Miniology Magazine - Volume 3, Issue 1 by MotorWerks Media

The Ultimate Reading Experience

In This Issue F Paul Murray Attastest Mini in the World race, acks Time

VOLUME 3 ISSUE 1 Published by MotorWerks Media a Division of Webtronic Enterprises All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

Our online print style digital magazines focus on all sorts of motorsport and the people involved in it. Featuring cars, events and racing from all over the world, MotorWerks Magazine is your source for the ultimate online motorsports experience while Miniology Magazine is specifically for lovers of the Mini and MINI Featuring full color double page spreads and FlipDocs technology for that rich viewing experience the magazines are best viewed on a larger screen. With articles from all over the World and from motorsport genres that are not commonly talked about give our readers a unique reading experience. Coupled with awesome photography you can see why we call both our magazines

‘The Ultimate Reading Experience’ And Remember, Every Issue Is

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Pu b l i s h e d B y M oto r We r ks M e d i a a Division of Webtronic Enterprises

Edi to r- in - C hi e f / Pub li s h e r

Ian Rae E D I TO R I A L

‘Simply The Best’

Norman Nelson

Edi t o r

En r i q u e M c L e g g o n

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Ian Rae

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Ro al d R a ke r s

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Rounding out 2023 I am sure you have noticed the lack of Miniology Magazine issues this last year. Part has been my fault with health issues and the other was promised articles not coming through in a timely fashion or not at all. Our esteemed Editor Norman Nelson has managed to get out and about a bit more this year now that the supposed MINI club has fallen by the wayside. Our Dutch friend Roald Rakers has stepped up to the plate and is excited about being part of the MotorWerks Media group. Make sure you check out his great articles in this issue. Once again I want to remind everyone that is involved with a MINI/Mini club that we would love to see articles and photos from your events. So get out there and have fun. Contact myself or Norm if you have anything of interest for the magazine and stay safe. Regards Ian Rae Editor-in Chief, Miniology Magazine.

CONTENTS 6 New Products 8 Latest News 10 No Fly By Night! 12 Who Has The Fastest Mini? 28 Do You Want To Look Good? 30 Cone Carving at Mini Meet West

36 Electric Event with Miles Ahead

86 Contact Point - Hyperlinked Business Cards

42 The Little Mini That Could!

90 MotorWerks Media YouTube Channels

58 Every Second Counts 66 A Weekend By The Sea! 74 The Big Show

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NEWProducts Former Formula One racer Mike Wild’s ‘Life on the Wilds Side’ now available!

Mike’ s autobiography, ‘Life on the Wilds Side’ is now available to buy! One of the most popular and successful of the UK’s racing drivers, Mike Wilds has a story like few others. This book is bulging with photographs and facts, wonderful stories and a driver’s eye view of many circuits. Contributions from Derek Bell and Mark Blundell amongst others make it a riveting, grounded and entertaining read. 400 copies only and a £50 cover price, plus £10 for postage in the UK. Order from Mike now via: mike@mikewilds.com

Our good friend Jeremy Walton recently announced the reprint of ‘Mud or Dust’ the book on UK Rallycross he wrote with Peter Osborne. The BMC Mini was a huge part of rallycross and this is the definative book on the birth of a new motorsport. It is available for purchase on www.ebay.co.uk.

Take the hassle out of aftermarket engine management with a Link PlugIn ECU for Mini, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen and much more. All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

LATESTNews Our Editor Norman Nelson, will be attending Velocity Invitational 2023 at Sonoma Raceway (aka Sears Point) on November 10-12 2023. He will be representing Miniology Magazine and Motorwerks Magazine as a photo journalist. Our focus will the popular feature race of Minis vs Mustangs once again. Stay tuned for updates and feature stories on the cars and drivers. If you have a classic 1960’s Mini or Mustang there is still time to register.

Find it online at VELOCITYINVITATIONAL.COM Velocity Invitational – A Luxury Motorsports Festival You’re Invited! Check out their tickets and packages at the website above! FEATURING 200+ Vehicles, Food, Drink and Fun, Live Entertainment, DirtFish Rally School, Legendary Drivers and McLaren Racing. It really is ‘Fun For All’. Take advantage of the pre-event discounts while they last! Lower prices only last through Nov. 9th.

Roald Rakers Joins MotorWerks Media! We are pleased to announce that we have a new photojournalist on staff from the Netherlands. Roald Rakers has long been a Mini/MINI fan and has travelled all over Europe covering events and races featuring the iconic British brand. Miniology Magazine Editor Norman Nelson explained how this came about. “I’ve known Roald for quite a few years, we bumped into each other at European events and have kept in touch since then. he is very well regarded by the community and is hooked up with the right people in European motorsport it just made sense to bring him into the MotorWerks Media family. MotorWerks Magazine’s Editor in Chief Ian Rae expanded on that by saying, “I was glad Norman introduced us. The two articles that Roald penned for us in this issue were simply spot on, they captured the essense of the British and Dutch races perfectly and is just what I was looking for to introduce our North American readers into Mini focused motorsport in Europe.” He went on, “As many of the events he attends includes more than just Minis we have the opportunity to run articles about other makes and brands. In fact he is going to cover a historic karting event in the Netherlands in November for MWM that will showcase the karts that bred racers like Schumacher, Prost and Senna. It may not be about tin top racing but it is guaranteed to make a good read.” Roald’s passion for Minis started at a young age, in the early 70’s his parents had a Mini 850 you know, the one with the magic wand gearshift. And later on they got a Mini clubman estate. His dad told many stories about the rally Mini’s and that got him interested in Minis from an early age. At the age of 20 he was able to buy his first Mini, a 1000 HLE, then in the early 90’s he bought a Mini to build his first race Mini. It was an old Mini 850 from 1977 but he stuck with it over the years and became 5 times slalom (autocross) champion.

But sometimes life gets in the way and he had to sell most of his Mini collection at the end of 2015. In 2012 he took up photography and found another way to hang out with the like minded Mini people he met at events and racing. It also allowed him to meet up with drivers from the past who made the Mini such a big part of the racing scene. And I was not talking about the famous rallydrivers, but we the amateur drivers who raced and still are racing with our beloved mini. In 2017 he met Norman Nelson at the CanAm challenge at Sonoma Raceway. Norm showed Roald around the track, and gave him some great tips to on where to shoot at this amazing circuit. In 2019 he had the chance to help organise the Fastest Mini In The World race (another story?) and from this year he was the photographer for the event as well as covering it for Miniology Magazine. Does he do other things in life? Yes. His daytime job is to sell boilers, heaters and all what goes with it. Welcome to the crew, Roald! All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

