[jstines]

Howdy fellow-motorers,

It's not too late to get in on M2C2's biggest and best event to date. But you have to be quick!

We have had a tremendous response to our dinner and driving school scheduled for Sept 20 and 21. We were booked solid until just recently. We have had some cancellations, so there are a few spots now available. Don't miss out on this terrific opportunity to improve your driving skills in your MINI.

What It's All About

On Saturday, Sept 20, we will have a dinner and presentation at Jillians. Jillians is a huge entertainment complex. The dinner is buffet-style. After the dinner, Mike Renner of the BMW Performance Driving School will do a presentation on performance driving and will show some videos of MINI's strutting their stuff on the track. Mike will also talk about the driving school that will take place the following day. There will be a question and answer session, as well.

You DO NOT have to attend the driving school in order to attend the dinner.

You can learn more about Jillians here:
http://www.jillians.com


Jillians is located in Concord Mills Mall. Concord Mills has something for everyone. There is shopping at many stores and outlets, a Bass Pro shop, Books a Million, a movie theatre, and even a Nascar Speedpark where you can test your driving skills in their go-carts. What more could you ask for? For more info, go here:
http://www.concordmills.com

For info on the Nascar Speedpark, go here:
http://www.nascarspeedpark.com


The driving school will take place the next day on Sunday, Sept 21. It will begin at 8:00AM and will be held on a track at Lowes Motor Speedway. You will learn how to properly drive your MINI. Ask anyone in the performance car business and they'll tell you the best modification you can do to get more out of your car is to improve the driver's skill. Learn to drive your MINI well at this event. The driving school participants will be divided into five groups consisting of ten students to a group. There will be class/lecture time, then you'll drive your car on the track with the instructor. Helmets will be provided, but if you have your own, you're welcome to bring it, especially if you have a 10" hat size.

http://www.lowesmotorspeedway.com


Everyone that drives in the driving school will receive a complimentary t-shirt to commemorate the day, as well as a complimentary box lunch provided by the caterers at the Lowes Motor Speedway.


The costs are as follows:
Annual M2C2 (MINI Motoring Club of the Carolinas) Membership - $25

Driving School (membership in M2C2.ORG required due to insurance requirements) - $150

Dinner at Jillians - $25 each (membership in M2C2 not required)

Extra Box Lunches (if you wish to buy one for a spectator at the driving school) - $10 each

Extra T-shirts - $12

Here is a picture of the T-shirt:

This t-shirt was designed by a super nice guy and member of MCO and MINI2 for our club, but I can't mention his name, because his skills have become so popular, the guy can't get any work done. We at M2C2 sure do think a lot of him, and thank him very much for providing us with this graphic.)

Don't let this terrific and fun opportunity pass you by. Contact me at john@m2c2.org if you'd like to attend.

Let's motor,
John Stines
Treasurer, M2C2.ORG

[Wave]

Can I come and watch on Sunday morning if everything is full? Also how many spots do you have?

[jstines]

One thing I forgot to mention about the t-shirts. These will be long sleeve t's, since the school will be late Sept, this will give us the opportunity to wear them in the fall.

See ya,
JS

[jstines]

Wave,

Spectators are allowed on Sunday. We currently have 4 spots available. There are 50 spots, total.

I hope you can join us.

See ya,
JS

[rcase13]

Are there still spaces available? I just got my MINI and live 10 minutes from the Speedway.

Thanks,

Rodney
rcase@thecaseabode.com

[jstines]

Rodney,

I just sent you a private e-mail.

See ya,JS

[jstines]

The driving school quickly filled up, and we are now booked solid. Thanks to everyone for their interest.

We still have plenty of space available at the dinner the night before, and it's a great time to meet fellow MINI owners. Membership in the MINI Motoring Club of the Carolinas is not required to attend the dinner. Come out and join us. See the original message in this thread for details.

Thanks,
John Stines
Treasurer, M2C2.Org

[jstines]

For those interested in the dinner, it will begin at 5:00PM on Saturday, Sept. 20th at Jillians, which is located in the Concord Mills Mall. The mall is located on Speedway Blvd, just off I-85 north of Charlotte, NC, near the Lowes Motor Speedway.

Please email if you want to attend, because we must give Jillians the number of guests.

Thanks,
JS

[jstines]

Howdy everyone,

If you're attending the dinner the night before the driving school, we'll announce at the dinner where we will meet and enter the speedway. However, if you are only coming to the driving event on Sunday, please use the following directions. We'll begin lining up outside the speedway at ~7:45AM and will enter around 8:00AM.


Directions to Lowe's Motor Speedway

From Charlotte:

I-85 North

Exit 49

Right onto Speedway Boulevard at top of ramp

Follow Speedway Boulevard to first light

Proceed straight through light and you are on Speedway property

Immediately turn left onto Speedway Service Road and follow to Gate 26 tunnel entrance (Inside of Turn Three)

Proceed through tunnel, bear left toward Winston Cup Garage

Park on either side of Winston Cup Garage


From Greensboro:

I-85 South

Exit 49

Left onto Speedway Boulevard at top of ramp

Follow Speedway Boulevard to first light

Proceed straight through light and you are on Speedway property

Immediately turn left onto Speedway Service Road and follow to Gate 26 tunnel entrance (Inside of Turn Three)

Proceed through tunnel, bear left toward Winston Cup Garage

Park on either side of Winston Cup Garage

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me at john@m2c2.org. Thanks!

