We were classed in PBOC's R8. Luckily, we didn't need to compete with the Porsche that was trailing us. Photo courtesy of Ontrackimages.com
Rennie exiting the main straight at Sebring. Photo courtesy of Ontrackimages.com
We attended Winterfest at Sebring Raceway this past weekend. PBOC (Porsche BMW Owners Club) sanctioned the driver’s ed, track sessions and club races at the 3.1 mile long race track. All of the club racing classes were in the same session, with our slow (in comparison to World Challenge-spec M3s) Cooper S running side-by-side with GT2 Porsches. Per qualified at 2:45.5 and were turning consistent 2:46-2:47 laps in traffic on Saturday. Rennie qualified at 2:48.5 on Sunday with consistent 2:49-2:50s during the race.
These times are pretty strong considering that our MINI has an open differential and essentially stock brakes. Speaking of brakes, the Ferodo pads lasted through the enduro and two sprint races, but were on their backing plates by the end of the weekend. We will be investigating big brake conversions for this track car.
The tires lasted a lot longer than at Roebling, which is impressive as Sebring’s concrete is pretty rough on tires. We found that setting the fronts at about 38psi and the rears at 34 psi worked out pretty well. We went through 3 205/40/17 Kumho V700s in almost 6 hours of hot track time, nearly 500 miles of racing.
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