We've been trying to track them down. I think we've managed to find a little information about one of them.

Where are the other cars now?

partsgirl43 is the daughter of Bill Peterman, who originally rebuilt this car from the ratty worn out original car I bought and ran my first 3 races in and upon joining our team immediately turned it into a race winner in Midwestern Council, and then coverted it into a Cooper S which won the 1972 Central Division C Sedan Regional Championship with a perfect record. You could only count 6 races, we won all six (in a row) and immediately moved on to SCCA Nationals. Bill (center) in the photo below

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was also the 1972 Midwestern Council Sedan 2 Champion as a driver of our #63 PURE Minis team car and his own chief Mechanic, as well Chief Mechanic of the the 1972 Midwestern Council Sedan 1 Championship #62 car driven by my brother.

Three team cars, 3 championships in the same year and these were far from big budget cars. In fact they had less money in them than most of our main competetors, some by far. I was delivering packages for a messenger service, my brother was a full time college student, and Bill was a professional mechanic. We did not outspend them, we out drove them and we out worked them and we had Bill Peterman and they didn't. Bill Peterman made my racing career possible, in both the Mini and everything I raced afterward for another decade. Bill passed away of cancer in 1998, way too young and way too soon. Thanks again Bill. Your legacy is back on the track and you are not forgotten.

 

Awsome stuff ..wish my Dad was here to see it..just awsome

Here is my Dad's Race on Sunday. 5 Camera angles:

2 Clean Laps around thunderhill (me driving):

Yes, it would be nice to run the open exhaust but they have a sound cap at thunderhill, so running the supertrap muffler was a must. The Audio in the video really doesn't do justice to the real sound

I have main video almost done of Don's race. It uses all 5 camera angles we had on the race. I'll have that uploaded tonight.

-Dennis

Very cool - one nice aggressive move. My immediate observation is it doesnt have the raspy full throttle scream it used to have and and snap crackle pop it had under braking, with the muffler on now. Looks and sounds much less violent and white knuckle than I remember out the front window almost 40 years ago, but I never ran this track so dont know what it would have looked like there and this was first time out so it was an unknown quantity. To me the lack of sound loses a lot of the viseral thrill of racing a fast Mini, but this is now and that was then. Also I notice what an open track this is with nothing hardly to hit if you went off. We were racing through open trees and with earth banks and cement walls you approached head on like turn 4 at Blackhawk Farms. Tracks were much more primitive and dangerous then and we were too stupid to know any better. Glad the Mini is back doing what it was designed to do, even in a more relaxed atmosphere than it used to run in when it was young and angry. I am sure it is happier that way instead of sitting in my garage as a museum piece like it has been doing for the last 30 years.

First of 3 videos that r on the way... (this is Dennis in Sunday AM Session)

Very cool,makes me wonder what ever happened to my Dads car.I beleive he sold it whan he started racing the Toyota....but to whom.Nice picture of him without a shirt on...*shakes head*... I still have several of the "DC" stickers left.

Wow I am so happy the engine ran well - I know you had to replace damn near everything else. Glad it is out doing what it likes to do - run for the front.

Great weekend dispite the Monty only completing 2 laps Had a WHOLE string of things go south.. First, lost the clutch in turn 1, lap 1 (adjustment screw backed out, stupid thing to happen) Then poked a whole in the header on lap 2 turn 14, with one of the tranny nuts. Then blew a Head Gasket by turn 2, lap 3. Towed in, pulled the head off to find the #1 piston cracked too. I guess the monty REALLY didn't want to run this weekend, lol. So what made this weekend so good? Well the "Bumble Bee" as we've nick-named it ran way better than expected. Saturday morning qualifying, it ran every lap with My Dad behind the wheel. Altho it had MAD, MAD oversteer, it completed the session without any issues. As the Monty was done for the weekend, My Dad offered to let me drive the car in the race that afternoon. First time in the car, starting the race, a bit daugnting, and the car was just a 'loose' and then some from the morning session. But I managed to keep it on the track for about 4 laps when the fuel filter clogged up with settement and forced me to pull in. But we were truely amazed at the front grip of the car. It simple would not push AT ALL. Don't think either of us had ever driven a mini with so much steering. But despite this we needed to dial out some of it, as it was flat out danagerous in traffic. We decided to take off the rear sway bar, and modify one of the rear camber plates to add some camber & toe to one of the rears that seems a bit off. We also replaced the distributor as the motor was falling flat at 6k RPM.

Sunday morning it was decided that I would once again drive the car for the morning warm-up session, and my Dad would drive it in the race. Once the green flag dropped, I knew by turn 2, that all of a sudden we had a real race car! The handled like a dream now, with just the right amount of steering/oversteer. The car still would not push for anything, but was very stable. The car also reved to nearly 7k RPM now and had a lot more power than before. I had a awesome FULL session. Next was the race, and my Dad was now behind the wheel. Unfortuanlly we started pretty far back due to not finishing Saturday's race, but that would just make it that more fun to move up the field! Once again the car performed great, and my Dad had a awesome race dicing with multiple Porches throughout the entire race. He had a grin on ear to ear when he came off the track! For sure one of the best time's we've had behind the wheel of a Mini!

One bonus of the monty retiring early was it released 2 additional video cameras for use. So we had 4, count them 4, video cameras running IN-CAR that allowed us to capture some great video! I'mm be editing it asap and will get it posted hopefully later today or tomorrow.

-Dennis

 

 

What a fantastic week-end!!  One of the best I can remember.  AND we did not leave much on the table when we were done! 

We will post some video shortly!

 

Best of luck boys, and bring home the bacon. Looking forward to more pics and stories.

All Loaded up and ready to go!

 

Good luck. 

We'll be at Thunderhill this weekend with both cars. Wish us luck!

 

Getting closer for sure!

While this picture is after another full day on Sunday (notice a little shine?)!  The saturday adventure details are here:
http://classicmini.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/almost-ready-vintage-race-mini/