See ya,
John Stines,
Treasurer, M2C2.Org

[Wave]

Thanks for the info John. Hope to see you there on Sunday. I hope to find some Mini parts rolling around.

Wave

[jstines]

Quote: Originally Posted by Wave

Thanks for the info John. Hope to see you there on Sunday. I hope to find some Mini parts rolling around.

Wave

Parts? Yikes!

I'm not driving, so we should be OK.

See ya there,
JS

[jstines]

09/18/03

Everyone,

We still have two spots available due to very recent cancellations. If you're interested in the drive, it's not too late.

Just send me an email at john@m2c2.org.

Thanks,
JS

[S2000&CooperS]

Anybody need a roommate for Saturday night at the Wingate? They are booked and I couldn't get a room . I waited too long.

Or if somebody could suggest another hotel that would be great!

Thanks,

Mike

[jstines]

Mike,

If you can't find anyone to stay with, try these hotels:
http://charlotte-north-carolina.onet...Concord/NC/US/

A good many people came to Charlotte hotels due to the hurricane to the east. They made it a "mini"-vacation, which is not to be confused with a "MINI" vacation.

Good luck,
JS

[jstines]

Screeching tires, revving engines, whoops and cheers, and grins from ear to ear. That was the M2C2 Driving School at Lowe's Motor Speedway. We had a fantastic time!

I want to thank Mike Renner, Matt Mullins, and Bill Conger for their excellent instruction. Mike and his team did a great job. Everyone left with a smile on their face. I want to thank Matt for a thrilling ride and Todd Schelling for loaning me his MINI for a few laps. It was better than a roller coaster ride.

I also want to thank Chris Thompson and Coke for supplying us with the Dasani bottled water. It was hot on the track, and the water was essential. Thanks, Chris! Thanks to Steve Treece, our local Zaino distributor, for the door prizes for our dinner. Thanks to Linda Gresham and Century MINI for providing us with door prizes and the cool keychains, as well. Thanks to Dustin at Jillians for allowing us to park some MINI's on their patio while we had our dinner.

And to the board members... Thanks so much to Bill Lawrence (Willy), our former treasurer, for getting this whole thing started and for helping to the end. Thanks to George "Mr. Smooth" Kail , our president, for all that he did...for setting up the hotel deals, working with the speedway, the restaurant, and making literally hundreds of phone calls, and who could forget George getting the speedway to let us make a few laps around the big track. What a thrill. George, I'm still waiting on those lessons on how to "work that mojo".
Thanks to Molly and Carl Rogers for getting us the helmets to use for the driving school.
Many thanks to Sarah Chapman. Without her help, we would have still been trying to line up for the first run at the event. She did a fantastic job organizing the drivers. I think after watching Sarah, she could even herd cats.

Finally, thanks to all of the M2C2 members for joining us. Your participation and your friendship made the day one I will long remember. It was great getting to meet new members and seeing familiar faces. This was our club's first driving school and the first time I had ever been to a track or speedway, so we were learning as we went along. I'd like to hear of any suggestions you have for improving our next driving school event. Sarah has already told me at the next event, she gets the bullhorn and I get the walkie talkie. That works for me!

We had a photographer, Steve Starnes, come to the event and take some pictures of you folks lapping the track. He already has our pics loaded on his website, including when we were on the main Lowe's Motor Speedway racetrack. You can see them here:
http://www.adrenalinesportsphotograp...lowes92103.htm
Steve has these available as prints, CD images, etc. If you'd like to purchase one, you can do that through his website.

Speaking of photography, the MINIs lapping the main track at Lowe's were apparently on one of the live feeds of a news or weather channel, because my wife was attending a family gathering, and Libby saw us on TV. How 'bout that.

The request I heard most often at the event was "When is the next driving school!". Well, we're working on that. It will likely be Spring of 2004. We'll keep you posted.

You guys and gals are the best, and I look forward to seeing you again, soon!

See ya,
John Stines
Treasurer, M2C2.Org
Contact me at: john@m2c2.org

[paddy]

John,
Thanks again for the great time. I know that I had fun.

paddy

[MiniTiger]

Thanks to all listed in John's post... I certainly had a great day!

Both the road course and the oval were big thrills. Next time I'm ready to be in Group 5. ;-)

We need to find out if we can get a tape of the news feed.


Until next time...

[jstines]

Regarding the news feed. I talked with some family members and no one could remember the channel, but with a little research, I'm fairly certain that we were captured on WSOC's Lowe's Motor Speedway Cam.

http://www.wsoctv.com/lowesspeedwaycam/

They may have the feed on tape -- don't know.

See ya,
JS