No FLY by Night! Adam Rudkin is a family man, born in the ‘70s, raised in Essex and now residing in Suffolk. “Throughout my entire life I’ve had two real passions, the first anything to do with wheels, engines and tyres and secondly the love of drawing.” “As a child I spent hours lost sketching American trucks, this turned into more comic like art as a teenager and although I still dabbled in

doodling, when the world of adulthood arrived I lost touch a little with my art time. Instead I turned my attention to my ‘wheels’, these forever changing size and shape on the driveway with many hours spent polishing to a high gleam!” “When it came to art I’d always been told ‘you’ve got a knack for that’, or ‘you should take that up as a profession’, and did venture into a bit of work commercially but always felt confined by the objective required, never really being able to complete in ‘ my style’.” “I came to a time in my life (probably known as a mid life crisis) where I wanted a change and decided to finally combine my two favourite things. Et voila ‘Fly Art’ was born!” “I have a list of hundreds, no actually thousands of vehicles I’d like to create art of so let’s do this – bring ‘em on.” You can get Adam to produce a rendering of your car by going to his Facebook page at www. facebook.com/CartoonCarCommissions/

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Words by Roald Rakers and Nigel Death Images by Roald Rakers 12

2023

Brands HATCH

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nce a year the former Formula 1 circuit at Brands Hatch thirty miles southeast of London is invaded by all sorts of classic race Minis. They are no ordinary Minis, in fact those running in the ‘Fastest Mini in the World’ (FMITW) race are even more radical than the little people mover that Sir Alec Issigonis and BMC created back in 1959. Some of these Minis have 500bhp engines shoehorned into their little 80” wheelbase and with some of them weighing in the region of 500kg, these Minis certainly fly around the West Kingdon, Kent racetrack on the weekend of August 5/6, 2023. Since 1994, when the first FMITW race was held at Silverstone circuit, more and more Mini racers went the spaceframe route and built Minis that were lighter and lighter. There are two ways to make a race car quicker that are fairly easy, the first is to make it lighter and second is to have more horsepower. Building faster Minis is a challenge that Mini racers all over the World undertake every year. The FMITW race is where you run what ya brung and hope you brung enough! This year was no different, new ideas and new drivers all lined up with one common goal, to win the 2023 Mini Spares Fastest Mini in the World race. Saturday was a test day for the racers but sadly, the day was filled with lots of rain. Some cars, especially those new or never been raced at Brands couldn’t get a decent test in preparation for Sunday races. The newly build car of AZ-Minis was just finished a week before the race and struggled to put the power down with their K20 powered spaceframe Mini. Pro driver Ashan Silva from Sri Lanka had tested a lot in the rain with his car and got the car more up to speed ably assisted by his mechanics. Ashan had never raced a Mini before so it was a bit of a learning curve for him. By the end of the day he was enjoying the time on track and had a bit of a smile on his face. Sunday was an early start for the drivers of the FMITW race. Scrutineering and preparing 14

everything for qualifying at 10am sharp. The conditions where a lot better than Saturday. A bright sunny day dawned with conditions highly suitable for the high powered Mini shootout the fans . Without reigning champion Harvey Death and his V8 Powertech powered Mini around we were assured that a new name would be crowned in the Fastest Mini in the World race. Interestingly enough all cars where had to run sustainable 102ron race fuel during qualifying and the race. It was quite an honor being the first “club motorsport” race to be using this fuel.

Qualifying saw Richard Billingham in his Vauxhall VXR turbo-powered Enville Motorsport spaceframe mini topping the list in Class A. Billingham was a second clear of Ashan Silva and Mini race legend Bill Richards. In class B Fabio Luffarelli was the fastest with Class C and D honours going to Craig Edgecombe and Gary Warburton. Race 1: From the rolling start Richard Billingham took the

lead over Ashan Silva and Bill Richards. Billingham quickly extended his lead into a sixteen-second gap to take victory over Richards and Silva in 3rd. Luffarelli was looking to challenge Silva for 3rd but a spin saw him retire from the race. This allowed Anton Trivett to pick up the running at the head of the class and take Class B honors. Class C was excitement all the way. Craig Edgecombe and Ian Fraser were battling for a class C win. But with Edgecombe having to retire before the end of the race, Fraser took the win in class C. Class D was won by polesitter Gary Warburton. All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

Ashan Silva 16

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Race 2: The grid for race 2 was made up by the finishing positions from race 1. Billingham again made a good start and took the lead, not giving it away for the complete race. Silva and Richards were again battling for the 2nd place, but it all ended in tears as Ashan and Bill touched on the Brabham straight at 130mph. Richards recovered and charged after Billingham but came short when time and laps ran out. Luffarelli who started at the back because of his non finish in race 1 quickly charged through the field to finish in 3rd place which made up for the dissapointment in race 1. Craig Edgecombe was another to make amends in race 2 where he surged to the Class C win after a bad first race. Gary Warburton went two for two and repeated his win in Class D making him and Billingham the only racers to win both races. Once again, the Fastest Mini in The World race provided some great racing with some extreme

machines and the many fans really got value for their money. Richard Billingham, the 2023 FMitW Champion told us, “The race is going from strength to strength with the grid getting bigger and cars going faster - everyone’s starting to look towards next year’s race.” Runner-up Bill Richards agreed, “I love this race and it was great to welcome Don Racine on the grid from the USA Mini Race scene. Another great race and I really enjoyed the close racing at the front of the grid.” Anton Trivett Class B Winner “it was my first FMitW race. What an experience. It is such an inclusive race and can’t wait for next year!” 2024 will be the 30-year anniversary for Fastest Mini in the World and everyone is already talking about it. 1994 was the first at Silverstone. Still some new Minis are being build and getting ready for next years race.

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Thanks to the following sponsors! Mini Spares Swiftune Engineering Cherished Vehicle Insurance Services Millers Oils Ltd Enville motorsport Sustain Classic 26

Find The Race Online at https://fmitw.com/ https://www.youtube.com/@fastestminiintheworld1755 https://www.facebook.com/groups/1307163072755290

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Do You Want To Look Good! veryone wants to look good, right? Now you can by getting some of the really cool apparel we are producing with our sister company WOT-Tees. The advert across the page talks about T-shirts but there is way more available on our Print On Demand store. Norm Nelson is already kitted out with new Miniology Magazine merch for his trip to Sonoma Raceway for the Velocity Invitational and it will not be long before our new Dutch lensman Roald Rakers will have his PHOTO shirts that will leave no doubt in anyone’s mind who he is shooting for!

