Team MINI finishes inaugural year ‘On High'

Team MINI rounded out its first year of competition at the Mount Buller Sprint last weekend. The event comprised eight runs up a 16km special stage on the road which services the Victorian High Country resort.

Three Team MINI Cooper S JCWs were part of a 80-plus field including a wide variety of vehicles. Machinery ranged from a historic E-type Jaguar to the latest all-wheel drive rally-based tarmac cars.

The event was won by the Lamborghini Gallardo-mounted pairing of Jason and John White. The nephew-and-uncle team further demonstrated the relative stranglehold they have on Aussie tarmac rallies -- more often than not, if the two-times Targa winners finish an event it’s in first place.

On the way to winning, the Whites posted an 8m42.82s run on stage seven of the Melbourne Cup weekend event eclipsing Jim Richards and Barry Oliver’s Porsche GT2  January 2005 record of 8m45.50s.  Richards debuted his new Porsche 997 Turbo at Mt Buller but didn’t finish the first run citing engine management issues.

Making their tarmac debut were gravel rally specialists and newly-crowned Asia-Pacific champs Cody Crocker and Ben Atkinson. Driving the Les Walkden Rallying/Subaru Motorsport Impreza WRX, the pairing posted a total time of 1:11:06.48 -- just over 5.5sec behind the winner. Their fatstest run was in leg 8 -- a 8m43.62 also inside Richards record.

Third place went to Warwick Rooklyn and Linda Long (Team Mitsubishi Ralliart) in a 2005 Evo 9 with a total time of 1:11:21.32. Their quickest run up the 16km stage was their seventh, 8m47.11s.

It was the fourth running of the Mt Buller Sprint and the second in 2006. The November date will likely be cemented now to allow for cooler conditions and safer road conditions.

It was Team MINI’s first participation in the event although in the past the marque has been ably represented by the Sherrin Motorsport MINIs. The Queensland-based team was also on hand this year taking the total Cooper S contingent to five -- all of which finished the event.

Team MINI’s three crews comprised the Team MINI CarPoint car of Mike Sinclair and Justin Hunt plus Spencer Lowndes and Chris Randell, and Grant Denyer and Dale Moscat. When Mr Denyer had to step out of the number three car for television duties interstate his seat was ably filled by motoring journalist, James Stanford.

The Lowndes/Randell car waged an event-long ding-dong with the lead Sherrin Cooper S for the title of fastest MINI. Alas it was decided in the favour of the Queenslanders at the eleventh hour.

At the flag the Team MINI cars claimed 28th and 37th outright. With the Denyer/Stanford/Moscat car posting a total time that would have placed it ahead of plenty of exotic machinery.

Mt Buller was the seventh major event Team MINI participated in during its inaugural season of motorsport. After a Teams category win and 23, 24 and 48th outright placings in Targa Tasmania on debut, the squad went on to compete in the Lake Mountain Sprint, three rounds of the Duttons Alphera Rally Series, Targa West and the Mt Buller event.

The squad posted a 100 per cent finishing record and along the way claimed class victories as well as stunning individual performances including 15th and 20th fastest 'moderns' over the daunting Mt Arrowsmith Targa Tasmania stage. Team MINI also participated in demonstration events at the Bathurst, to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of MINI’s victory on the mount, and the Gold Coast Champ Car festival.

For Team CarPoint it was also an inaugural season of motorsport made all the more memorable by the camaraderie of the Team MINI equipe and the variety of events in which the MINI squad participated.

Team MINI looks likely to continue its tarmac rally campaign in 2007. With the category growing and new events planned for Queensland, Victoria and other locales it’s shaping up as an exciting year. As they say in the classics: watch this space…