Rhubarb Racing - Competing in the Mighty Minis Championship

The May 2008 issue of the BRSCC newsletter has a full double page feature on Mighty Minis, focusing on the girls who are increasingly making their presence known on the grid. There's a great photo of Caroline Gilbert, Verity Philips, Louise Inch, Lianne Norfolk, Christine Holmes and Jo Polley posing on the grid at Silverstone a few weeks back. You car read the full article in the May issue, available from the BRSCC News Archive page .

Due to some exciting work opportunities resulting in Matt clearing off to Canada for a while, Rhubarb Racing won't be actively campaigning in the 2008 Mighty Mini's championship. That doesn't mean it's the end of the line though, as MM13 is still safely tucked away in Matt's workshop. Hopefully Matt will be back in the UK over the summer and will be able to give the car a couple of track day outings.

Good luck to all those competing in 2008, particularly our main partners-in-crime thoughout 2007, Steve Wheeler, Mark Burnett, Ade Hollis and Dean Peach. If the first race of the season at Silverstone is anything to go by, it will be an incredibly hard-fought season with any one of about 10 drivers capable of taking the title. It's a shame we won't be there to join in the fun, but who knows what 2009 might hold?

So I've completed my first season of racing in Mighty Minis, and I thought it would be a good plan to review the highs and lows of the season, as well as how I've fared against the objectives I set myself earlier in the year.  

• First race: Finish the race with clean overalls and no significant damage to the car. - Achieved
  
• By mid season: Consistently finishing somewhere other than last, and ideally on the same lap as the leader. - Achieved
• End of season: Somewhere vaguely in contention for the novice championship. In the top three would be wonderful, but that's probably a bit audacious. - Achieved

What's been good

• The teamwork and general vibe at the race meets
• The friendliness and helpfulness of the other competitors
• The racing!
• The car - it's behaved really well all season
• Cadwell Park (especially the Gooseneck and Hall Bends)
  
• Oulton Park (especially running in 2nd place)
  

What's not been so good

• The trailer being unreliable
  
• Working on the car without any protection from the weather
  
• Camping when the weather's crumby
  
• Mid-season blues when I ran out of time and money and the car looked a wreck
• Rockingham - lousy track, lousy facilities, lousy race, lousy result

I also thought I should take a moment to recognise all those people who've helped me out during 2007 - cos there have been quite a few of them!

• Anton and Nick for following me around the country, fixing the car up, reminding me not to bend it, and giving up god-knows how many weekends for the love of motorsport.
• Laura for giving up most of her weekends through the summer, making a bazillion cups of tea, and soaking up my tantrums when things don't go right.
• Tim Harber for always having the right spare parts at hand (especially the steering rack at Cadwell), giving endless good advice, and generally being a complete diamond geezer.
• Dave Yardy for setting the car up, sharing his hard-earned trade secrets, and always putting a grin on our faces with his never-ending supply of obscure catch-phrases.
• Sue Norfolk for use of her garage and for awesome hospitality when we're tinkering with the car, not to mention the loan of the trailer to get us home from Snetterton.
• Neil Fearnley for holding an umbrella over us for god-knows-how-long at Pembrey, when we were trying to change an exhaust manifold in the peeing rain. You wouldn't believe how valuable a bit of moral support can be.
  
• Andi Hluszko and Calum Law for helping us get the car fixed up in time to race at Cadwell. We'd have still been in the paddock when the race started if it weren't for you two.
  
• Mark Burnett for helping out with spare parts at Snetterton, and providing me with some of the best racing of the season.
• Kean Shearwood for loan of the spare trailer wheel. Would have been a looong night without that!
• Rich at Mini Spares North for making a fool out of me each and every time I call him up.
• Stuart Coombs for helping me realise that no matter how much agro we have with the car or how dented it gets, it could be a LOT worse.

Another belated race report, due in part to it not being a very successful weekend resulting in me having nothing to shout about, and in part due to me finally getting a much-needed holiday!

On the way to Snetterton on Friday night the trailer suffered it's 2nd DNF of the season, this time a wheel bearing disintegrating on the A14 resulting in the nearside trailer wheel disappearing into the undergrowth never to be found. Fortunately the Universal Toolkit (ie AA card and mobile phone) resolved the issue and the team arrived at the circuit at 2:30am, with the race car arriving 30 mins or so later on the back of a low loader.

Saturday morning dawned cool but dry, so I went out to qualify feeling sleepy but prepared. As with the meet earlier in the year, the car wasn't quick down the back straight regardless of how I exited Sear corner and I knew I wasn't going to qualify well. Hence I wasn't surprised when the results sheet showed me as 21st on the grid. Ah well, at least the car was straight and I kept out of the way of Mr Bonas.

The first race pretty-much went as I expected it to. I got a good start (as usual), and took several places on the first lap moving up to the mid-teens. Fortunately for me, but unfortunately for Steve Wheeler, there was a nasty (an apparently avoidable) coming-together on the pit straight a couple of laps into the race which caused the race to be red-flagged. Hence I got a 2nd chance to make up some places off the grid, which I gladly did. The rest of the race was pretty close and involving by Snetterton standards, and I had a good battle with Mark Burnett, Nikki Welsby, Matthew Fleming and Jon Crabtree, eventually losing out to all of them as I got utterly mugged through the Esses and Bomb Hole on the last lap. My DNF at Brands Hatch had already severely damaged my chances of a 2nd place in the novice championship, so only coming home 16th (6 places behind my rival David Holmes) condemned me to 3rd in the standings. Realistically I wasn't going to regain 2nd place unless David failed to finish on Sunday, so the 2nd race was going to be "just for fun".

And what fun it was! I woke up with a banging head from severe over-indulgence at the end of season BBQ the night before. I'd pretty much decided that I wasn't going to race next season, but a couple of fellow competitors were out to persuade me to change my mind by plying me with alcohol. OK, so maybe I didn't need much plying! That, combined with celebrating England's rugby world cup win, meant it was a throughly enjoyable but rather punishing evening. By the time we got to the grid I was feeling a little better, but probably not as well prepared as I could have been. Despite that I got a good start, hopping up to 12th place in the space of 2 corners. The next few laps continued as per race 1, with plenty of places being exchanged. By lap 4 things had settled down a bit and I was back to defending against the onslaught from behind. Keen not to get obliterated down the Revett Straight again I teamed up with Mark Burnett to form an 8-wheel, twin engine Mini, taking it in turns to literally push each other down the straight to minimise drag and maximise top end speed. It seemed to work too, as the quicker boys (and girls) were no longer driving straight past us. Sadly on lap 10 the scheme worked a little too well. I carried more speed into the Esses than I was used to, messed up the braking, got the line wrong, lost the back end of the car and rather than powering out of it, I performed a classic "tank-slapper" into the tyres. Game over. And season over for that matter. I retired to the paddock to watch the last couple of laps and reflect upon the season.

Despite a fairly poor end to the season in terms of results, I wasn't even slightly downhearted. Whether you're in second, 12th or 22nd place, Mighty Mini's is all about competing and enjoying yourself, and the racing at Snetterton was as close and involving as any of the other races this season. God I love racing!