In addition to the t-shirts there are pullover hoodies, zipped hoodies, sweatshirts in Unisex sizes and we can even produce shirts more suited to women, youths or even toddlers. Different coffee mugs are available with your chosen image on one or two sides and if you plan on bench racing we can even customize a pint tumbler with your favorite race car. Our store is setup on the Shopify platform and to allow you to easily find what you are looking for they encourage us to set up Collections to group similar apparel. Check out the Mini Collection, Magazine Collection and Mini Thunder Collection and you will find a huge array of products for the discerning Miniac. Yes, you did hear that right, a Mini Thunder Collection. It was because of Mini Thunder that Norman Nelson and Ian Rae hooked up and started a friendship that extends to this day with this magazine. “Mini Thunder was always a fun event, people loved attending it with fellow liked minded 28

Mini/MINI owners,” said Ian Rae. I have many MT shirts in my closet and wear them proudly,” he continued. “I just thought it would be a cool tribute to Norm and Jesse for all the hard work they put in

on all those events.” Norm was over the moon with his Miniology Magazine shirts. “The quality is great, Ian ordered them in Canada from the online store, they were produced here in California and shipped through US Mail. By all accounts the huge benefit to the setup that WOT-Tees is using allows them to produce as little as one shirt. Images can be placed on the front back or even the sleeves of apparel. Obviously the more prints, the more costly it would be, but when race team shirts normally require an order of 144 shirts the Print On Demand option sure seems the way to lower quantities.” Best of all you can contact the good people at WOT-Tees and they can produce apparel with YOUR car and logo on it or even keep the Miniology Magazine logo there and tell fellow Miniacs what Mini magazine you read! Find them at www.wot-tees.com

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g n i v r a C e n o C est W t e e M i n at Mi

Words and Images by Norman Nelson 30

ow many of you have used your Mini/MINI in an autocross? Across the World it is called many things, autotest, autoslalom and even gymkana. The one thing that is not in dispute is that it is a great way to have fun in your car without breaking the bank! There are many clubs and organizations that sanction the dicipline, BMW and Porsche Owners clubs, the SCCA and it tends to be an ever present event as part of Mini Meet West. That makes it the perfect place to beat up on your Mini in a legal and safe environment. It is run one car at a time, so no chance of coming together with another competitor and most cars are pretty robust when confronted by an errant traffic cone, so no real chance of damaging your car. The aim is to navigate the course in the quickest time possible. Hitting and moving or overturning a cone equates to a time penalty. Getting lost in the run equals a DNQ or voided time. And best of all you get multiple runs through the day so there is plently of time to analyse where you are going wrong and make that change to go quicker. There have been people who started autocrossing and never progressed to any other motorsport. And again there are those who used it as a learning tool and finesse their car handling skills before moving on to greater things. Randy Pobst is a great example. Currently a journalist for Motor Trend magazine has driven for manufacturers like Mazda, Volvo, Audi and Porscheand has over ninety wins to his name. But back in his college dayshe honed his skills in autocrosses and finished up with six SCCA National titles. Now for someone with a bit of a link to the Mini world is Ohio’s John Fergus. John’s son Corey Fergus ran for Randy Smalley’s RSR Motorsports team. Both John and Corey started their careers in autocross before moving on to road racing. In John’s case he took three SCCA autocross National titles before stamping his authority on the SCCA’s Sports 2000 class. Proving how good a learning ground autocross was Fergus went on to collect the Championship title in the class an amazing seven times. So there you go, autocross is the perfectly place to set your feer on the first rung of the motorsport ladder and it was obvious that all the competitors at MMW agreed by the huge smiles on their faces. All sorts of Minis/MINIs showed up for the autocross, some even taking advantage of the two driver rule. As cars run individually on course there is nothing to stop two drivers running the same car at different times. You just make sure the correct number is on the car and away you go. All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

As you can see by Norman’s photos all manner of Minis came out to play and even a couple of MINIs showed up too. The Mini in all forms has been a favorite Worldwide for this type of motorsport. Its small size and ability to change direction quickly makes it perfectly suited to Autocross. The one thing that tends to intimidate newcomers to autocross is getting lost in the myriad of traffic cones that designate the track. You can see in the upper right photo with the grey Pup, there are a lot of cones there! I have driven on layouts that almost make 32

your brain hurt trying to remember how the track goes! That does not happen when the track is laid out by a real expert, they know the idea is for the competitor to complete their run in the shortest time. To that end they make the track flow so the driver can get into a rythem and beleive me once you nail it you have a great big smile on your face. If you want to have a similar smile Google local autocross or autoslalom. You can even join our Autocross Fans Group on Facebook we share with MotorWerks Magazine.

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Words and Images by Miles Ahead All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

iles Ahead is a driving event company launched in 2011 at the world-famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway. These days, the company creates exhilarating racing experiences for everyday drivers by designing timed autocross courses in the parking lots of their event venues. The racing events are conducted as fundraisers for nonprofit organizations and also as corporate team building events. Miles Ahead had enjoyed a ten-year relationship with BMW Group’s MINI brand, conducting behind-the-wheel marketing events for its dealers. Anticipating the eventual end of the MINI relationship, company president and cofounder, Ted Woerner, had already begun seeking another manufacturer with whom to conduct their adrenaline-filled driving events. “I was very optimistic that we were going to partner with

another manufacturer,” says Woerner, “but when that opportunity was unexpectedly derailed, it was too late in the budget planning season for us to successfully land another car company. Shortly after that, COVID hit!” Woerner had recalled once seeing electric powered racing karts produced by Indianapolisbased Top Kart USA. The karts are the foundation for an innovative STEM program for 38

technically minded high school and college students called evGrand Prix. This racing-themed educational program, conceived by Purdue University Professor, Danny White, allows schools to purchase one or more standardized kart kits from Top Kart USA. Students at the schools assemble the karts, test and refine them, and then race them against other schools that also participate in the program. “It’s funny, says Woerner. “For ten years we partnered with a company (MINI) that promoted the fact that their cars had go-kart handling. Now we’re using real go-karts for our events.” Miles Ahead initially ordered two of the electric kart kits and began testing them to ensure that they would work for their driving events. They quickly learned that the karts’ lead acid batteries were not going to hold a charge long enough to get them through their events, even with periodic charging throughout the day. Fortunately, Top Kart USA had already begun investigating the use of lithium ion batteries as an alternative technology. After a couple of disappointing false starts, they ultimately came into contact with Legacy EV at the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show in Indianapolis in December 2021. “Our company designs and develops electric drivetrains for installation in existing vehicles and we also develop training programs for EV technicians,” says Mavrick Knoles, President and Co-Founder of Legacy EV. “When we met Blake Deister of Top Kart USA at the PRI Show, he explained that they had been looking for a 48V lithium ion battery for their existing electric racing karts. We were confident that we could engineer a workable solution.” With Miles Ahead’s first event of the 2022 season only a few months away (a fundraiser for Lisle, IL based Giant Steps, an organization serving

the educational needs of autistic children), Legacy EV quickly developed a 48V, 50 amp hour lithium ion battery pack and a battery management system to power the 15 horsepower kart motors. Not only has testing shown that their new lithium ion battery pack has over four times the life of the lead acid batteries they’ll replace, it is also roughly half the size and weight of the lead acid batteries and can be fully re-charged in a fraction of the time. With the weight savings, plus additional tuning by Legacy EV to optimize the drive ratio of the motor and axle sprockets to better suit the torque curve of the motor, the efficiency and performance of the karts has also been significantly improved. The 50+ mph (top speed) karts will now easily run the entire morning of Miles Ahead’s racing events.

