We have set up a Mini Cooper Corral for the Grand-AM/Continental Championship races at Laguna Seca Sept 7-8-9, 2012 in Monterey California. RSR Motorsports will be running their R53 Mini Coopers in the ST Class. This will be the only time they will be competing on the west coast, so please join us to root them on. All MINI/Minis are welcome whether you belong to a club or not. The Continental Tire Championship race will be at 2:30PM on Saturday, prime time to enjoy the weekend. Your tickets including access to the Mini Corral can be purchased through Mazda Raceway at the following weblink:

https://oss.ticketmaster.com/html/pack_planlist.htmI?l=EN&team=laguna&selID=87

This is a three (3) day pass and includes admission, grand stand seating, souvenir program and prime parking in the Mini Corral,

For any additional Mini specific information and updates please go to the Shasta Minis event page:

https://www.facebook.com/ShastaMinis#!/events/154103788060380/

or email me at pooper@wildblue.net

 

We've already got our tickets which include green parking, will we be able to join in?

We're mainly going to see the B-Spec race, the ST MINIs are a bonus.

 

I am checking with Mazda Raceway and will let you know. They are handling the ticketing. I would hope that you could join us. I'll post here when I get an answer.

 

Hmmm... That would make an interesting fun weekend adventure.

Is there anyway to get a Saturday only MINI corral ticket/pass for the event?

 

BlackIce
Here is the response:

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[SIZE=3]Is there anyway to get a Saturday only MINI coral ticket/pass for the event? [/SIZE]No. corrals only come with a 3-day ticket. (value of a Saturday ticket and Parking is $55 - only a $5 savings)

 

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3] Btwyz,[/SIZE][/FONT]

[SIZE=3]We've already got our tickets which include green parking, will we be able to join in? [/SIZE]Please have the customer contact us ASAP (we will start to ship tickets out soon) and we can upgrade their tickets to a 3-day with corral.

 

In addition to the RSR Motorsports Team running at Laguna Seca, Brad Davis and his son Robbie will be driving both MINI of Charleston MINIs in the Total Performance Showcase race and will be joining us in the corral for autographs and photos and asks that everyone drop by and visit them in the paddock. Should be a great father/son challenge.

 

Thanks for the info Mini Pooper. Doesn't look like I will be able to make it this year. Sure sounds like a fun weekend. Hope it gets some TV coverage so I can still watch. Please post up any known TV coverage dates and times if you or anyone else comes across them.

 

Mini Cooper Corral Ticket purchase Deadlines:

Last day to purchase tickets and have them sent/mailed to you is Friday August 24@ 4PM.

You can purchase online until Monday Sept 3 @ 4PM and have placed at will call where you will need to go to pick them up.

Corral packages CANNOT be purchased at the gate, but you can call the ticket office directly, (831) 242-8200, until Wednesday, September 5 @ 4PM to purchase and have them placed at will call.

Will call is located at the Embassy Suites Hotel 1441 Canyon del Rey Blvd., Seaside, CA 831-393-1115

Each $60 Corral Package includes admission for one person and one MINI Cooper. Any extra passengers will need to purchase admission tickets separately.

 

Breaking News! We will have the new GP2 2013 on display in the Laguna Seca Mini Corral for the Continental Sports Car Festival Sept 8-9, 2012. This is the Fastest Factory MINI Cooper ever built. I will post more details shortly. Please share this information with all your Mini freinds. This is a pre-production model which will be available next year

 

The new GPII MINI will be on display in the Mini corral for the exterior viewing only. There will not be any access to the interior an the car has a 95% window tint. The interior is not being revealed until the Official debut at the Paris Auto Show in late Sept. This is the ONLY GPII MINI in the country but approximately 500 will be brought to the USA for Sale.

 

http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/story-202765.html

 

Each person that donates to the Chris Knox R53 Swansong Fund will be automatically entered into this drawing. You can donate at: http://www.gofundme.com/MINI-Swansong-2012
Carbon MINI has arranged to have a set of complete Mirror Assemblies with Carbon Fiber Mirror Caps installed on the R53 MINI that Chris will be driving. At the conclusion of the race these mirror assemblies will be removed, autographed by Chris Knox and will the included as the Grand Prize for our drawing. Below is a list of CF products that Carbon MINI has generously donated toward the fund.

