I was fortunate enough to be at Daytona today rooting for the MINIs. It was sad to see all three of them fall out, but they put on a very respectable showing prior to their departure. The highlight of my day was getting a windshield from one of the MINIs that was signed by the drivers of the three cars. I think the MINIs will be much more of a threat at a handling track, vice the horsepower track that Daytona is.

 

I am sorry to report that all three cars failed to finish. Our Daytona curse lives on . . .

196: As I reported in an earlier post, the car was heavily damaged in an 'off' at the bus stop on Thursday. The crew had the car back together and ready to race for the Friday morning practice. The car was shaken down and tested. Owen was in the car and quickly got it up to speed. The car was on track for 45 minutes.

Unfortunately, the good news was soon to end. Jade was behind the wheel for the start and the right front axle broke at the pillow block. A very strange failure and clearly the result of the prior day's shunt. Hindsight says we should have changed the axle . . . we had one . . . but it didn't look damaged. It was inspected closely and nothing was visible.

197: Another DNF due to an 'off' at the bus stop. Randy drove the car for the first stint and was in the car for 165 miles and almost two hours. We were running for a top ten finish. Just as the car was coughing for fuel a full course caution came out. It looked like the racing gods were smiling on us. The car was fueled, new front Hoosiers were mounted, Randy got out and the car was turned over to Joe.

With new, cold fronts and worn rears, Joe went off at the bus stop and hit the tire wall in a similar place to Jade's accident on Thursday. This hit was not too bad but Joe needed to come to the pit for an inspection and check. This put him down a lap. A few laps later, Joe retired with a clutch problem. We think the 'off' damaged the clutch slave cylinder as there was no clutch action and the car wouldn't go into gear. The car eventually finished 20th. A disappointing result after running so well for close to two hours.

198: Adam and Trevor drove the 198. Adam drove 1st and was running with the front pack. Trevor took over at the 1st fuel stop and was running top ten after the fuel stops all cycled through. Again, our hopes were dashed when another front axle failed !

This one appeared to have an axle boot torn . . . probably from track debris as the course was dirty and covered with car parts. They finished 25th.

All in all, a good but disappointing day.

Thanks to the Mini owners who stopped by . . . there were lots of you. Nice to see the support. Special thanks to '2Miniacs' for graciously buying the busted windshield off the 197. The $30 goes to the Boggy Creek Children's Charity.

I'll post more later as it's 2 in the morning and I'm pooped.

Randy

 

Thanks for the update Randy. Sorry to hear that the team had such a rough day.

 

Randy sorry you guys had a tough time of it. Well they say what doesn't kill ya makes ya stronger. Here's to having a strong finish at the next race.

 

If there is a silver lining, you guys ran competitively before you broke.

Can't wait for the tracks that are more suited to the MINIs.

 

Now that the bad lucks out of the way you can move on to some tracks where the team can get it's first podium!!!

 

See more at :

www.rsrmotorsports.com

 

Randy you have a PM

 

SPEED schedule has the race listed for Saturday, January 31st @ 4 PM ET.

 

Thanks. I just set my DVR to record the season.

 

Thanks for the heads up!!!

 

Disappointing no doubt, but a good showing regardless!

Keep taking it to 'em. Hi to Owen and the crew.

Jerry

 

Opening a thread for the March 12-15 Koni Challenge Race.

All three RSR Cruise America Minis will be there.

Watch this thread for news about special promotions that Grand Am will be doing at the race.

- I will have an allotment of FREE tickets available for the asking!
- There will be car corrals and probably some on track parade laps.
- More to come , , ,

Randy

http://www.grand-am.com/assets/2009H...relimSched.pdf Schedule

 

Saturday @ 4 Eastern Speed Vision

Fresh from Florida Koni Race will be televised.

Link: http://www.grand-am.com/koni/news/index.cfm?cid=20598

 

If you watched the race you saw how well we were doing. At the 110 minute mark, the #197 was 7th and the #198 was 9th. At that point everything went to H*** in a hand-basket.

The 197 spun into the tire wall at the bus stop and dropped to 20th.
The 198 broke a front axle and dropped to 25th.



Next year . . .

It was an extremely exciting race in both the ST and the GS classes.

Next stop is Miami on March 12-15

 

Randy,
You did a heck of job driving! Just a little good luck and who knows what could have happened

 

Saw flashes of the 198 from time to time, as well as the 197.

Unfortunately, Joe's "adventure" with the tire wall was well covered!

 

I was keeping an eye on you guys on the position crawl. Not much TV time for MINIs unfortunately. I'll keep rooting for you all year!

 

What's up with these axles?

 

These are the pictures I took of the #196,197 &198 Mini's at the Koni challenge. They are on my Photobucket site.
Link is:

http://s410.photobucket.com/albums/p...i%20Challenge/

 

Kind of a fluke.

The 196 axle was damaged in the Thursday accident and waited until the race to let go. The damage was hidden. Hindsight says we should have changed it but we were running out of time.

The 198 axle boot was torn running over some track debris. It happens.

I think it was just bad luck . . .

 

Nice pictures. Thanks for posting them.

 

Great pictures Ronnie948!

 

http://www.homesteadmiamispeedway.co...9_koni_ticket/

No Gimmicks . . no games.

Go to this link . . . enter your name and address and Grand Am will email you a voucher for free tickets to the Miami race.

 

http://www.homesteadmiamispeedway.co...9_koni_ticket/

Follow this link for a voucher for the tickets. Print as many as you need. Free tickets are unlimited.

Schedule:

http://www.grand-am.com/assets/2009H...relimSched.pdf