Down to CCSCC for their September event. Was a fun course that involved a launch that didn’t count, with the starter only clicking off AFTER you have to turn, followed by a long slalom that the Mini could pull off nearly WOT. The rest of the course was more or less standard fare, with good flow and speed. I codrove with a nats level driver, and he put about 1.3s or so on my fastest run, which I had difficulty replicating. I don’t think my concentration was there for most of the event.

Looks like the biggest difference in our runs stemmed from the back section of chicanes. I was definitely not on the optimal line, and I was going too turn by turn through the section. Overall from a style perspective, I was trying too hard to carry in speed, where I needed to brake earlier and accelerate through. From a technique perspective, I’m a little too digital in my steering adjustments, and making too much of them in any case – things I definitely need to work on.

I have been thinking about giving up on the Mini, and I’m still undecided, but the results from this event were encouraging at least to the potential of the car. There is definitely a lot of speed I’m not capturing that is due to me, and I’m not sure if I can get there. Still another year and half left with the car at least, so I’ll keep evaluating as I go.

Me:

Codriver:

Index results here.
Class results here.
Raw time results here.

Things to work on (Mini):

• A little more slow in fast out in certain sections – need to feel how the car behaves, if I’m scrubbing in corners resulting in needing to back off
• Look ahead all the time. Caught not looking ahead in the chicane
• Smooth out steering, try to make less corrections

Notes (Mini):

• 5/9ths tank
• Ran 40/45
• Pax Points: 9,799
• 2016 Runs: 101 in the Mini tires

2016 Run Count: 125 (+7 Mini)