All six kart batteries are then topped off during the events’ lunch breaks by a 12,000 watt portable generator. The karts then run the rest of the day with no additional charging required. Molex, Mouser Electronics and TTI, Inc. have been sponsors of Miles Ahead for several years. Employees and customers of the companies participate free of charge in the racing events, which give participants a taste of what it’s like to drive a performance car, under pressure, and against the clock in a friendly competition against coworkers and customers. As the transportation industry continues its rapid transition toward electric powertrain systems, the decision by Miles Ahead to use electric-powered racing karts is well timed and highly relevant. “Being a small company that All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

does events, Miles Ahead was hit hard by the loss of its manufacturer partner and also the COVID pandemic,” says Fred Bell, VP – Global Distribution. “The level of support we provide allowed them to stabilize and then reinvent their business to now incorporate state-of-the-art electric power technology in the racing karts they use. Their new direction is obviously a great fit with our business.” “We are very grateful for the support of Molex, Mouser Electronics, and TTI, Inc. over the past several years,” says Woerner. “Now that we use similar lithium ion battery power in our karts that are used in the auto industry, we are even more closely aligned with the business activities of our partners. We hope that a lot of employees and customers will get the chance to drive these karts at our events in the future. Their performance is amazing!” For more details Ted Woerner can be reached at the Miles Ahead website at www.bemilesahead. net

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he second Velocity Invitational at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca witnessed a field of incredible historic racing machines from across the globe and the US. These included everything from pre-war racers to Trans-Am, IMSA, and Formula 1. There were demonstrations of McLaren’s F1 cars with names like Mario Andretti, Mika Häkkinen, and Pato O’Ward, and even team head honcho and car collector extraordinaire Zak Brown getting into the act in a Mario Andretti/Zak Brown

multitude of cool cars. For those who love newer cars they got entertained by Hypercars from Czinger, Guntherwerks, Hennessy, and the DirtFish School even brought along rally cars. The featured weekend race was the second edition of the Mini vs. Mustang endurance races. While it sounds a bit one sided it was actually the Minis leading the challenge, two races to none over America’s favorite ponycar, the Mustang. Now over here in North America we call an endurance race an Enduro. In this case the Minis and Mustangs would vie for honors in two sixtyminute races each having a mandated five-minute pit stop to re-fuel and change drivers. Now that does not mean all the racing is about pacing yourself and making the correct strategy calls. You still had to qualify and in that case it was done by having the first Enduro act as the qualifier for the second race. We didn’t know that would soon change! Mustangs and Minis split the first two rows after Friday’s regular qualifying. At the start, the 42

Words by Randy Unsbee, Images by Peter K Th

hompson and Norman Nelson

#177 Dennis/Don Racine All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

#177 Don & Dennis Racine Mini jumped to an early lead over the #111 Mike Bacciocco Mustang as the #62 Mini of Ed Lauber & Andrew Wait followed closely. By the Corkscrew, the Mustang took the lead over the Racine’s, and the #26 Chris Hines Mustang had jumped up two spots using its prodigious V8 power on the front straight to third overall and challenged the Racine’s for second place. The Minis would pass the Mustangs in the corners, while the Mustangs repassed on the straights which of course was not unexpected. A fullcourse yellow came out at 25 minutes to go which fit perfectly with most teams’ strategy of splitting driver duties almost equally and nearly everyone took advantage of it . At the restart, the #62 Lauber/Wait Mini led from the #110 Hakim Mustang, #177 Racine Mini, #30 Scott Crawford & Bruce Holden Mini, and #424 Gary Drean & Chris Kopley Mini. At the finish, the Hakim Mustang beat the Racine Mini by a bumper for second place. On a personal note this was the 50th Anniversary of the initial running the #62 PetermanUnsbee Racing Enterprises (P.U.R.E.) Mini Cooper S. This weekend entered by Team Mini Mania, it simply dominated under the expert hands of Lauber & Wait. As for my driving self, running in the Christoph Fritsch #35 Mini, I started the first driving shift and picked up four spots. The car felt good and I was getting acclimated after having only a few practice laps the day before in just my second race at the track. On lap five the engine began to go flat when trying to rev above 7,000 RPMs. It should 44

have been good to 8,500-9,500 but in this case the usual power and speed were non existent and our focus on winning was crippled. On each lap the problem worsened. In fact when I turned the car over to Christoph at the mandatory 5-minute pit stop and during his stint the problem continued. He could only rev to about 6,500 RPMs. We sacrificed a great deal of straightline speed. Still, he persevered in only his second race ever, turned consistent times lap after lap, and we came home 15th overall from 19th. It was a very impressive outing for the Mini rookie.

#6 Matt Johnson

The Little Mini that Could As I noted previously Saturday’s finishing order determined Sunday’s starting lineup. The first surprise as we gridded for the feature event was when I saw the Bacciocco Mustang #111 starting dead last. I had not realized he DNF’d after 16 of 25 laps in Saturday’s qualifying race after being one of the fastest competitors. At that point I inserted a mental note - Watch out for the #111 Mustang coming through the field.

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The #62 Lauber/Wait Mini and #110 Gilbert Hakim Mustang brought the field to the green and battled side-by-side until turn four where the Mustang powered away. But, the #62 made a dive bomb move at the Corkscrew and took the lead away from Hakim, before quickly pulling out a gap. The duo was followed by a gaggle of Minis: the Racine’s #177, #51 Hays/Lamantia, #933 Stiehr/Webb, and the Crawford/Holden #30. Closely pursuing were the three Mustangs of Chris Hines #26, the Bacciocco Mustang #111 already up from dead last to eighth, Matt Johnson in #6, and then the final Mini in the top ten - the #37 of Phillips/ Waters. I again started the race in #35, this time from a much improved 15th place thanks to Christoph, and passed about five cars at the green flag. However, after multiple attempted fixes overnight we still had the low rev-engine problem. It was going to be a long 60 minutes. Climbing up the hill from corners five and six towards the legendary Corkscrew, and losing momentum the entire time, I felt I was living the children’s book character, The Little Engine that

Could: “I think I can, I think I can.” Maybe we can’t? Could we keep this up for 55 minutes in the 60-minute enduro? We were down 1,500 to 2,000 RPMs. How many places would we lose if we could even finish? Then, on lap three I nearly lost control at the left-hand turn five leading up the hill to the Corkscrew. What I didn’t know was the #933 Jamie Stiehr Mini had blown its transmission and dumped oil on the racing line, and then back again across the track from the right to left, where he exited the asphalt. The corner worker station must have been sleeping and did not display a yellow flag for the car off track, or the oil/debris flag to warn us of the oily racing surface.

We couldn’t know what awaited us. Suddenly, I lost the front end of the car exiting the corner and just saved it from spinning out on the rumble strips. It then immediately tried to do a snap spin as I crossed the second line of oil. I barely caught it again with a major steering

#51 Marcus Hays/Ed Lamantia 46

#62 Andrew Wait/Martin Lauber correction. Thinking I might have a tire going soft or flat I checked the mirror to see if anyone was threatening to pass before I could get off the track or limp back to the pits for a tire change. But, behind me in the mirror all I saw chaos! A giant cloud of sand and blue tire smoke filled the air with the green #969 Mini, the car I co-drove to 15th last year with Andrew Cooper, was spinning wildly in the middle of the track. What I had not seen, but later witnessed with the in-car video of my mirror, was the #00 CeCe Cord Mini in a tank slapper sliding one way and then the other in the oil, before losing it completely and collecting the #969 of Chris Lyon. Dust and smoke prevented me from seeing if other cars were involved but it was time to refocus and think about the what-if scenarios. I knew it was a total cluster, and it was going to take time to clean up.