As prizes for the drawing:
Grand Prize:
-Complete Mirror Assemblies with Carbon Fiber Mirror Caps, taken right off the R53 and autographed by Chris Knox ($1,500 value, priceless with autograph)

Additional Prizes (choice of R53 or R56 versions autograph by Chris Knox)
-Carbon Fiber Door Handle Overlays ($300 MSRP)
-Carbon Fiber Fuel Cap Overlay or Fuel Lid Overlay ($300 MSRP)
-Carbon Fiber Boot Handle Overlay ($375 MSRP)
Check out Carbon MINI on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/norcalminis/10152100826375445/?ref=notif&notif_t=group_activity#!/CARBONMINI
Or visit their website at http://www.carbonmini.com/

 

Come see this "Bad Boy" on display in our Mini Cooper corral for the Continental Tire Sports Car Festival at Laguna Seca - Sept 7-8-9, 2012.

http://youtu.be/QsM_GamKZBE

 

There was a good turnout at the weekend, about 25 MINI, including 5 GPs and 1 Mini. There was also the new GP of course. It was very dusty down there, Tristan is now in desperate need of a wash.



The new GP:

 

SALINAS, Calif.—The challenge of endurance racing is that no matter how fast you are on the first lap, everything can still go wrong on the last lap. RSR Motorsports was reminded of that during Saturday’s GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race at Laguna Seca, but the team still brought home a top-ten finish.

Chris Knox and Randall Smalley drove the No. 198 Cruise America/Thor Motor Coach MINI Cooper S to a finish of ninth despite battling handling issues all weekend. Smalley started the race, then turned it over to 2011 British MINI Challenge champion Knox for the final stint.

“I told Chris the car was tough to drive and to stay out of trouble, and that’s exactly what he did. Chris drove a great race, staying on the lead lap and maintaining good times even with a difficult car,” says Smalley. “We’re very happy with the top-ten finish. We’ll go on to Lime Rock together for the R53 swan song.”

Ron Farmer and Jason Hart were also poised for a top-ten finish in the No. 196 US LED Honda Civic Si. Hart was running in sixth with two laps to go when disaster struck. Another car oiled the track, and Hart couldn’t avoid it. He managed to continue the race but had to be content with 12th.

“The Honda was a really strong performer at Laguna, and I was excited about the race after how well it did in practice,” Hart says. “RSR did a great job with pit strategy, and I got up to the front of the pack. We still had a good day even though we couldn’t get a result that matched our potential.”

Likewise, the No. 197 RSR Motorsports Honda Civic Si of Corey Fergus and Owen Trinkler was a top-ten competitor. Fergus had a strong qualifying run, setting the third-quickest time in the Street Tuner class, and Trinkler led the race during his stint. Just before the white flag came out, though, a broken axle ended their hopes of another victory.

“It felt good being up front, and it could have been a really good day, but this happens,” Trinkler says. “We have to move on. Corey had a great qualifying and stayed right up front during his stint.”

Mark Congleton and Chris Puskar finished 23rd in the No. 195 RSR Motorsports MINI Cooper S after a hit from another car forced them to pit for a new tire.

MINI Cooper owners were in abundance throughout the weekend, cheering on RSR Motorsports and showing off their cars in a special MINI car corral. Over 100 MINIs showed up, and the fans got to visit RSR Motorsports to meet the team and get an up-close view of their race-spec MINIs.

Fans can catch the race on SPEED on Sunday, September 16, at 1:30 p.m. ET. Keep up with the team online at www.RSRMotorsports.com.

 

We were there watching the MINIs at the weekend. Its difficult to work out what exactly is going on while you're there, I'm waiting for the replay to see what happened.

One thing was obvious, there were much too many safety car laps. The safety car lead the most laps, more than half of them. Some of it was caused by contact, the wife said she'd never seen so much spare bodywork lying around as at the race. Some was caused by cars conking out. The hill seemed especially hard on the cars, at least 2 died while I was watching them run up to 7 (the top of the hill). Each time a car died or got knocked off into the gravel the safety car would come out so the recovery trucks could tow it out.

I'd set up for a shot and then have to wait for a couple of laps to get shots at full speed. You can find more pictures here: http://btwyx.com/STMINI/

Running a bit wide at turn 11:




Being pressed in the Corkscrew:




Traffic at turn 5:

 

Caught the race on Speed Channel today. Lots of bumping and grinding!

Thanks for the TV heads up. Enjoyed watching, but didn't see much Mini coverage. Not sure if the Mini's I did spot finished (?). They did say at one point that the Mini teams were moving to Honda for 2013.

 

As mentioned above, both MINIs finished.