... and then there was a red mini, and then a blue mini, and a green mini, and ….

Once a year the national Mini owners club host a ‘race weekend’ at Shakespeare County Raceway. Mini owners travel from far and wide to compete and the Wild Bunch appear as guest ‘Pro racers’; this year one Mini had been brought all the way from Vancouver to be at the show !

Several hundred of these little pocket rockets had arrived at the track during Friday, complete with families and crew and various other ‘fans’.

Despite this, or perhaps because of their diminutive size, the raceway pit area was remarkably spacious, leaving the fReQ’s, plenty of space to arrange their toys for a weekend of fun.

This year the race meeting had been nominated as the Cowboys and Indians fancy dress round by the Wild Bunch drag-racing club and by the Saturday evening each of the Wild bunch teams had fully entered into the spirit of things :-)

Sadly the day-time open practice and qualifying races were interrupted by heavy rain showers meaning that the fReQ’s only managed one race on the Saturday.
An un-prepared and cold track meant that, even with a gentle launch, fReQMikey had to steer the race-car to keep in a straight line, to achieve an 11.94 @114mph qualifying pass.
The notorious damp patch near the finish line gave Mike the sort of ‘excitement’ that he can do without and so he was happy(ish) to only drive once …
The car performed perfectly, snaking about at the top end only because of the dampness.

and then there was a red mini, and then a blue mini, and a green mini, and ….

The rain showers finally ensured the track was closed for slick tyres by 3pm and so fancy dress was put on and the fReQ’s began to play. Afternoon tea of cream cakes and a ‘Mahoosive’ tea time pizza ensured that there was plenty of energy for an evening of sillyness

A horse head, made by Ashleigh was fitted to one of the pit vehicles and races were sought. The fReQ crew complete with cowboy hats and boots moseyed over to the assembled Wild Bunch…fReQmikey offering two fingers of Bourbon (biscuits) to various cowboys.
Crazy Chris Hartnell and several other racers all attempted to out gallop Ash on her trusty steed and there were many Cowboys and Indians happily sharing the same space with almost no warfare :-)
Even Cactus Jack made an appearance :-)
Andy ensured that new fReQ crew member Steve fully entered into the spirit of things. All the familiar ‘toys’ , the franken-cycle, the chopper-bikes…juggling of various objects and at this meeting, our stunt horse, all combined to ensure that there was much fun in the damp and cold pits.
A ‘Wanted’ poster was put up for the fReQ’s by the Backdraft team ‘Wanted, for being a gang and having fun’ and copies of a similar poster was put up around the track by the fReQ’s for Benjah (on holiday with family this weekend)..
[the featured picture, and hand written addition, was in the gents toilet all weekend :-) ]
And soon enough it was time to stable the horse and get ready for the next day’s racing

…and then there was a red mini, and then a blue mini, and a green mini, and ….

Sunday, and the rain clouds had vanished. The race format meant that competition for the Wild Bunch would now take place on a ‘blind dial-in’. Having had no chance to test/tune the cars the day before each of the teams had to guess their dial in. After some discussion amongst the team the fReQ’s entered an 11.56 et and prepared ‘The Dream’…
The track had been glued and was ready for action and at 11am fReQracing and the other Wild Bunch teams made their first appearance in the pairing lanes.

The first run for ‘Living the Dream’ was spoiled on the start line after a strong burnout. A long delay by the track staff, whilst Mikey held the car in stage, caused it to get hot, bog down and stall on the line on launch. This effectively spoilt any real chance of a top four place at this meeting. The car was re-started on the line and ran a strong straight pass, crossing the line at 117mph

However, three further races during the day lifted the whole team spirit again, each of the runs being within 2 tenths of a second away from the dial in, and one of those being only 9 thou of a second off (a too fast ‘breakout’ pass of 11.551 @ 118mph).

This ensured that the team came home very happy with the trophy for ‘Closest to dial in’ and confident that the race-car and team has now fully regained it’s consistency and will be very competitive at the MSA Open Sports Nationals, a three day race meeting, Aug 23/25 at Shakespeare County Raceway.

Andy will make his second appearance as the driver in the MSA round for the next one one and the team are very confident that we can achieve a good result.

fReQmikey, Living the Dream..frequently racing :-)