Track time with Lyon Waugh

The Lyon Waugh group (that owns MINI of Peabody as well as a BMW, Lamborghini and other dealerships) invited owners to join them at New Hampshire Speedway – I went up as a spectator and met Jason, Joe, Richard also spectating, as well as Steve, David and Ivan all spending time on the track … there were loads of MINIs there (I’d guess 30+) as well as a smaller number of BMWs (maybe 10) and a single Lamborghini!

The Boston BMWCCA were providing support and as well as time on track and instruction, they set up their standard Advanced Driving Skills day events of skid pad, lane changes, etc (see here when GPMINI attended ADSS) … I headed over to see the fun, but there wasn’t any! So I returned to the track, and watched MINIs take turn 3 for a while:

 

After lunch with the Old Guys MINI Club, we headed over to the ADSS area where the “auto cross track” had been laid out with cones … this is much more my level of fun, with no helmets and zero risk of hurting yourself or the car (worst case scenario is scuffed paint from the cones, and worn tires!). Jason, driving his brand new R56, complained it was nothing like his old R50 MINI, but had fun through the afternoon “auto cross whoring” with everyone else’s MINIs (including GPMINI, Steves R56, Davids R53 …); Richard, David and I also drove the auto cross, Joe drove GPMINI, and Steve rested:

 

A great fun day, made so by my MINI friends more than by the events … it’s hard to spectate at NHIS, and after maybe 8 drives of the auto cross track, it was time to head home!

British Invasion 2007

British Invasion 2007 returned to the “old field” this year, and so returned to the ludicrous mud field conditions that we suffered in 2005; I realize the field doesn’t actually create the weather, but it’s still not fun when the field looks like this as you arrive on Saturday morning:

Maybe an asphalt parking lot would be better! At least a clean GPMINI wouldn’t get turned into an off-roader:

Anyway, even in the wet & mud, it was a fun day due to having Margaret, lots of MINIs and lots of MINI friends 🙂

 

 

Five MINIs on Jason’s drive (with him leading in his brand new ’07) – we even were joined by a Red Bull MINI for a short time:

 

Better weather on Sunday:

(previous years: 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002)