‘Fastest Mini in the World’ Race 2014
Turbo Mini Forums

This race event is back on this year for May 11th. Plenty of time for people here to get their ARDS licence and come and have a go!!

http://brandshatch.mini-festival.co.uk/new...world-race.aspx

Who's up for it?

Team www.sheepspeed.com Racing

I may have a drive down but not compete.

What the mind can conceive the mini can achieve
MITP 2012 17.01 seconds 1/4 mile against "The Don"
MITP 2013 16.83 seconds 1/4 mile

I think the issue is that not many people have MSA-reg-ready race cars.

It wouldn't take a lot of work to convert the average track day mini to MSA regs. Come on lads, big push and we can have a few cars on the grid, Alexb, or Jon Flan would happily drive for you.

Team www.sheepspeed.com Racing

Yes, that's true. Essentially all you need is decent mounting points for the cage, an in-date harness and a plumbed in fire extinguisher.
(Obv not teaching you to suck eggs, this might be useful for anyone who didn't know!)

Edited by AlexB on 3rd Apr, 2014.

Are you entered then jim ??

I'm going to watch :) my car's not ready to race yet

This looks like fun, wish I could go!

They don't die, they just get faster!

Yes. I'll be entering, so will Endaf in his KAD 16v spaceframe

Team www.sheepspeed.com Racing

May look at a trip down with the monster ~ (little lad not mini)

What the mind can conceive the mini can achieve
MITP 2012 17.01 seconds 1/4 mile against "The Don"
MITP 2013 16.83 seconds 1/4 mile

I'm all paid up and entered, is there anyone near brands who fancy's helping us on the test day next Thursday? Payment in food and beer. We are testing my mini, Endaf's KAD space frame, and his mk1 cooper S.

Team www.sheepspeed.com Racing

I'll be there.

I fucking wish....

If all you need is a gofer I can be there.

I'd love to come and help, but doubt I could get time of from work/the wife. Looking forward to seeing the race.

Is the new engine making big numbers yet?

I guess I,m not qualified then ?

tadge, your welcome to come down, help out, drink tea by day, and beer by night, I'll pm you my number, we will be there late Wednesday night / early hours Thursday morning.

Team www.sheepspeed.com Racing

Brands Hatch here we come - A35 round the M25.

welcome aboard Dave, you're now almost welsh

Team www.sheepspeed.com Racing

In the end, because it was so wet I didn,t take the A35 (just as well as there was 4 mile queue to get on to the QE2 bridge)

As with all the TM crowd, I was made very welcome and met not only the active drivers there but also some very interesting other "old boys"

Jim had difficulty with wheelspin in the wet, even in top gear along the pit straight and reduced boost to make it more manageable.A few tweaks of the suspension ride height and tyre pressures seemed to help and he the ignored pit signals to come in as he was clearly enjoying himself so much ! ( and this is just the test day)

Endaf took the Sheepspeed special out and I don,t think the wheels stopped spinning anywhere !

He then had a small moment with the Cooper S catching fire in the pit garage but everyone seemed quite sanguine about it, fixed the melted wiring and carried on regardless.

Not sure how Welsh I became, but I was able to partly translate the legend on the back of Jims car in tribute to his friend "Tank* who is no longer with us. Those of you who have seen it will know what I mean - the rest of you must just wonder about it.

I hope those of you who go at the weekend will enjoy the spectacle (take waterproofs) and tell the rest of us all about it,

Well done to Endaf today, lapping the entire field is one hell of an achievement (assuming I heard the commentator correctly)

Sad not to have seen Jim's mini running owing to some issues, not seen/heard it flat out in the flesh yet.

Edited by minimole23 on 11th May, 2014.

Testing started well, although a little scary on Thursday. We put the car on a full wet setup, but after having the dampers re valved, we were not exactly sure what wet settings should be. I kept going around, gradually putting quicker lap times in as the weather conditions got worse before they got better. We made some radical shock changes, dropping the front shocks 35 clicks from the dry setting, by now the already old tyres where getting pretty tired. It was inpossible to use full throttle in any gear, wheel spin in 4th across the start finish line is errrrr….. interesting! Finally the rain stopped around 4pm, and I managed to get a few laps in to scrub in the new slicks for the race. The grip on the new tyres was insane, even with the dampers still on the wet setting, as there was still patches on standing water on the track. Conditions were still pretty tricky, and this was proven by my poor mate spencer who stuffed his mini 7 into the Armco . I must have done well over 100 laps, which was needed as I’d never driven around brands before.

Thanks to Dave (Tadge) for coming to help out, sorry I didn’t get time to chat much, but was pretty flat out all day.

Now there was only one problem, where to go for a few drinks, none of us where driving in the morning session on Friday, and the bar was closed, so we made the 5 min walk (that everyone said was 5 mins!!) to the Gamecock, 40 mins later we arrive, the only customers there, with the most missrible blonde behind the bar you have ever seen. And she woudn’t sell us the food in the fridges, as she wanted to give it to her dogs! Midnight comes, bar closes, 40min walk back to the campers, drink beer and cook pizza.

On Friday we spent the day going through the 3 cars, (Endaf’s KAD Space frame, the Mk1 historic and mine) to check things over, and do another full suspension setup. 3 Wheel bearings and CV later and it was time for the bar! Race day is now finally here, I’m on track for qualifying at 9am, the rain is still falling so on go the new wets. I take things steady to start off, and lap times were kept slow because we had to take it easy where someone had parked their mini in the kitty litter. I managed to do a 1:03.550, which put me in 3rd on the grid, only .5 secs behind Endaf, and 3 seconds a lap quicker than the guy in 4th. I was really pleased with that.

The Race was the first of the day, the sun had come out, and we were on full slicks. Shock dampers guessed again for the full dry, which I’d never driven on before. My start was pants, no excuses I cocked up. I had dropped to 4th / 5th but managed to get back to 3rd. I was hunting down two ex miglia champions. 3 Laps in, and Endaf’s crank sensor slipped, so he pulled off. I was now in 2nd, and was trying to get past Martin Wager in front. I almost got past him a few times, but he simply had bigger balls than me through paddock hill bend, then after about 15 laps, I had a misfire which came and went, I managed to catch back up to second and do another 2 laps until my car fell to two cylinders. Mixture had run lean, and I had head gasket failure and damaged the head. We had a tig nearby, but no way of skimming the head.  During the race I did manage to set a lap time of 55.1. Only one thing todo now, BAR!!!!!
Usually night here, smashed! nice to meet a few faces from here, Ian, Matty, and Ric and even Ians brother in law lol

The next day saw Endaf take the race win and manage to lap every single car on track, so a pretty massive win. My times on Saturday where almost 2 seconds a lap quicker than the guy in 2nd place was doing on the Sunday. So pretty gutted I wasn’t able to start the race. As I wasn't able to start the race I leant endaf my wheels and tyres. So at least I can say that my wheels are the fasest mini wheels in the world. lol

Also massive thanks to Carl Austin for posting my inner and outer rims so quickly, so I could have a play and make my own centres.


Things took turn for the worse just after 6pm, when Jim Hall was driving Endafs Historic, he was lapping a back marker, when he lost control on Padock hill bend, he hit Jim’s nearside front wheel which caused the tyre to burst, which through the car in the kitty litter and on two it’s roof. Luckily nobody injured, just pockets and pride 

Team www.sheepspeed.com Racing

Cracking write up. More than a little sorry i missed what was clearly a good weekend

Cracking write up shhame about the outcome,

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

Bummed I missed it