Recently spotted

here's some Minis seen at the VRG ~Thunderbolt Historics~ at New Jersey Motorsports Park (a new track....it rocks!)

Note the Citation going full-tilt in the background...the track is next to Millville Airport (and they had a WW II airshow the same day as our race). The passenger in the left Moke is one of my engineering students. Lin and I used this Moke in our Christmas card picture a few years ago.





Clubman Estate





On track


In paddock

Nial, tell us a bit more about the track. I heard people speaking about it at a recent SVRA event at VIR.

I found it curious that at the SVRA event, there were NO Minis, none. That included no Minis or Mokes as paddock vehicles. I can't remember that ever happening before.

BTW, <span style="color: #FF0000"><span style="font-style: italic">"The passenger in the left Moke is one of my engineering students". </span></span>What do you teach and where?

Doug:

We get a reliable 3 or 4 Minis at VRG vintage events.
SVRA events tend to be much higher entry fees, so maybe that keeps away the guys with less money? (I don't see as many Spridgets at SVRA events either)

New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP) is two tracks. "Lightning" and "Thunderbolt". Both are about 1.5 miles. Lightning is fast for a small track with a reasonable number of left turns (unlike Lime Rock). I haven't been to Thunderbolt (yet....may run a NASA event there in Nov).
The facilty is great and still being built up. There were some dust conditions early on, but the grass is growing in and pretty decent now. There's an airport next door, so no noise issue. The locals seem to love the track(s). It's about 40 minutes south of Atlantic City.

The main builder/owner of NJMP is Lee Brahim (sp?). Harvey Segal (owner of VIR) is a partner too.

To see Lightning, click on the four videos in the link below:

https://vintageracer.tripod.com/njmp2008.html

I teach engineering and engineering technology in a community college in NJ (www.ccm.edu). I've been teaching here for 27 years (plus 9 at a previous school). I teach mostly Prototyping, CNC, AutoCAD, Tech Physics, College Algebra and I'm the SAE Chapter Mentor here. I'm in my CAD class right now. :laugh:

Thanks for the information Nial. I had been told that Segal was involved somehow with the NJ track. The people I was around during the SVRA event who were speaking about it seemed quite pleased with the track.

I crew for my father-in-law but he's only running two SVRA events per year (both at VIR). At 78 he's not interested in traveling far for race weekends. There are usually a half-dozen Minis and at least as many Spridgets and Spitfires at those events. For some reason (perhaps economic as you suggest) there were none at the recent weekend.

Our family is heavy with engineers. My father-in-law is a professor of M.E. at NC State. My wife and I both have our Masters' in M.E. from NCSU, and my brother-in-law is a C.E. I work in machine design. I still use Acad some but almost all of our work is in SolidWorks. My wife still has plans to go back to teaching at the college level once she reaches her retirement tenure with the State. Changing too early will cost her/us benefits down the road.

You don't have to be an Engineer to own a Mini, but it helps! LoL I am an engineer also, Packaging Engineer with Abbott.

LOL!

I think if you buy an old Mini and you're not already an engineer, you'll <span style="text-decoration: underline">become</span> an engineer! :laugh:

If you become an engineer after buying a Mini, what happens to you when you buy a Jaguar??? Ack!! LOL

Broke!