| HEY djafactor,
Great story! Thanks for sharing it with us. Did you take any photos?
I hope this is OK, but I thought I'd post this again since it is so similiar to this story. It took place about a month ago at Motorsport Ranch just outside Fort Worth, Texas,USA.
To celebrate the end of my Cooper S's break-in period, I took her to a race meet just outside Ft. Worth, TX today. I just returned! WOW!!!!!!
The weather was wonderful for Texas this time of year---mostly cloudy, dry, about 78 degrees F and breezy. The track was roughly 1.5 miles long with two second gear negative camber turns, one fourth gear high speed drifter, a cool double apex third gear blaster and a nasty second gear S turn that caught out a Z06 Vette and a Porsche 911 among others! There were all sorts of cars attending, from BMW M3s to AC Cobras to S2000s to full-on Corvette racecars and even a turbo Bug or two, and of course, my little Mini Cooper S !!! BTW, my car is a stock Cooper S with 17'' S-lites, Pirelli Euforia run-flats, no performance pkg. and a half tank of premium gas.
My friend Rick put this meet together (he owns an '83 Audi Quattro with over 350 horses). He knows the track well and he loves my Mini. In the interest of finding out what my car was really capable of on this track, Rick did all the driving. Excellent decision!
Sessions consisted of groups of twenty five cars for twenty minutes. Helmets on, seats adjusted, belts buckled. We were the lead car for the group we were in with all manner of cars behind us. Off we go!!!
First a parade lap which our little red Mini enjoyed immensely. Then a faster warm-up lap. One last turn onto the straight and Rick puts his foot down. Our mini leaps forward with beautiful song. One lap done way too soon, but now as we turn onto the straight, Rick puts his foot DOWN!!! We are really smiling now. The car is working very hard indeed. On the off camber turns the back end would get out nicely and around we went under full throttle. Rick was getting more courageous by the second. So was our little red Mini! The initial fear of wrecking my brand new car was quickly melting away. After the third hard lap, the Z06 behind needed to pass, but the WRX just behind him was getting smaller in our mirrors. Three more laps of shear motoring joy later, Rick was noticing a lack of power during hard acceleration in mid turn. Also, the brakes began to fade badly, so we came on in.
All in all, my Mini did very well indeed! To race a stock car as hard as we did with run-flats and regular brake fluid was asking alot. Those six laps were some serious fun for us both, but there is a caveat to all this. We forgot to turn off the dad gum traction control!!!!!!!!! That explains the lack of power mid-turn. At least, I hope it does. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos right now of my Mini huffing and puffing around the track. Soon perhaps, but here are a couple stills of her anyway, and some of the other cars too.
You know,I may have to do this again. Sooner than later !
My car Pepper.
PABS911 | 
