Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama is next. This is one of the finest racing facilities in the nation. It is to racing, what Augusta is to golf. It has a fantastic museum dedicated to racing and motorcycles.

It's a good track for the Mini's with tight turns, short straights and very smooth. RSR had two cars lead the race last year before mechanicals ended our day. It was at this race, one year ago, where the 198 car caught fire. It was the subsequent rebuild and re engineering that took the Mini's to the front in the second half of the season with two wins and a second in the last 3 races. That success has continued in 2011 with a 6th and a 3rd in the first two events of this season.

Lineups:

195 - Dicky Riegel and VJ Mirzayan
196 - Ron Farmer and Jason Hart (currently 8th in Points)
198 - Sarah Cattaneo and Owen Trinkler (currently 3rd in points)

The Mini Brand is 3rd in manufacturer points.... the highest ranking ever.

1 67 ST Volkswagen
2 56 ST Kia

7 5 ST Mercedes
8 1 ST Acura

http://www.grand-am.com/assets/2011B...alSchedule.pdf Schedule

TV Coverage will be April 16th at 2:00 EDT on Speed

 

6:05 AM flight on Wednesday ...

[Barber ... watch out for the KIA! ]

 

 

Technical Bulletin #3 issued yesterday:

• Mazda 3s lose 1.0 psi boost.

• All VWs lose 1.0 psi boost.

• Minis get a max RPM (7400).

 

I am assuming that this is a decrease in RPMs. How much?

Good luck this weekend. Go get 'em! I'll be following on the internet and impatiently waiting for the TV coverage.

and keep away from those Kia

 

We've never had a limit before. This will hurt

 

Just kick some butt in 'bama!

 

Can't wait to see you guys race! I'll be there Friday-Sunday and am gonna have to find the team in the paddock and get some pics. You guys have any team swag for sale?

 

I'll be there too. All weekend, unfortunately i dont have paddock passes :( Look out for my car too :D

 

Good luck RSR.

Hope the rev limit does not hurt too much.

 

Good luck team RSR. Kick butt!

 

I wish they had some swag for sale! I asked, but there was none! Best of luck tomorrow!

 

Summary of results, pretty good I say given the new rev limit and two cars on the lead lap. 198 did have the fastest lap.

198 ST 11 Cattaneo / Trinkler 77 1:42.389 45 70.264 Cruise America, Thor Motorcoach, Mini USA
195 ST 14 Mirzayan / Riegel 77 1:45.108 45 70.228 Thor Motorcoach, Cruise America, OSGIKEN, Mini USA
196 ST 28 Farmer / Hart 31 1:45.081 4 72.626 US Led, Cruise America, Thor Motorcoach

 

If I'm not mistaken, didn't I see the #198 smack the crap out of the guard rail on the straight between turns 11-12? I was sitting there and heard a loud pop and then saw that Mini way off course. I thought for sure, the car was damaged badly. Great job by the driver to save it and a testimony to Mini toughness! I don't think the car even pitted!

 

I had Paddock access after all! I missed the race unfortunately. But I made it to the track and laid eyes on the 198 from a foot away and there was damage for sure.

I caught the team as they were packing up so didnt really get a chance to say hey as they looked ready to go after a very hot and humid day! The hottest day here by far this year.

I really wanted to see this race! The KIAs took it though.

 

It was a difficult weekend for Team Mini.

The Rev limit really hurt. We expected it to be a problem but it was worse. It hurt the top speed in each gear and it screwed up the shift points.

Example . . . at the end of the back straight the rev limit forced an up shift to 5th and an instant return to 4th. If the driver held 4th, the car would hit the limiter and kill the momentum. If the driver backed out of the throttle . . . same result. There was just no way to make the car work.

Owen did set the fast lap. It was after a late pit stop where we gave him FOUR new tires and fuel. We were hoping the tires would give him an edge. It did for a while but not enough to overcome the problem discussed above.

We have asked Grand Am to reconsider the limit before VIR.

The USLED car was knocked out at mid race in a shunt with a Honda. Ron was driving and Jason never got into the car.

Dicky drove an inspired first stint in the 195. A combination of ill timed cautions and incidents when VJ was in the car prevented a better finish. They deserved better than 14th

Owen spun the car at the shift spot discussed above. The rear came out and he backed into the ARMCO pretty hard. He made an unbelievable save to bring the car home it 11th. It will be the highlight of the upcoming TV broadcast if they caught it.

Next stop . . . VIR.

Randy

 

Hopefully Grand Am will see the light. I can see how that would be near impossible to drive with shift points like that. I don't understand why they messed with it to begin with. It looked like things were pretty equal between the different makes in the first two races. I thought the Minis would really shine on a track like Barber but now I understand why you guys struggled. Thanks for the report and good luck at VIR.

 

Good luck with the Grand Am folks. Let's hope they will change their collective minds.

In spite of the Grand Am folks you still had a respectable weekend. Good luck RSR, keep up the good work.