removed. They were untouchable.

#198 ran a conservative but consistent pace to 14th place. The 198 is still in the development stage with a new type of Koni shock and some older style wheels. The light weight Kodiaks are on order but didn't arrive in time for this race. It was Mark and my 1st time on this track so we were not totally up to speed. No excuses . . . we were happy with our run.

Both cars suffered lots of Horsepower loss due to the high temps. This continues to be the car's # 1 issue ... inter cooler temps on hot days. We continue to work on this problem.

Next stop 'Three Rivers' in Quebec, Canada.

As always, thanks for your support and good will. Special thanks to the exuberant Mini owners who visited the paddock.

Randy

 

Thanks Randy for the info.

Was the pit stop abnormally long in any way? BJ, in 6th, was gradually reeling-in the 5th place car, with the 7th place driver about 8 seconds back, and the 9th place car another few seconds back, if not more. The announcer kept commenting how the MINI was driving alone... After the stop, the 197 MINI was 20-30+ seconds behind cars that it was ahead of previously. They had apparently pitted also because of a driver change was noted... I hope it's not a timing issue. I recall with the last race some concerns regarding final placement, namely lap-wise. Just sharing my observations, as provided to me from GA.

Any chance of us seeing Alain in one of GA MINI's at 3 rivers???

Again, congrats to RSR for the continued progress!

 

Pics of the weekend!!

http://www.magicmini.com/images/Barbers2007/

I'm still working on the videos.

 

Congrats!

Two big thumbs up!

 

Another, very nice one!