A Coming of Age

Just one week ago the MINI John to see for a MINI fan, but in my Cooper Works Race Team stamped eyes the next weekend’s race at their authority on Continental Canadian Tire Motorsport Park was Tire Sportscar Championship by a truer indication of how far the qualifying both cars on the front Indianapolis, IN based team has row at the famed Watkins Glen come in just a year and a half. International race circuit in upstate Two of the team MINIs qualifiedNew York. It truly was a great thing and local hero James Vance in seventh. The most important aspect of qualifying was the dry conditions where the MINIs showed a pace that put them firmly in the ball park with the traditional pacesetters in the class. This weekend it was not rain that helped the team to wrap up the front row or to their first podium as it has been in the past, it was pure pace and good driving talent. Friday was a coming of age for the team as far as I was concerned. When MINI USA announced that LAP Motorsport was bringing the F56 JCW to the Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge I was under no illusions of them having an easy time of it, after all I have been involved with one form of racing or another for forty-seven years and I have seen many teams come and go. Racing is not easy, because if it was everyone would be doing it. So what makes me feel this way about the team and its efforts? Well, in the past when MINIs have been close to the front their pace was good but they have never really been able to maintain it. This was through a multitude of reasons and many of them had nothing to do with the team. Flooded tracks and errant race cars had a part in ending many a good run but on this Saturday the in the rolling hills north-east of Toronto, the fans witnessed something special, real special! From the start of the race not only did Jones and Vance maintain their positions but they were able to capitalize and move forward, at one point running second and third. The cars looked perfectly at home up front and were consistently challenging any cars in front. That is not to say there were not issues, the Jones/Pombo car had a coming together with a Porsche Cayman and a limp mode episode where the reboot added eighteen seconds to that particular lap. But it was a hard charging Mat Pombo that picked up fourth, only wishing there were a few more laps left. It was a drive which proved to me MINI really can be a challenger going forward as long as there are not too many BoP changes in the near future.

There were no gimmees this weekend, no wet weather advantage, this weekend was LAPMotorsports coming of age and telling the rest of the ST class watch out the MINIs are coming! The word around the paddock as I was leaving was about how tough the MINIs are going to be at Lime Rock Park. Now THAT is something I am really looking forward to.

‘No gimmees this weekend!’