Well...the 2009 SCCA Runoff's have again come and gone! After a 3 year detour in Topeka, Kansas the Runoff's have been moved for at least the next three years to the challenging and beautiful Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

Road America is the home of the SCCA June Sprints and is a 4 mile long 14 turn course with three long straights! Although the track is a really cool one those three long straights are not what is needed for racing a mini! Yes, there are 14 turns leading on to these straights that the mini can take advantage of but (here it comes again) it has three long straights and compared to the competition the mini struggles with straight-line speed.

This was my 24th consecutive Runoff's and although the MINCOMP MINI was there my name won't be showing up in any record books this year! Road America, like any new track is one that a driver needs laps of practice on to learn the nuances and lack of track time is what plagued me this year!

During Mondays practice session, on my 2nd lap, 1 of the 3 mounting ears on the clutch diaphragm cover fractured, so end of day ones practice, 2 laps! Day 2, Tuesday qualifying it poured rain all day...Day 3, Wednesday qualifying, as soon as started down pit road to enter the track the engine would not run past 1/2 throttle! Limped around the 4 miles and back to the paddock to start the diagnostic process. Found that the barrel of one of the Webber DCOE auxiliary ventures had broken and was (instead of being in the barrel of the carb) was down stream in the cylinder head lodged between the valve guide and valve stem! Frustrating, 3 days and a total of 3 laps on the new track...

Day 4, Thursday final qualifying, Sitting on pre-grid we are given the 1 minute board and it starts raining!!! It only rained for about 30-45 seconds but enough to get the track wet, so I did 3-4 medium speed laps exploring the wet track and waiting for the race line to dry off. I felt that the track would now take some speed so I picked-up my pace. When I got to the left hand turn 5 the track wasn't ready for the speed that I was going and I slid thru the turn and over the outside dragons teeth! EXPLANATION: Normally the apex's of the turns are bordered by some-sort-of curbing or alligators teeth but at Road America the apex curbing is bordered by progressive alligators teeth culminating in "DRAGONS" teeth (starts off aggressive and turns violent). These dragons teeth are very violent and will break things on some cars! And they did...broke a right side upper front ball joint and fractured the steering shaft support on the Mini Mania/MINCOMP MINI!

So I qualified 21st whilst dragging the right front fender on the tire and chassis on the track! So in the end, I had a great race! I was finally able to string together enough consecutive laps to be able to start learning the track and my times reflected this and got better with each lap. I started 21st and finished 14th...

Like I said, you won't be seeing my name in the record books but I was there, I was the only MINI racing at the Runoff's this year but I look foreword to doing a bunch better next year now that I have had some practice laps at Road America!

Bill Gilcrease