There were about 15 MINIs at the track today to support Randy and Mark. Unfortunately, the #197 MINI had blown its engine yesterday. The team scrambled today to pull the engine out of Randy's black Spec MINI (seen in his sig) and install it in the #197. Unfortunately, with nearly a stock engine (not even a reduction pulley or ECU flash, I think) it just didn't have enough power to run with the Acuras and Cobalts, etc. But they finished the race. We were very glad to have a MINI to cheer for and we enjoyed talking to Randy after the race. Photos should be coming soon.

I hope you have much success this year Randy and Mark.

 

Wow, look forward to the details on the blown engine! Sounds like a valiant effort though to field a car, and finish. Thanks for the update.

 

First off, Congrats to Randy & Mark on their race. To finish first, first you must finish. Yeah, its a tired old racer's cliche but it still holds true! You guys did it and at a difficult track for the MINI.

Kudos also to the RSR Motorsports crew. Great job guys. It's no mean feat to get a NEW racecar ready let alone doing all the other things (i.e. engine change) that were needed to get the #197 MINI to the finish. Congratulations!

Many thanks also to RSR Motorsports for keeping all us MINIfanatics informed of your progress; before, during, & after the race.

Looking forward to seeing you guys at Mid-O

 

It's Saturday morning and we are packing to leave. The transporter left last night. I meant to post an update last night but I was shot . . .

The headline should read "Mini Scores Series Points at Daytona on Completely Stock Engine". We finished 29 in class and 62 overall.

The race engine problem during Q turned out to be terminal. We think the #1 piston failed or we burned a hole in it. We did not tear it down. We run stock pistons and evidently they are not up to the rigors of flat out 130+mph on the banking of Daytona. We were disappointed. We didn't have all the parts it would take to repair and we had no machining capability if required.

The decision was made at 5:00pm Thursday to steal the motor out of my 'Spec Racer' . . . which I brought along for just such an occasion . . . The garages close at 9:00pm so we had 4 hours plus Friday morning. The crew had to disassemble the '04 Spec racer and the '06 Grand Am racer and then rebuild the car. At 11:00 Friday morning the car was running but we missed practice.

We took the checkered flag at 2:20. The car's terminal velocity was right around 115 vs +130 for the race motor. We did NOT have a limited slip. We pulled out the Unichip and ran the stock ECU map. Needless to say the times were way down . . . 2:26 best . . . but we were consistant, stayed out of trouble, had a goodpit stop and motored on to the finish.

All in all, we were pretty happy. The crew salvaged a disaster and made it a great day. They deserve an applause . . . Tim, Doug, Frank, Bob and Mike, Bob 2 and Mike 2 . . . Thanks guys. Well done.

I'm heading out now so I'll fill in then blanks later. I'll download some more pictures too.

Thanks!
Randy

 

Randy, Thank you for the Daytona race update! That is such good news to hear you actually got it all pulled together at the last minute, even with having to swap engines. What a task!!! Your first big race and faced with this. Pat your team mates on the back from me!

As a digital spectator I was totally swept up in your progress, and watched the entire race throught my browser on Friday at work. Who the heck cares about the lead cars - I was routing for YOU! No practice times on Friday led me to believe that your race was terminal. But then I found #197 (sans car name and sponsor - shame on them) and was elated. Great racing, and yes some times the way BMW/MINI designed things stock are best. In this case your were able to race the entire time and FINISH!!!!! Totally kewl.

I'd love to help support your racing effort any way I can. Being stuck up in the Northern Vermont tundra I'll have to wait until Lime Rock Park. Hopefully you'll make it. All the best from a digital fan .

Regards,
Thompson Smith
kewl auto art

 

X2!!!!

I hardly got any work done yesterday afternoon watching those numbers!!!!
I still can't believe how well you did on a stock motor! Give your crew a big hero cookies, they deserve it!!!

If you guys are coming up to the race at MOSPORT and need some assistance making any arrangements up here let me know. I used to live minutes from the track and I'm going for my first advanced training course there a few weeks before the race.

Steve

 

Randy,
So sorry for what happened, but how great that you guys did what you had to do to get out there.

To all here. In the past there have been many of you out there that wanted to financially help out some other racers, me included. I denied that help because I felt that my campaign was not that committed at that time. Others took that help only to make it to only two uncompetitive races. Here we have a serious race team racing in a televised race series. As you can see, it's a HUGE financial endeavor. Why not set up a NAM type sponsorship for this Grand Am team? I don't mean to bring this up without talking to Randy first, but I think it's a great way to direct the support of the Mini community.

