MINI USA Celebrates More than Two Dozen MINIs Racing This Weekend.

MINI USA Celebrates More than Two Dozen MINIs Racing This Weekend

Woodcliff Lake, NJ,   October 1, 2021. MINI USA is proud to celebrate the brand’s motorsports heritage with more than two dozen MINI Hardtop models racing this weekend. It is the second to last race weekend of the season for the factory-supported MINI John Cooper Works Team at Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Fla., as well as the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) National Championship Runoffs the for the amateur racing series at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Ind.

MINI JCW Team heads to Sebring

The MINI John Cooper Works Team, operated by Indianapolis-based LAP Motorsports, returns to the track this weekend fielding cars in both the Touring Car (TC) and Touring Car A (TCA) classes of the 2021 SRO TC America series. The #60 MINI JCW PRO competing in the TC class will be piloted by team veteran driver Derek Jones while the #62 MINI JCW competing in the TCA class will be piloted by Cristian Perocarpi, the 18-year-old son of LAP Motorsports team owner Luis Perocarpi. Cristian is making his professional racing debut this weekend at Sebring.

The MINI JCW Team will have their usual fulltime race crew supported by three service technicians from three different Florida MINI dealerships in the Southern Region, including Braman MINI in Miami, Vista MINI in Coconut Beach,  and Ferman MINI in Tampa Bay. These are the same technicians that repair customer MINIs and have proven time and again that their knowledge transfers to the racing world.

Two dozen amateur MINI racers descend on IMS for SCCA Championships

Meanwhile, in Indianapolis, the top amateur racers in the country will gather at the SCCA’s crown jewel event – the Runoffs – to go head-to-head and prove who is best. Among the hundreds of competitors that will take to the field this weekend are more than two dozen MINI Hardtops and Coups ranging from MY 2005 – 2013 competing in the B-Spec and H Production classes, and a 1970 BL Mini racing in the GT Lites class.  

“We’re immensely proud to see so many racers on the track this weekend with MINI as their race car of choice – both professional and amateur grassroots operations,” said Mike Peyton, Chief Motorer and Vice President, MINI of the Americas. “For 60 years, MINI has shocked the world with underdog victories across some of the most prestigious motorsports competitions, and we hope to see more MINIs in victory lane this weekend.”

Several of the B-Spec class MINI drivers have decided to celebrate the history of Indianapolis Motor Speedway by competing in cars fashioned after iconic liveries with the support of Grass Paddock Motorsports (GPM).  Four of those racers will feature liveries inspired by earlier BMW Art Car designs, including:

• #27 inspired by Frank Stella 1976 BMW 3.0CSL (LeMans) driving by GPM founder Frank Schwartz of Ann Arbor, MI.
• #81 inspired by Alexander Calder 1975 BMW 3.0 CSL (LeMans) driven by Bryon Prokopf of Maryland Heights, Mo.
• #23 inspired by Jeff Koons BMW M3 GT2 driven by Peter Sumerford of Birmingham, Ala.
• #13 inspired by Andy Warhol BMW M1 driven by Schwartz’s son Steve of Canton, MI.

See the full list of racers competing in MINI race cars at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs at the end of this release.

About the MINI JCW PRO

Visually inspired by the third generation MINI John Cooper Works GP launched in 2020, the #60 MINI JCW PRO is a MINI John Cooper Works Hardtop that has been engineered and modified using both original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and components from across the MINI line up and aftermarket performance parts in order to meet the technical rules and regulations required to compete in the TC class. The GP-inspired visual cues presented on the #60 MINI JCW PRO, including the paint scheme and front grill and fender, also help to meet requirements of the series to differentiate the TC versus TCA race cars while on the track.

The MINI John Cooper Works team continues to build on the momentum from the start of the season after taking three podiums at Sonoma Raceway in pursuit of the team’s third Manufacturer’s Championship in a row in the series. The MINI JCW Team also won Manufacturer’s Championship in 2018 in the final season of the Street Tuner class of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Series, where the team finished ahead of BMW, Porsche and Mazda.

The MINI JCW Team will compete in the final race weekend of the season on October 15 – 17 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Ind.

The MINI JCW Team races in the SRO TC America series will be streamed live at YouTube.com/GTWorld. In addition, the MINI John Cooper Works Team will provide live updates on practice, qualifying and race sessions in addition to timing and scoring across the team’s social media channels including Facebook and Instagram. The SCCA National Championship Runoffs will be streamed live at www.scca.com/live.

About the MINI JCW Team
The MINI JCW Team, operated by LAP Motorsports, drives MINI’s most powerful Hardtop ever in the two-door MINI John Cooper Works Hardtop. The team competes in the fiercely competitive SRO TC America Series. For additional information please visit minijcwteam.com or email luis@minijcwteam.com.

About MINI in the US
MINI is an independent brand of the BMW Group. In the United States, MINI USA operates as a business unit of BMW of North America, LLC, located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey and includes the marketing and sales organizations for the MINI brand. The MINI USA sales organization is represented in the U.S. through a network of 113 MINI passenger car dealers. MINI USA began selling vehicles in the U.S. in 2002 with the introduction of the MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper S Hardtops. Since then, the MINI Brand in the U.S. has grown to encompass a model range of five unique vehicles.

Journalist notes: Media information about MINI and its products is available to journalists on-line at MINIUSANEWS.com.

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SCCA National Championship Runoffs

MINI Entry List