So Flashback 60 Minutes!

Christoph and I discussed pit stop strategy before the race, especially if a full-course yellow came out in the first 25 minutes of my driving shift. Knowing that most co-drivers split the 60- minute driving duties nearly equally, I suggested if a yellow prevailed early then I should pit for the driver change and refueling. We might catch the field unaware and get a “free pit stop.” That meant if most everyone was stuck behind the pace car under yellow while we pitted they might have to stop later under green while we remained on track at full speed. This could possibly be the only way to overcome our ever present engine handicap.

Now Flash Forward! I pitted and saw only five other cars out of the 22 starters taking advantage of the yellow: three Mustangs and two other Minis. One Mini was the defending champion #177 of Don & Dennis Racine, and that was no surprise, Don and family have been in the racing game a long time. They had also gambled that this was the right strategy. All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

#23 Mark Emmert

But, if another yellow came out in the next 15 minutes that allowed everyone else to pit while we were stuck behind the pace car, then the strategy would fail. We were committed. It was now all or nothing. Christoph caught the tail end of the field just before the track went green, two laps behind in the 16th position. The #62 Lauber/Wait Mini was the class of the field again leading over the #110 Hakim Mustang and #51 Hayes/Lamantia Mini. But, none of them had pitted with us, so a little smile crossed my face. Not a big one, it was too early for that!

Bacciocco’s #111 Mustang, which had pitted with us, quickly carved his way through the field to the front. The next 45 minutes were agonizing as we listened to the sick engine go by the pits with Christoph flogging the #35 Mini for everything he could. As the laps counted down, one competitor after another peeled off for the pit lane while we circulated under green. Gradually we moved from 16th to fifth and advanced to the lead lap when with only two minutes to go the lead Mustang finally lapped us. The top finishers had pitted together. The strategy had worked.

“The Little Mini that Could” became”The Little Mini that Did.” The #35 Mini was the second finisher out of a total of 17 Mini starters and just behind the Racine’s in last year’s dual enduro winning #177. I guess you could say we finished second in class thanks to Christoph Fritsch and the tremendous support in the pit and paddock of operations manager

Anita Weemaes, Brent McCune, and George Olson. Fellow competitor Brian Waters and crew chief Ward Barbour were instrumental in helping prep the car before the race and build the engine, as was race creator Don Racine. Surprisingly, we finished one position ahead of my former championship P.U.R.E. Mini #62 which won convincingly the day before. This was the 50th anniversary since I took my first wins and championships in that car and while it was great to see my former car win on Saturday. I felt very nostalgic but as the last man standing of the historic three-car 1970s P.U.R.E. Mini team; beating my former car was certainly bittersweet. In conclusion, I was very impressed with the quality of driving from the Mini contingent and the Ford drivers. From my personal on-track experiences, the Ford drivers were safe, cautious, courteous, and respectful in sharing the track with much smaller and less powerful cars. This can always be a very dangerous situation. The Mustangs put on a first-class driving clinic and the results on Sunday proved it.

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#86 Frank Zucchi All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

#177 Dennis/Don Racine #26 Chris Hines/John Linfesty

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#424 Gary Drean/Chris Kopley #969 Green David Cooper/Chris Lyon

#26 Chris Hines/John Linfesty #62 Andrew Wait/Martin Lauber #51 Marcus Hays/ Ed Lamantia #933 James Stiehr All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

Race Winner - #110 Gilbert Hakim All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

#35 Randy Unsbee/ Christoph Fritish

About the author: Randy Unsbee has won more than 50 road races and six amateur championships in 26 years of competition at 13 USA race circuits in a variety of race cars and categories. These include Mini Cooper, Showroom Stock, Touring Car, Formula Ford, Formula Super Vee, C Sports Racing, D Production, and Formula 2. He is a former Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Licensed National Race Driving Instructor and SCCA Director of Communications, and also has extensive track experience at seven race circuits in England in a variety of Formula racing cars and exotic supercars. Unsbee won the first of over 100 races in ¼ midgets beginning at age four. He is the last remaining member of the PetermanUnsbee Racing Enterprises (P.U.R.E.) championship Mini team of the 1970s. Minis #61 and #62 are the original cars raced by the late John Unsbee and Randy Unsbee and are currently owned by Don Racine of Team Mini Mania.

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Words by Paul Murray, Ian Rae and Images by Paul Murray, Ian Rae 58

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hitby, ON’s Paul Murray is an IT consultant who grew up in a family that loved motorsport. “My father was a big influence,” Paul told us, “He had been taking me to the track since I was born. Whether it was go-karts, gymkhana events or the ice racing events in which he participated.” Now for those of you who not know where Whitby is, it is located on the shores of Lake Ontario and is less than forty minutes away from the famed Mosport Park the former home of the Canadian Grand Prix. Now called Canadian Tire Motorport Park the revamped circuit is the home of Ontario Regional racing and special events like SCCA Trans Am, IMSA Sports Car series and even NASCAr’s Exfinity series. “We used to spend days an weekends at Mosport as I grew up, it is such an iconic track, it’s no wonder I am into motorsport,” Paul said with a smile. Now aged 50 Paul runs his 2015 MINI Cooper S in local Time Attack events with the Ontario Time Attack series and the Canadian Sport Compact Series. And when he has some spare time he dodges cones with CASC Auto Slalom. Now Paul mentioned his father competing in ice racing earlier, and as you will see there is more to that story. I was 18 and my friends invited me to Minden to watch some CASC Ice Racing. What a great weekend it was watching cars go side to side battling for position on ice. Shortly after, my father and uncle invited me to join the McDonalds/ 60

Ninja Turtle racing team run by Sean Hyland Motorsport in the Firestone Firehawk series. I was just a measly jack man, but I had the time of my life taking care of a Ford Mustang, Escort and 4 Taurus SHO’s. My father was a full time sports photographer and created a business called Colour Tech Motorsports Photography, with the majority of his work was done at the Mosport Grand Prix Circuit and the Driver Development Track. I was lucky enough to take a half dozen full day racing courses in the open wheel formula cars and although it was a great experience, I much preferred the comfort of a full size vehicle. My father purchased the Ford Escort from the Firehawk series and we both did general lapping days with the car. For a short while starting a family I wasn’t too involved in Motor Racing, but was able to continue to catch the odd race here and there.

