Phil Wicks - NAMCC '08: Spring Mountain Race Results

Phil Wicks Driving Academy/North American MINI Cooper Challenge
March 28, 2008

Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch – Pahrump NV
2.2 Mile Track

It was an absolutely perfect day for a track event – 75 degrees, 5 mph wind.  The Phil Wicks MINI Driving Academy drew strong list of entries from various regions of the country, equally divided between basic novice, intermediate, and expert classes.

Pre-registration and tech inspection were completed the day before, Thursday, at the AMVIV host hotel, Palace Station in Las Vegas.  Everyone attended the drivers’ briefing and safety instruction meeting first thing at the track on Friday morning.  Instructors were allocated to students.  Some instructors were allocated two students, one in basic novice and one in intermediate.  This meant that every student had an instructor one-on-one all day. 

The first group on track was the expert group, which consisted of dedicated autocross competitors and instructors getting some fun track time.  Meanwhile, Phil Wicks delivered the first classroom session to basic novice and intermediate group.  Safety and track etiquette was covered.

The intermediate group was next on track with instructors with each student.  The novice group remained in the classroom.  Phil Wicks delivered the Accident Avoidance instruction curriculum.  This curriculum deals with ABS braking, slalom (serpentine), and emergency lane change.  The track was marked with cones and students drove to each station under instruction.  The instructors guided the students to complete the course.  This continued until each student gained sufficient confidence in him/herself as well as the capabilities of their MINI.  Then, for each student, the excitement really commenced as the cones were removed from the track and the three groups started on-track instruction in rotation of 20-minute sessions.

Lunch was staggered so there was no track downtime.  At approximately 1:30 pm, the AMVIV group arrived from their morning tour of the Death Valley Run.  There were about 100 MINI/Minis arriving.  They were served lunch courtesy of MINI USA.  The Solo I Autocross began.  26 cars lined up for a one lap standing start (one cool down lap).  This consisted of 5 MINI classes and 1 Classic Mini class.  The classes were quite evenly divided between 26 cars.  This was the first round of the NAMCC Solo Challenge and was a huge success. 

Next came the invitation Touring Laps.  There was no fee charged for this one.  100 cars enjoyed a few laps of the Spring Mountain racetrack.  At the end of the session, most cars lined up on the grid for a group photo opportunity.  Everyone had big smiles and thanked PWMDA for the opportunity to experience driving their car on the race track.

The first round of the NAMCC Race was staged next.  Unfortunately, due to some cars not meeting the complete safety requirements (insufficient roll cage protection) and attrition, only 3 cars responded to the call to race.  As word continues to spread about this grassroots, economical and eager little series, more and more MINI racers will realize what a great opportunity exists to race their MINI among other MINIs and help fill the grid with colorful, competitive MINIs.   The NAMCC television partners, MavTV waits in the wings to televise what they believe is a terrific racing platform for television coverage.  The NAMCC goal is to essentially replicate the original British version of the MINI Cooper Challenge.  In that spirit, Phil Wicks Racing loaned wheels and race tires to one racer after damaging his car in practice.  Jeff Johnstonbaugh was extremely grateful for the spirit of camaraderie shown by Phil Wicks Racing and was able to compete..  Jerry Bradbury, #37, sponsored by MINI Mania; Jeff Johnstonbaugh, #223, sponsored by Bidspotter.com; and Clark Brownstein, #68, sponsored by MINI Mania and prepared by Precision Motoring, lined up on the grid for the standing start.

#223 won the hole shot into turn one, #37 and #68 side by side for the first few bends.  They managed this without incident or spinning off to the excitement and amazement of the many spectators.  #223 held on to the lead for the first lap.  On lap 2, #37 – Jerry Bradbury – with extra horsepower and driving experience, took the lead.

So it was #37, #223, and #68 for the next lap.  #223 – Jeff Johnstonbaugh – was on loaned wheels and tires and probably was still getting used to the unfamiliar Kuhmo tires.  #68 – Clark Brownstein – was able to get by #223.  So it was #37, #68, and #223.  Next lap, #68 – Clark Brownstein – was able to pass #37 in the tight esses before the front straight.  So #68 led #37 with #223 dropping farther back.  It remained that way until #37 was able to pull the same maneuver in the same place on #68.  At the white flag lap, last lap, it was #37, #68, #223.

On the last lap, at the back section of the course between turns 7 and 8 complex, cars were battling for final race positions.  Brownstein managed to get past Bradbury, who subsequently tried every maneuver in his lengthy repertoire of racing moves to get back into the lead into the final s bends, but #68 just held the lead onto the front straight and a drag race to the checkered flag.  #68 just headed #37 by half a car’s length.  #68, Clark Brownstein; #37, Jerry Bradbury; and #223, Jeff Johnstonbaugh, was the final result.

The cars completed their cool down lap and returned to the cold pit road for trophy presentation and press interviews.  All drivers congratulated each other on a very hotly contested race and conducted in a true example of gentlemen racing displayed in the first round of the NAMCC.


Point standings are:

#68      Clark Brownstein                                12 points

#37      Jerry Bradbury                                      9 points

#223    Jeff Johnstonbaugh                               7 points

Fastest laps:  #68 – 1:59.199

                     #37 – 1:59.354

                    #223 – 2:12.393


First Round NAMCC Solo I – Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch – Pahrump NV

All 26 competitors were issued transponders and attached to the front of their cars.  There were no extra fees for entry or transponder use.  Each driver had three twenty-minute sessions on the track and the full 2.2 mile course was driven by each driver Solo.

The cars were set off at 30-second intervals.  So at any given time, there were 5 cars on track as each car completed its cool down lap after taking the checkered flag and came back on pit road.  The next car set off on its standing start hot lap watched by a large crowd who really enjoyed the tires spinning, blue smoke and burning rubber.

Very impressive was #1 T.C. Kline in a Group 3 R56.  Only cold air intake and exhaust cat back mods, but unlimited suspension, tires and brakes.  This was quite clearly the best handling car of the day and very well driven by T.C.  Matt Jensen, #41 in Group 4 JCW Spec racecar on street tires very deservedly won Group 4.  Matt is a past competitor in the NAMCC Race Series.

Nathan Munits in Group 3 drove extremely well in an absolutely showroom stock PWMDA entry..    


The winners of each class are as follows:

Class 1:            Barry Koehler             12 points

Class 2:            Clinton Campbell        12 points

                        Seana Doughty             9 points

Class 3:            T. C. Kline                  12 points

                        Nathan Munits               9 points

                        Michael Lagrasta           7 points

                        Sandy Rehart                5 points

                        John Weitz                    3 points

                        Justin Hurst                   1 point

Class 4:            Matt Jensen                 12 points

                        Lex Pearce                    9 points

                        Kevin Adkins                7 points

                        Brian Adkins                 5 points

                        Malcolm Adkins           3 points

                        Jerry Craft                     1 point

Class 5:            Clark Brownstein        12 points

Classic MINI: Mike Spangler             12 points

                        Dave Dalton                  9 points


Photos courtesy of Ed Dean