Cant' wait till this weekend!!

 

Make sure you stop by and introduce yourself . . .

 

You mentioned getting through a brake problem. What was it and what brakes are you running on the cars? Thanks.

 

We now run the factory JCW setup. Hawk (a sponsor of RSR!) makes special pads for us. You can buy them. They will fit the 02-06 JCW brake kit AND the 07-08 R56 brakes. In '07 the upgraded brakes for thr R%# became the standard brakes for the R56.

Randy

 

Randy, have you guys been on track yet? I'm curious to get the pro's impression of the track as I was there last weekend for a 3 day driver's school and had a blast. I thought it was great facility and the track had a good mix of fast stuff (T1 thru T4, T6) in addition to technical/handling sections (T7 thru 11, the octopus is what we were calling it) where a small car like a mini can put some lengths on other cars

 

Good God!!!!!!!! 70 - seventy!!!! cars on a 2.5 miles track.

what's wrong with that picture? how can anyone get in a clean lap? Practice #2 starts at 4:10, and goes for 35 minutes.
Car # 196 is 7th fastest in ST - pretty good!!!!! Hopefully all 3 faster tomorrow.
198 seems to have problems - hope it gets fixed for 10:25 am qualifying session Sat.

Quali Sat: 15 minute session with only 41 or so cars on track. GO, TEAM RAMROD!!!!!!!!!

 

Great job again, in Qualifying!!!!! 4th, 9th and....37th??? , with very close times!!!!!

Good luck in the race!!!!

 

what kind of lap times are they running?

 

Randy,
Nice run in quali. What's with that Mazda? 1.1 secs quicker than second place? Doesn't sound right.
Ali

 

1:31s

 

Hi Ali . . . We were wondering that as well. Tom Long driving and he did a remarkable job.

After qualifying tech inspection we were 3rd, 8th and 37th. This is a very fast track that is not too MINI friendly. It is a horsepower track so we are happy with the times. The track was very crowded and it was hard to get a clean lap.

All the cars are running well. We are hoping for a good show tomorrow (8:30am start, 2.5 hours) and a little luck. Lady luck has been elusive recently . . .

More tomorrow . . . Randy

 

Keep up the good work!

 

Good luck team RSR. Here's hoping that it's a cool morning & your MINI's can make some good horsepower.

RSR to the front!!!

 

Good luck Randy.

Great job in qualifying. Hopefully being up front will keep you out of the rabble.

 

Good luck in the race.
Second thru fourteenth are within 1 second of each other. Pole is 1.1 second quicker than second. There is something wrong. He can't be that much better.!!!
Ali

 

Tom Long said in his post race interview that he was "towed" down the back stretch and front stretch by Acuras...sounds like he was able to draft the longest sections of the track which could account for the time. One of the Cobalt drivers even remarked on the Mazda's time in his interview.
Mark said the Mazda didn't get impounded, so not sure what's going on - guess we will see who has the fastest lap of the race. I am pretty sure it will be one of the Cobalts.

Anyways - good luck today guys - I'm cheering from the sidelines!

Randy, Mark, Owen, BJ - BEST OF LUCK! Have a great time and go fast!!

Tim, Frank, and the rest of the crew - GOOD LUCK and have a great race!

Hey Ali!

Hope all is well!

Rick

 

Over all . . . a good result.

196 = 5th (Q 3)
197 = 13th (Q 37)
198 = 36th (Q 9)

The 198 suffered a MAP sensor failure early in the race. A quick diagnosis and repair put the car back in the race but two laps down. The car was turned over to Mark at around 45 minutes and he took it to the finish. The race was marred with numerous cautions (Watkins Glen anyone?) so there was no possibility to make up any time or positions.

Mark was punted off the track twice by GS cars but he managed to keep it upright and pointing straight. A quick stop about 10 laps from the end to replace a flat tire and bent wheel assured him of a valiant but disappointing 36th place.

Grand Am needs to address these combined GS/ST races and the reckless driving. Like Watkins Glen there was a lot of torn up hardware. 70+ cars on the grid in a mixed class race is a sure recipe for disaster.

The 196 was flawless the entire race but suffered from the same problem of too many cautions. After the driver change with Owen in the seat, we were P-8 with a full tank of gas and able to run to the end. There were 3 cars in front of us that were on a two stop fuel strategy (Cobalt, Subaru, Honda) that didn't need their 2nd stop due to almost 40 minutes of yellow flag time. A podium was within our grasp. Owen worked his way to 4th at the white flag but was blocked by a GS car at the last turn, allowing the Classic BMW to put a nose in front at the flag, dropping us to 5th.

No complaints. We did much better than we deserved. Thunderbolt is a VERY fast track that favors the big HP cars. We were good. We were also lucky.

The 197 placed 13th. Nothing special here. Just a safe, secure, stay out of trouble drive. (My specialty!) After starting 37th, it was 24th at the driver change and BJ, who was the 2nd stint driver, moved it to 13th. Again, the endless cautions prevented a better finish. The car was faster and better than many of the cars that finished in front, but there was no opportunity to move forward.

Anyway . . . we are happy. We had our best finish of the year at a track that is not Mini friendly. There were lots of Mini owners in attendance . . . maybe the Karma helped . . . at least we hope so.

Thanks to all who came out and to the goodwill and wishes we were given. It really does make a difference!

Randy

 

Opening a new thread for Salt Lake City. The race is Sept 19th and it will be televised on a future date . . . to be determined.

Another combined race at a very fast track The good news is that the track is so long, the GS / ST combo is not a problem.

More later . . . .

 

Woo-hoo!

Best overall team performance of the year and on a difficult track for the MINIs!

Awesome turnaround guys!!



See ya at Miller!

Ricky Johnson

 

Great results...

Go get em next time!!

 

Great job!

Thanks for the "no BS" post race report.

Its too bad we don't get to see your progress on TV.

 

The race is (supposedly) scheduled to be shown on SPEED next Sunday (Sept 7) @ 2 PM ET

 

Thanks for the tip.

I'll set the DVR.

 

Great show Randy! Sorry I didn't get by the tent. Good luck in the final event. Here's a nice shot from the rail:

 

Very glad to have Thunderbolt behind us. As Randy mentioned it is a very fast track...... Turn 3 is taken flat in 5th gear with a slight lift at turn in to settle the nose and Turn 14 is just flat in 5th with no lift. Good fun.

Currently the track is not a good race track, (it will be) however it is a great track day/school track. We were all surprised the track was narrow, only 40 feet wide, which seems odd for a new facility. Hopefully once they get the grass to grow and extend runoff at exits the place will provide safer racing and help with the one lane racing that currently exists. When anyone went off, the dust was terrible. Both BJ and I missed turn in points for the following turn after exiting dust clouds, that shows how thick the dust clouds were. Plus you never knew what was in the "cloud". Also, thank goodness Scott Pruitt survived his incident and was able to race on Sunday.

All in all RSR had a very good day (if you don't count my two drive through penalities for pit lane speed violations.....sorry Randy).

Great job to RSR!

Mark

P.S. Ali you KNOW why the Miata was 1 sec. faster. Creative machining. Hope you are well Ali!