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Twenty years later, scrolling through Facebook I see a post from my friend from high school going to Minden for Ice Racing. I decided to go up and thoroughly enjoyed my time there. After a short discussion and ride along in the car, I was hooked. The next weekend I received a temporary racing permit and drove my friend’s car, which then turned into me buying his ice racer (Suzuki SX4), getting a race license, joining OMSC and participating in the series. My ice racer wasn’t ready one season, so I shared a classic mini ice racer for a handful of races, what an experience that was. The following Spring I was looking for a new vehicle for myself and decided to get something I always wanted a MINI. My father had owned half a dozen of the classics growing up and it’s one of my favorite vehicles. I ended up purchasing a 2015 MINI Cooper S, and as I was already with the OMSC club for Ice Racing, so I decided to try my hand at Auto Slalom. I didn’t make many modifications to the car, it was already fun to drive as it was. During the Auto Slalom season we partnered up with OTA one weekend and I saw my next venture about to start. I signed up for OTA the following season and have been doing Time Attack ever since in both OTA and CSCS. Also, about three years ago I was finally able to pick up a 1978 Leyland Mini, all original, no major

We really fit in driving Mini’s in Safety Village where everything is miniature. I am also part of the Toronto Mini Club and try to attend most rally events. The next major event hosted by the Southern Ontario Mini Club is called SOMC Fall Rattler, generally the weekend after Canadian Thanksgiving. It is an annual event where to focus is for the club to raise some money for charity. This is a full day event starting at Webers restaurant on Hwy 11 (their burgers are to die for) and cruising around the Muskoka area for a couple of hours until ending up at a craft brewery. The Canadian version of Mini Takes the States is the Mini Invasion. The last Invasion was held in 2019 by MINI Canada and it was a 2-day event in Prince Edward County which is a beautiful scenic area located right on Lake Ontario and over 300 Minis were in attendance. Getting back to Motorsport “When I purchased the 2015 Mini Cooper S in 2019, I had no plans to take it to a parking lot and swerve around cones or even take it to the track. It was just a car I always wanted. After taking it to the local Auto Slalom I decided to make some small upgrades to its handling and ensure it didn’t blow up on the track. The Cooper S OEM brakes are horrible, so the first upgrade was a BBK with upgraded fluid, brake lines and pads and that set me on the track I’m on now.” When we asked Paul about his most memorable moment in racing? ‘It’s difficult to nail down just one moment in racing, but it was always a dream of mine to drive the Mosport GP circuit and after joining the OTA, I was able to accomplish that. It’s an amazing track and holds a lot of precious memories for me and I am sure many more to come!”

upgrades, definitely not a show car, I drive it all over whenever I get a chance. The car was also involved in a children’s road safety video at Safety Village during COVID as children weren’t allowed to visit. All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

2015 MINI Cooper S Engine: • 2.0L I4 twin scroll turbo DOHC 16-valve • Bootmod3 custom tune • Forge Hardpipe • ~290bhp Cooling: • Upgraded Intercooler • Eventuri Intake Drivetrain: • 6 speed manual transmission • Wavetrac LSD • Clutchmasters FX400 • Coolerworx short shifter Exhaust: • Remus valved CAT back • Scorpion 200cel sports cat Body: • K-Brace • MMR Underbody Bracing Aero: • Sneed4Speed front splitter • RK Style Rear Wing Brakes: • Wilwood Forged Narrow Superlite 6R Big Brake Front Brake Kit • G-LOC R12 pads front Suspension: • KW Clubsport Coilovers 2 way Wheels: • FAST Wheels 17x7.5 • Falken RT660 225/45/17 front, 225/45/17 rear

So what are Paul’s future plans for the car? “Currently this is a street drivable car, but my future plans are to remove any inside extra weight, install some bucket seats and a six point harness. Also looking to get some sort of widebody kit so I can get some wider tires on and likely a rear diffuse. This will likely turn into a full blown track car.” We asked if there were any amusing or interesting anecdotes during the build or racing? With a slight smile Paul told us, “ There was nothing too crazy, Sneed4Speed sent me the wrong front splitter and I didn’t realize it until the garage tried to fit it on. Luckily they sent a replacement and the correct one right away. My

Coolerworx short shifter came with no instructions, but after some emails, YouTube videos and about a week of scratching my head, I was able to get it installed correctly” As with most racers you cannot go racing without good healp and support. Paul said, “First and foremost, I need to thank my wife, she’s a great supporter and I would not have been able to do this without her. Special thanks to @xiiimotorsports for the amazing work they do installing most of the parts, custom work if needed and keeping the car maintained so I don’t run into issues at the track. And to @jman_scoobaddicted for always helping when I need it the most, whether it’s filling the coolant with brake fluid or swapping out the engine mount. And last but not least @oshawamsc, great club to be part of that reaches out to all forms of racing. I am already looking forward to the 2024 season already!

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Words and Images by Roald Rakers 66

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t has been quite a while since the British Mini 7 Racing Club ventured overseas to visit the Dutch F1 circuit CM.com Zandvoort. 2019 was the last time they raced on the ‘old’ circuit. But with VerstappenMania having spread through Holland and the other low countries the Zandvoort circuit had a huge upgrade. Nestled in the sandunes by the North Sea the ‘new’ track got great reviews from the F1 circus and finally in July 2023 the Mini 7 series would return and race for the first time on the revised Zandvoort circuit. The layout is still the same, although some corners are now banked. But names like Tarzan, Hugenholtz and Slotemaker are still there and as challenging as ever. During practice it looked if the some of the Mini’s were having issues finding the correct line through some of the corners. But by the end of the first practice it was clear that the outer route was fastest, I guess much googling of the Dutch GP helped out with this. More testing on Friday saw the times drop where they were a few seconds quicker then they ran in 2019. So a major change to the circuit did not prove to be a bad thing for the Mini runners after all. Saturday started windy and the forecast was for changeable weather. Free practice saw just a few Mini’s on track, but they ran with some cars of the Equipe Classic racing series which included some stunningly fast cars like a Ferrari 308 GTB. But if you think the Ferrari would be blistering faster around the Zandvoort circuit you are wrong. In practice the Ferrari clocked a 1.57.552 while the fastest Miglia did a 1.58.112 lap. It was stunning how the Mini’s performed at Zandvoort and many of the quicker drivers were surprised at just how well suited the Minis were to the updated circuit. Later in the day the Mini’s got the circuit to themselves and when it was time to qualify forty classic Mini’s in 4 different classes roared onto this historic circuit. The Mini S class, Mini 7 class, Mini libre class and the Mini Miglia. Highly tuned mini’s ranging from 998cc Mini 7 till the 140+bhp Mini 68

