I added the dates for this years GLPs to the event page.

The dates for the GLPs with MINI GLP are not final yet, I will add them as soon as they are announced. I hope there will be more than 3 events this season and I hope we can enter most of them.

Eventhough we had pretty bad fog, the pics turned out quite okay.

So here is our yield of photos :)

Eventhough it was raining cats and dogs on Friday evening, the weather forecasts looked promising.

The track should have been open for tourist traffic on Friday evening but was closed due to heavy rain and a couple of accidents. Just as we wanted to leave for our bed & breakfast, the track opened for another half an hour and we managed to do a shakedown lap. We had vibrations on the front axle, but decided to enter Charlie anyway as he was still driveable and the vibrations weren’t too bad.

Technical inspection

The weather on Saturday was warm and sunny. Ideal conditions for a couple of nice laps on the Ring. We prepared Charlie with the Schroth safety belts, checked the wheel bolts, tire pressure, oil, coolant and passed technical inspection.

Drivers Briefing

So after a short drivers briefing we waited for the race to start.

The Rusty Nail Racing Team - Darcy & Susanne with Charlie

Darcy

The event was started a little late, as there was another competion before our race.  Once we got onto the track, we started having fun. The first stint was not as good as we hoped, we had quite a lot of traffic behind us just before crossing the line and we crossed the line a little early because Darcy didn’t want to block the other traffic by driving too slow. We stopped for a short break, some fresh air and refueling in round 6 and it seems that was better for Susanne, as she didn’t feel sick this time.

On the track

The driving was really fun and we drove a faster lap time each lap to the waiting zone eventhough Darcy didn’t push any harder than before. So yes, it does help if you find a nice and round line to drive and don’t encounter too much traffic. We did encounter an overambitious driver though. He shot past us in Adenauer Forst and slammed his brakes right infront of us for turn two in the Forst. To avoid a collision, I had to slam the brakes too and almost came to a stop.

As his car didn’t match charlies power, we overtook him through Metzgesfeld and he was right on our bumper as we braked for Kallenhard. He really didn’t have a chance to pass but seemed to love to tail gate us.  He squeezed past us in Wehrseifen on the brakes, which is not a really good idea to do, but we once again got him right after Ex-Mühle and since then never cought up. Later on Darcy found some red paint on the rear tow hook. It seems, he was pretty close.

Other than that it was a great and fair event and we finished 5th in the MINI classification and 84th overall with 60,7 penalty points. So this is our first trophy :)

Charlie, the helmets and the trophies

close up of helmets and trophies

I picked up Sus@nne at her office and we drove to the Medenbach service station to meet with SebastianS and Bloemche. We got held up by a 12km traffic jam caused by road works on the A3 right between Limburg and Diez.

We made it to the Ring 20 minutes before closing time, which left us time for one lap with a lot of traffic. But at least I got the chance for a shake down to see how the freshly paved parts feel like.

After checking into our B&B with the Görgen Family in Herresbach we continued to the Restaurant Paddock, where we settled all the paper work with Traudl, got our fuel coupons and transponder and had a pleasant meal.

Saturday morning we started to the filling station to top off charlies gas and check the tire pressure and drove to the tourist entry to the Ring for technical inspection. Once we passed that and listened to the driver’s briefing, we finally queued to get on the ring.

The race itself was fun. Charlie was performing well, the other participants were reasonably fair (with one exception: The green/white M3 who tried to pass us in a very tight corner and forced me to slam into the brakes to avoid a collision) and the weather was exceptional.

We experimented with an iPhone for time measurement and were more or less pleased with the outcome, we might use stop watches as backup for the next race though.

In one lap I played with a couple of MINIs down Fuchsröhre and up to Adenauer Forst, but it seems I drove a bit too harsh for Sus@nne, as she was feeling a little sick after that. She needed two laps to recover, which were the pit in and pit out laps, so that was no problem at all.

I noticed a little rubbing in the fenders with the new 215/40R17 tires, so I might need to cut away more plastic from the edges to get more clearance.

We finished 8th in the mini classification and 96th in the general classification, which isn’t bad, but leaves some room for improvement. But the more important is, that we had fun, got charlie home undamaged and were classified.

As the ring was totally crowded afterwards, we decided not to drive in tourist traffic, but head straight home. The trip home was totally uneventful.

Luckily myself and our CRM buddy Dirk a.k.a. 2mD both still had our original suspension kits, so we could use one of them for Charlie.

At this very moment the guys are still working at 2mD’s workshop, but they’re making good progress so it is very likely we will get something to eat very soon, and Charlie is in good shape for the GLP.

Also, Susanne’s license has arrived today! ;)

I installed the new pulley from Krumm Motors with the help of a couple of friends and since then, Charlie’s running better than ever. Sus@nne painted the brake calipers with special paint in orange and Michael from MiniIndividual RheinMain plotted us a nice sticker for the rear window and a couple of motoring underground decals.

So yes, we’re ready to go…

As we’re driving to MINI UNITED in Silverstone, UK I need to fix those issues until then.

Charlie has a few minor issues: a whining belt, vibrations in the steering at high speeds and missing coilovers ;) Other than that I still need to get the latest upgrades and the new tire size TÜV inspected.

So yes, with a few minor miracles we could fix this all for Saturday, but I don’t think we’ll make it.

After a long weekends team effort, our website is finally online.

Enjoy,

Darcy