Palm Beach’s Braman MINI will be following Vista MINI’s lead in throwing a birthday bash for the Mini on Sunday, June 14th. Braman appears to be putting out all the stops for this event - a full day at the track for ALL Mini/MINI clubs to attend. This is the first time I have seen a local dealer in South Florida attract MINIacs from all over the state for a dealer event. It should be a lot of fun and a great chance to see people you don’t get to see except for larger events like Mickey and MINI.

MINIacs will be able to try their hand at autocross, a road course and even try out their MINIs on the drag strip at the newly renovated Palm Beach International Raceway (formerly Morosso). A live band, “Ever So Klever”, will be performing and there will be plenty to do for the whole family. An event flyer is located at the link below, so if you are in the “region”, come on out and say hi!

[ Event Flyer ]

[ Map of Event ]

[ Club/Event Sign-up ]

Another great track weekend is in the books. As usual, a fun time was had by all. The weekend started off at a fast pace with the MINIs laying down some fast laps. A few Porsche drivers came over to the MINI garage to examine more closely why they were getting passed by these little cool cars. I am happy to report everyone finished the weekend safe and sound, even though the grass at the speedway is a little shorter after some of the lawn mowing that took place;). Here is a video from one of my sessions. It starts off slow, but gets going pretty good… Enjoy!

Big thanks to the various messages you all have sent in regarding my my last post. Things are settling down a bit now and it is time to try to get back to “normal” (whatever that is!). I plan to do just that by getting back to the track this weekend . April 25-26, PBOC will be hosting another track weekend at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. If you are in the area, stop by and say hi!

I talked a long time friend of mine into bringing out his brand new G37 to see what it could do. It is fun to watch the excitement as someone gets ready for their first track day. As usual I will have video and photos . Stay tuned!

I just got back from a day at the track at Homestead-Miami Speedway where I got to see the 3 RSR Motorsports MINIs put on quite an impressive showing! The three RSR MINIs finished 7th, 12th and 17th in a full field of 30 cars. Randy Pobst, who you might remember took my MINI out for a spin at Daytona, finished 1st in the Compass360 Racing Honda Civic Si. It is important to note that fuel mileage played a part in the MINIs final results. The yellow 198 RSR MINI driven by Burrows/Hopwood was running 4th when they had to pit for fuel, which placed them at the very back of the field when they returned to the track under caution. Within 20 minutes, the #198 had made its way through the field in amazing fashion back up to 7th!! It reminded me of an old Herbie movie watching the MINI race through the field. What a great show!

After the race, Randy and the team were great hosts to the MINIacs who showed up to cheer them on. They made time to answer our questions and give us a run down of how the MINIs were handling throughout the race (which obviously they were handling pretty well). It turns out the MINIs may be allowed to run an extra gallon of fuel in the future, which would have helped them stay out longer today and probably finish in the top 3. The RSR pinball machine was also running, providing entertainment for all ages.

I have TONS of photos and video to sort through and should be posting them soon, so check back shortly!

The three (yes I said THREE) RSR MINIs will be coming down south to my neck of the woods next week for the Grand-Am Koni Challenge at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. I plan to go down and cheer the team on. The RSR team has really made some dramatic improvements and I can’t wait to see them be competitive at one of my favorite tracks. I plan on taking photos and video while I am down there so keep an eye out for those.

On another note, the South Florida MINI Track Junkies (hmmm… I just made that up, but I like the sound of that!) will be heading back to Homestead for another fun-filled track weekend April 25-26th. If you are in the area or can make it down to participate, I HIGHLY recommend it. Single day registration is $275 and it will be a BLAST! If you just want to come down and hang with us, please do. We have gotten a reputation around the garage area as one of THE most fun groups at the track. Hope to see you there!

[ RSR Motorsports ]

So you have been itching to get your hands on the factory MINI Challenge racer have you? Just don’t want to go through the hassle of importing one? Well are you in luck! There just happens to be a MINI Challenge racer on Ebay right now. The reserve is not met yet, but the Buy It Now price is set at about $64,000. What a bargain eh? Merry Christmas anyone??

AUSmotive posted up these videos (part 1 and 2) from the final round of the MINI Challenge Australia. Too bad we can’t get a real MINI Challenge series over here in the states…

Thanks to the AWESOME work of Colour Tech South Photography, I finally have some photos of the last Daytona track weekend to share. I have to say, this year’s photos blow last year’s away! GREAT JOB Henry! Click HERE for the gallery to see more!

[ Daytona 2008 Gallery ]

I arrived home safe and sound from Daytona last night and boy are my arms tired! I am exhausted, but it was all worth it. Friday and Saturday were just great. Sunday was very wet and provided some scary moments as I got caught on the banking as a torrential monsoon hit the track, causing me to lose visability out of my windshield and fighting to keep the car from sliding off the banking trying to get back to pit road. In the end, I got soaked, but got back to the garages in one piece. The following video is from Saturday afternoon. Enjoy!

The first day on the track is over and all of the MINIs finished the day without incident. We had four full sessions on the track today and boy was it a blast to be running around the high banks of Daytona again. We were on the track with various cars ranging from Ford GT’s to Ferrari 430’s. Silly me forgot to bring my flash card reader so I can’t post any photos from my camera until I get home. For now, all I have is this photo from the drivers’ meeting where we were told the rules of the weekend.

Tomorrow we will be on the track at 10:50am, 2:20pm and 4:35pm so if you are in the area, stop by and say hi!