Miglia’s tried to get the pole position for the first race later that day. The pace of the Miglia’s was a lot faster during qualifying than the free practice. As time went on all Mini racers found that the more track time they had, the better they found their way around the twisty Zandvoort circuit. In the Miglia class it was former BTCC racer Jeff Smith who topped the timing sheet with a 1.57.709 followed by another BTCC alumni Andrew Jordan and Aaron Smith. But what about the brand

new car of Rupert Deeth. The cars was finished just days before leaving for the Dutch circuit. The team tested it one day in the UK and then set sail to the Netherlands. He finished 6th with a 1.59.611. It was great to see how the new cars built by Endaf Owens were performing. Most front running cars use a Mini built by the Welshman. The Mini Libre class was topped by Richard Colburn. Pole for the Mini 7 class was hard fought

between three super fast drivers, Mike Jordan (Andrew’s father), Conner O’Brien and Spencer Wanstall and they ended the qualifying session in this order. The Mini S class pole taken by Frazer Hack. As Saturday’s race time approached the cars assembled on the pre-grid for the first race, but what if …….. the weather changes dramatically? Well it did and where it was windy and sunny all All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

day it now became windy and rainy. With nobody having any experience of the new circuit drivers and mechanics were asking the locals if the track would dry quickly when it stops raining or would it be wet race? Even for us locals it was hard to predict the weather forecast. Radar showed no rain, but we definitely felt rain. Some cars where quickly changed to wets. Other hoped for drying weather. During the warm up lap some drivers seen the track dry out quickly. The front runners were already on wets but decided that the rain tyre was no option for the conditions and drove into the pits to change tyre’s. So with the grid empty at the front the start was chaotic. Some cars where not in the right place, but the race started. Gordon Pocock was slated to start 13th now saw himself 1st after the first few corners. Pocock took advantage and ekked out a big gap to the number 2 runner. After a few laps the drivers who changed to slicks came thundering through the field, each lap getting closer to Gordon. Sadly Pocock missed his breaking point for Tarzan corner twice, which made his lead disappear very quickly. Even so it was still the last lap before the drivers on slicks got past Gordon and finished he finished 4th at the end of the race. The race was won by Kane Astin followed by Aaron Smith and Andrew Jordan. Jordan unfortunately got a penalty of five seconds for working on the car in the fast lane. That promoted Pocock to a 3rd place which was just desserts for his brave drive. In the Libre class Julian Proctor took his first ever win in his Mini. He was delighted that his 70

change from racing Mini 7 to Mini Libre had some success and to do it at a circuit like Zandvoort put a smile on his face. The Mini 7 class turned out to be a win for Mike Jordan followed by Conner O’ Brian and Spencer Wanstall, just the way that they had qualified and Mini S class was won by Frazer Hack. Sundays race starting grid was formed by the finishing podium from Saturday’s race. The circuit was dry so there were no problems with choosing

the tyre, it was slicks all over. And what a race it was for the podium places. Close racing as always with the Minis of Mini 7 racing club. The top positions was a fight between Andrew Jordan and Aaron Smith with the latter winning the race by three seconds. The newly build Miglia of Rupert Deeth was finally getting up to speed and finished 4th. That was very impressive for a Mini that had just done one test day. The Mini 7 race was something spectacular. The top three of race one battled throughout the whole race for top spot. But just three corners before the finish, the race was spiced up a notch as

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Connor O’ Brian and Mike Jorden dueled, giving each other no quarter. Spencer Wanstall took advantage of that and passed the battling pair and took the win. What a great race this was! Julian Proctor couldn’t keep up his top spot in the Libre class and had to settle for 3rd behind Huw Turner and Les Stanton. The Mini S class had a different result from the first race with Frazer Hack who started on pole unfortunately had a DNF in this race. So we had a new race winner Jonathan Page. Race 3 was started with a reversed grid for the top 8 drivers. Gordon Pocock started on pole, but soon after the start as things settled down it was much as in race two. Aaron Smith and Andrw Jordan did what they had to do and finished 1st and 2nd. The win in the Libre Minis was for Richard Colburn. 72

The Mini 7 class saw the third different winner this weekend. Connor O’ Brian took the honours for this race. The Mini S class saw Frazer Hack taking back 1st position and winning his 2nd race of the weekend. The weekend was not all about the racing Mini’s, many Dutch Mini clubs were present to cheer the drivers on, chat with them and take some photo’s of them. But Zandvoort provided a huge bonus for the Dutch Mini clubs, they got do a parade lap around Zandvoort, great times for all even if they couild not run at Verstappen speeds. Both days saw around fifty Minis of all vintages, old and new making the circuit Zandvoort more beautiful during lunch break. What a great sight it was to see these Minis on the circuit.

As you can see from these photos there was a lot of Mini/MINI love going around at Zandvoort. The cars not only impressed as they raced on track but the Dutch Mini clubs showed the other race fans attending the event what a great group of people

the Mini owners were. The revamped Zandvoort is a circuit worthy of a visit if you are in the area, especially when you can take in the spectacular beach while you are there. https://www.circuitzandvoort.nl/en/

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Words and Images by Norman Nelson 74

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As a long time, custom car, automotive, motorsports enthusiast, I have always wanted to attend the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas. It was always difficult for me as it is not open to the public. You have to be in or connected to the industry or sponsored by an exhibitor. So, year after year I would look into it but shied away after halfhearted attempts. A few years back I got to attend the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show in Indianapolis Indiana through my work with Motorwerks Magazine. That experience opened my

have attended as Media, I really wanted to build something for the show. I felt we lacked the “product” or car that would be a “fit” for SEMA. Even with several restored and themed classic Minis, we still felt if would be an uphill battle just to be considered. Then fate stepped in and we acquired a 1969 Austin Mini Countryman Estate Woody Wagon in June 2019. This car had sat under a tarp in a barn in Canton Ohio since 1984, some 36 years. Age and rust had taken its toll. This Mini had

eyes.

history and lineage. It had belonged to a fellow named Charlie Pollett. Charlie had always planned to restore this beauty, but never got around to it. Charlie served as crew chief for several times SCCA National Champion, Joe Huffaker Jr. on many of victorious runs to a championship title. Charlie was an avid Mini enthusiast and well known in the Mini community, but Charlie sadly succumbed to cancer

What an amazing gathering of all kinds of racing and performance equipment products and equipment. This stepped up my desire to at least attend SEMA. I placed SEMA on my “Bucket List”. For the next few years, my schedule and commitments conflicted with SEMA and the opportunity never really developed. While I could 76

in 2014. His wife Doris, a Mini enthusiast herself was left with the Mini, but had no real way to restore it. Joe Huffaker Jr. purchased the car and brought it out to California. He had all the intentions to restore it, but the demands of his business, Huffaker Engineering and his commitment to his elder parents he never found the time. Joe gave me a call and asked if I knew anyone that might be interested taking over the “project”. Considering the history and lineage, I thought it would be an interesting challenge. Thankfully my wife Jesse agreed and was excited to get involved. We loaded up the car and brought it up to Redding, California. Our friend Mark Caruso, owner of Caruso’s Customs and his good friend Brendon Tyler, an accomplished fabricator, welder, autobody, and restoration specialist joined the team. We rolled our “project “off my trailer. It had no rear wheels as it was missing the rear subframe, the floor was rusted through, and it was sitting on a make-shift dolly, making it just mobile enough to muscle it into the shop. Months of inspecting, teardown, cleaning, blasting, cutting, followed and we then fully realized just what was needed to be done, it was going to be

a mammoth job. The entire floor needed to be replaced along with many other panels, body sills, shock mounts, hinges, frames. The parts that we could buy, we did from M Machine in the UK. Other parts that were not available needed to be fabricated from scratch, thankfully we had the right people on board to handle the task. Then the biggest challenge, putting everything back together and keeping it straight. We had fabricated the rotisserie to keep the upper body and roof straight, but we needed to assemble the floor to the body keeping everything straight and plumb. Our good friend Nicholas Upton of Boot2Bonnett Restorations in Woodland California happened to have a Cellett Frame Bench available for our use. This Frame Bench allows you to set all the critical mounting and suspension points in proper location and alignment while welding everything in place. Essentially this is putting the floor down into position and building an entire new car on top of it. This worked great and we were now faced with sealing and the seams, sanding, priming, over and over and over again until everything fit perfectly, moved freely where needed, and blended All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

