Racing Mini

Found this in my archives, and thought you MiniManiacs would dig it! Keep On Truckin'


-William

Some nice shots there William......get up to Road America a lot then?

Looked at your other pictures also.I am always floored when I see, what I assume is, a real GTO on a race track. Perhaps my favorite car and they ain't cheap. How can someone race one?????? Yes I know that is what they were built to do but...../ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

Bruce

Great pictures, William. I looked though all of them. The racing Mini pickup is great!
I have seen many of the cars in your photos at east-coast vintage events (at Lime Rock, Watkins Glen and Louden). And I I hate to admit this, but I saw some of them when they were the latest thing! (DH's McLaren for example, at Bridgehamton).

Regarding Bruce's comments about racing GTOs:
This is me with Tony Wang's Ferrari GTO at Lime Rock. This car is actively raced in various US vintage events. He actually has three of them!
I saw his wife (Lulu) racing this car around Lime Rock absolutely "hammer-and-tongs" among vintage MGBs, Morgan and other lesser marques. Like Bruce, I am amazed that someone would actually race such a valuable car....great stuff! Another GTO that is actively raced in American vintage events is Brandon Wang's, but they are not related. The last GTO I read about sold for over $5 million USD. From what I hear, Tony Wang paid $3.5 million for this one. It is amazing to be able to even stand next to this car....watching it race is awesome.
The first Ferrari GTO was sold to the late,well-known east-coast Jaguar guru, Bob Grossman (in '62 for $8000!). I am an aquaintance of Bob Grossman's daughter and she has mentioned this first GTO in our conversations. Bet she wishes that it was still in the family!

Many years ago, I saw a Mini Pickup parked in the spectator's parking area at Bryar Motorsports Park with a sign on the door that said:

"LAMBERT'S MULE FARM
We haul a$$"

GTO - Wish I could stand next to one. Yet to ever see a real one.

Bruce

I'm pretty sure that the GTO in my pictures is genuine. Quite a few 250GTs have been sacrificed to make GTO-a-likes. I don't know enough about them to spot a fake, like I can with Cobras.

On the subject of well used GTOs, Nick Mason races his regularly in Europe, and has admitted to using it to drop his kids off at school in the wintertime when his daily driver refused to start.

Quite a few of the non-F1 cars are regulars at Road America when I go, particularly the Scarab and various Can-Am cars.

-Wm.