 

I'm in. Where do I send my contribution?

I tickles me no end to be able to watch the progress of the small grassroots kind of racers like these guys, to me it's what motorsports should be all about.

We do have strength in numbers. $20 x 1000 people ain't chicken feed.

 

Randy (and your crew): Car does look great! Congrats on taking the hard knocks and yet producing some GOOD results. The hard work (swapping the engine), still making it to the grid and climbing up the pack shows your sponsors what the team is made of!! Again, great job!

 

Good work guys! Sorry about the engine but so glad you got to race.!

 

Greg, exactly!

Randy, some thoughts...

- Would it be possible to set up a PayPal account exclusively for your efforts? That would be the easiest.

- Dial up the graphics on a Cruise America RV (the vehicle that is at the races for support) for all the digital sponsors names on it. Possibly have "at event" R&R RV time too?

Many other ideas come to mind but that could be a start.

Way to go RSR Motorsports!

 

Ditto. Way to go fellas. Count me in too for a contribution.

 

Hope you guys can make it to Barbers in Birmingham, AL. GOOD LUCK!

 

I posted a few Daytona pictures in my gallery. I'll post some more soon.

Thanks!

 

Man! I'd galdly throw $20 even $40 bucks to buy some pistons! Set up the paypal account... Glad you were able to finish.

DJDport66

 

Way to go guy's!! Count me in on the help.

 

Great job Randy and crew!

Congrats on staying clean and finishing with a stock engine. That was some heads-up work.

And if NAM or you guys do a "small change" sponsorship thing, I'm in too.

Cheers.

 

Just back from Daytona, what an adventure we had. I am sure this is one race we will not forget.

Well we lost an engine during qualifying which set us back. The engine was changed Wednesday evening (working until 9 PM when the garage closed), finishing on Thusrday morning. The crew did a great job and it is evident that the core crew of 4 work very well together.

The car is beautiful and drove very well. Neither Randy or I had driven Daytona so our times were a bit slow as we learned the track. Actually with the large field it was hard to get in a clean lap. I drove my mirrors quite a bit, not a good way to go fast. It is funny, the MINI was quite a brick, I could not draft with anyone and found some of the fast GS cars were using my hole in the air on the back straight. Yikes!!!

With regard to our lap times, I had thought they would be faster. The real upside is we got the car to grid and moved up during the race. We finished and stayed out of trouble even with a near disaster Randy had with a GS Pontiac Trans Am that drove him into the armco, causing him to clip the armco with his LF tire, breaking the LF wheel (a picture of the "event" made the front page of the local newpaper). Also, our driver change and pit stop was smooth and without incident or penalty.

It was nice to meet James and the other MINI owners at the garage, I am sorry we could not spend more time with them but things were a bit crazy.

Thanks to everyone for the support, RSR Motorsports is off to a good start and will show improvememt as the season unfolds.

Mark

 

randy and mark, it was good to meet you and see the 197 car on the track. tough break w/ the motor going south, but a great effort to get to the grid and make the best of what the racing gods gave you. homestead will be a much more MINI-friendly track. i'll see you there. i'm sure that you can be assured of much local support at tracks this season, as well as on these boards. greg p.s. thanks for hauling the tires to me....they will be on MINIs on a nearby track soon!

 

No problem hauling the tires . . . thanks for coming. We enjoyed meeting you and the other MINI owners.

Good luck on the track.

Randy

 

Randy.... don't be fooled.

When you watch the incar video with the AIM overlay, you may see several shifts above the "agreeded upon" Redline , please disregard what the AIM shows . I swear, I did not exceed the Redline , you need to check the AIM for accuracy. Again, I did not exceed the Redline.

Mark

 

I just have to ask...when you did not exceed the redline...was that on the race engine or the stock engine?

It's great you guys are out there and if you get up close to Milwaukee (no races at RA?) I'll help out any way I can. Good luck this year!

 

Are you gent's sharing this in car footage? I'd love to see some if you could.

 

Yes, we will share. However, I will need to find a place to host it or put it on Youtube. The tapes are in the transporter so I'll need a little time to download, convert, etc. I'll also have some more pic's soon.

Randy

 

No worries Mark . . . I know you always follow the rules!!!