and smoothed all rough spots. At this point we basically had to make some decisions, Theme, Color, and any modifications. We knocked around several ideas but settled on the Ghostbuster Ecto ½ Mini. Part of this decision was that the car had been placed in a barn under a tarp in 1984, same year as the Ghostbuster movie came out. That descision seemed to tie everything together and Jesse and I started to sketch out things we wanted to do to make the Woody special and keep to our chosen theme. The ideas flowed, creating the roof rack and all its components, sizing them from a large 1959 Cadillac to a 1969 Austin Mini, choosing colors, features, wiring, lighting, sound system. We would sit down and watch the original Ghostbuster over and over trying to capture all the gadgets and features. With all the thinking done it was time to contact Sony Pictures and ask for permission to get a limited use of all the logos, likeness, graphics, etc. Thankfully they gave us permission and without any copyright issues in the near future we were on our way and the build could be planned.

As Ecto ½ as we called it, started coming together, we realized this would be a unique creation. This was about the time when we started thinking of SEMA. With Mark and Brendon’s encouragement we started looking into how to get Ecto ½ entered. Getting your car accepted and entered is or can be complicated, especially for a first timer or someone that has never even been to SEMA. We looked through the options and found that the Battle of the Builders was our best shot. Not knowing the rules and steps necessary, we filled out and submitted the application. Soon I got a notice back telling us we had accepted. Thinking this was easy, and it was. We had skipped a large step in the process and they had not caught at it at this point. We needed to have a sponsor that is an Exhibitor to show you at SEMA. A sponsor must be a member of SEMA, a registered and paid Exhibitor with space, must vouch for you, and your car must be fitted with their products. This is when the challenge began. Being newbies, we didn’t realize there was a list of Exhibitors so we began to randomly calling and

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checking. Our Mini is fitted with the AutoMeter 7000 Custom Gauge Cluster. It is an integral part of our interior. It’s LED lighting matches our other components and was custom fit to our dash. For a US made gauge cluster to work with an old 4-cylinder British Car was amazing. It showed us the flexibility and range of the AutoMeter products. We sent AutoMeter photos and information on how their products we installed and how they function in our 80

build. They liked what we had done and agreed to sponsor us. These folks are great and very helpful in our efforts to qualify for SEMA. So, with all the bumps in the road clear, it was full speed ahead. SEMA only allows 2 passes for attendance for Battle of the Builders so we needed to get a third pass. Since Brendon works in the autobody industry and has for years, we figured he would be the best to get qualified. That requires a ton of paperwork to

backup that not only do you work in the industry but exactly what services do you perform, what are your responsibilities, if you purchase products or decide which products your company uses, and you need a type written letter from the owner of our company verifying all of this, plus three months copy of your check stubs. We provided all this and were accepted. Then came the travel planning. We decided to take my truck and trailer and the three of us would travel in that. Because it is about 700 miles and we All Action, All The Time from MotorWerks Magazine

were towing, it takes two days there and two days back. We were given a Monday check in and we could not leave until after 5pm on Friday. So, this meant asking for time off work. Then planning the route, picking hotels there and back and where we would stay while in Las Vegas. Beware of the advertising for hotel rates in Las Vegas. They offer one price, but when you go to make a reservation, you will find the price may be something quite different. The same room on a Wednesday Night may be $89 and that same room on Friday or Saturday may be $459. It takes a lot of research to get the best deal. With all the plans made, the car finished, detailed, loaded and we were ready to go! Weather was great going down. Traffic was good. We realized that our fuel mileage suffered with a fully packed truck and trailer. Being a MINI Cooper enthusiast for a long time. I often went to AMVIV in Las Vegas. AMVIV was A MINI Vacation in Vegas. It ran for years and attracted several hundred Mini owners each year. Many times, it was held at the Palace Station. It is close to the Las Vegas Convention Center located just off the strip. The cost turned out to be medium as compared to the other hotels. So that’s where we stayed. It had parking for our truck and trailer. 82

We stopped for the night in Beatty NV so we had an easy drive into Las Vegas on Monday. Plenty of time to get through commute traffics and be in place for check in. We arrived at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) and I realized just how massive this venue is and was glad we had written down the exact address for our check-in location. We got in line and waited for the gates to open. Security came by our truck and trailer and checked our credentials. They are very strict on letting anyone in. We were directed to a large parking area to park our truck and trailer and unload our car. We unloaded the car and I drove Ghostbuster Ecto ½ to check in line. There was lots of construction going on. I parked right next to the 10-foot cyclone fence by the construction area with my LED lights, roof components rotating, and stereo blasting. Then I saw construction workers climbing the fence to catch a glimpse of Ecto ½. Out came the cameras, smiles, waves, and thumbs up. I was thrilled. We were getting plenty of attention. Even the SEMA check-in crews were pulling out cameras and snapping photos and this was just the beginning. We waited to get our assigned location for the show and then were directed to the West Hall where we found our parking for the week. The

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whole complex was immense and the crowds were everywhere. Security was everywhere as well which was nice to see. The crowds never stopped the entire week. Here are some of the statistics from SEMA and LVCC. There were 160,000 attendees. 70,000 of them buyers, 3,300 media representatives. They came from 140 different countries. On Friday afternoon ‘s BIG After Party Show, they opened the areas up to the public and they estimated some 300,000 folks were there. There is 4.6 million square feet of interior exhibit space and 2.2 million square feet of outside exhibit space. There were 2400 Exhibitors, 300 new companies this year. 3,000 new products on display. There were 10,251 SEMA members there helping. SEMA had contracted huge beautiful transport busses to transport attendees from their hotels to SEMA each morning and evening. They had 12 Bus routes serving 31 hotels and buses picking up and dropped off every few minutes. LVCC has the Tesla Loop working. This is an underground tunnel system that takes attendees to all the areas of SEMA within the LVCC. The system has 90 new Tesla EV cars departing every 15 minutes continuously throughout the entire day and evening.

Closing notes and observations: It was Brendon’s first time to SEMA and to Las Vegas. WOW! It was fun just to watch him gaze around in awe. Like a kid in a candy store. We took Brendon to the Fremont Street Experience and to several of the hotels on the Strip. The constant flow of visitors, media, friends, vendors that walked by Ghostbuster Ecto ½ asking questions and taking photos and video. Many asked what kind of car it was. Others knew right away. A very positive response from the SEMA Folks,

Vendors, and Security: We were not sure what kind of a reception a 1969 British Austin Mini Countryman Estate Wood Wagon would get, but when it was all done, we felt great and glad we came.

Last thrill: Driving Ghostbuster Ecto ½ out of the LVCC and down the Las Vegas Strip with crowds of people and streets full of cars, clicking photos, waving, and high fives.

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