Hampton Roads Club Mini

Hey Gang, if y'all don't have anything to do this weekend, Ttis would be a decent excuse to head south. Even if the event bombs, hanging out with the Tar Heel guys is always a hoot. I plan on heading down Friday afternoon or so. With the added lap at VIR I count that as a plus.

BTW, does anyone know Kevin Duvall, Wes Major or Randy Leaman? Kevin is from NN, Wes from Wmbg and Randy is from Windsor. They're registered for the event, but the names don't ring a bell with me.

Anyone else have any thoughts about going to this event? I'll be heading down there and handing out more Fall Colors Run flyers. They have since added a lunchtime lap at VIR as an added benefit.

At the moment they have 120+ MINI/Mini's registered. Sounds like fun!

MINIpalooza

Well, we're down here in Winston-Salem. Rained most of the way down but got here okay. Had to find a car wash, even though it's raining. It'll be clean for the start of the drive anyway. BTW, it's a bear finding a do it yourself car wash down here!

Tomorrow is the MINI Miglia drive up to Pilot mountain then the drive over to the Westbend (?) Vineyards. The afternoon is reserved for downtown historic Salem and dinner at a restaurant until 7. After that (weather permitting) is a drive in movie at Flow MINI on a inflatable movie screen. Of course it's the Italian job. The new one I think.

Sunday we caravan up to VIR for a pace lap. I'm letting Regina drive. if we can't go fast, why drive at all, right?

Photos will follow as will videos from the go pro camera!

Now lets just do the "no rain" dance!

Day one down. As was the rain, down, as in coming down ALL day! Not bad until about 6 or so, but a good steady sprinkle/mist. The day started out in historic Salem. Very similar to Colonial Williamsburg. Very interesting, same basic stuff as Williamsburg, but just a different feel. I can't really explain. After the organizer, Scott Sturdy, had his drivers meeting, we broke off into groups of 10 or so MINI's to start the days trek. I wound up 4th in line with our buddy Susan from Tar Heel MINI's behind me. as we read off the directions the three MINI's in front of me got off at the wrong exit off Rte 52. Funny, the guy leading just wanted to go thru McDonalds. He seriously had no idea the rest of us would follow! At that point I took over the lead of our pack. No more wrong turns for my group! Christy and Regina did do a good job of navigating the directions and making mileage corrections for our extra excursion.

We found some really nice twisties, some I remembered from the Bull Frog Run we did with Tar Heel back in the spring. Good roads down here for sure! After about 80+ miles of some of NC's best curves, we ended up at the Westbend Vineyard. Very nice place and after tasting some of their wines we went and line up for the food. That wasn't bad either. I must say our buddies up at Cooper Vineyard do a bit better at putting on an event. Granted it's a bit more (this was free) but ya only got to taste three wines with your free glass. Cooper gives ya a taste of all of their wines. They had a band playing that provided some nice background sounds. Kind of jazzy with a few pop songs thrown in. At 3 PM they let the band take a break and started the raffle drawing. I was lucky enough to win a bucket full of Mothers products for detailing. That was probably the best prize there, or at least the one that attracted most of my attention.  

Dinner plans had arranged for a meet up at the Foothill Brewery restaurant. we drove down there, but it's in downtown Winston Salem and only had street side parking. There were MINI's lined up both sides of the road. About the time we were there the heavens decided to rid itself of any excess moisture. We decided not to risk getting swept away in the deluge and opted for alternate diner plans.

Sunday starts out at breakfast at Flow MINI at 8:30 and then a drive up to VIR starting at 9:30 for a parade lap. Hoping for better weather tomorrow! We shall see!

Some pics from one of Tar Heel's guys are here

Wow, back home in Poquoson! What a weekend. As wet as it was Saturday, today made up for it in spades! After meeting up at Flow MINI in Winston Salem for breakfast. (good coffee, not so great OJ) We had a chance to spek to a bunch of MINI owners waiting for saddle up and head out on the days adventure. Just as we got in the MINI's to head out on our way to VIR, the sun came out. What a great start to the day!

There are a couple of stop lights to negotiate before we got on I 40 headed east. Well, Flow arranged for a couple of Winston Salem's finest to block traffic for us. With 47 MINI's headed east, I look in the mirror and see a police vehicle headed up behind us with lights flashing. "No big deal", I think and keep on motoring along with everyone else. As he passes us he gets in front of organizer Scott Sturdy and lo and behold, we now have a police escort on I 40! How cool is that? As we headed east I see a red Justa Cooer on the side of I 40. I noticed it was Tar Heel member Mr. Magoo, so I ease off the gas and let him in. He wasn't able to make it to Flow, but knew the route. He decided to wait on the side of the road until he saw a giant conga line of MINI's and joined in. Once we got to the road heading north we exited the Interstate and hit the two lane. There was some beautiful scenery along the way. Much better than the two pigs in the 3X5 trailer being pulled along the Interstate. (seriously, I got pics!)

Once at VIR we sign the waiver and get lined up for our lap. As it turns out, we got 4 laps! Of course we did have to follow a R32 VW, but 4 free laps, yeah I'll do that! It's been probably 3 or 4 years since I was on VIR and this was the full course. All I had done was two schools on the North course. The Clubman did pretty well for a totally stock car with total street settings. I'd have loved to have had Tyler's MCS there! I did still remember some of the lines on the North course though. If they'd have just allowed passing!....

Talk about a great way to wrap up a really cool weekend! With the rain on the way down Friday and most of Saturday, I still had a great time. The Westbend Vineyard was very nice and it was amazing how many MINI'Mini's showed up. Good food, good band, and lots and lots of cool owners of our favorite British cars. It was good seeing familiar faces and meeting new ones. I handed out about 30 flyers for the Fall Colors Run and had lots of people express interest.

Hopefully this event will happen next year. If it does, I WILL be there and would suggest as many as possible tag along.

Pics to follow asap!

Got pics up! Here's a link to all of 'em:
http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g119/maacodale/MINIpalooza%2009/

And a few of my favorites

MINI's lined up both sides of the street in both directions


Drivers meeting before heading off to the Vineyard


Part of what 85 MINI/Mini's looks like in the rain


One of my new favorite MINIs


Yes, those are all MINI's, and we were 11 more ahead of me!


At the Vineyard

Great pictures Dale. But I can't log into your account on Photobucket to see the rest of them.

Dale, thank you so much for posting pics!!  I am so anxious to get to one of these events!!  I just need to get my work schedule to cooperate with me.