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MINI NATS 2012 Phew...take a deep breath now, the 2012 Mini Nats is over, and what an event it was.
We've had some bad luck the last two years and lost a full days racing both times, but this year the gods shined on us and we had 3 full days of good weather. Sure a little cold in the morning, but thankfully no rain at all.
Like most events this year we took a little hit in terms of overall numbers, but still got well into the 40's in the main Mini class. 4WD got nearly two heats and Open managed to scare up 12 entries.   As for last year we went for control tyres for the main Mini class, with Sweep 40's for the front and Sweep 25's for the rear, two sets per driver. There was a LOT of talk prior to the event about how crap this choice was, but amazingly come the meeting most people had their setups sorted.
Control tyre choice is always a compromise by necessity, as the tyres you might want, aren't necessarily always available in the sort of quantities that we might want. But in the end, it all worked out. Two sets proved somewhat of a challenge though and tyre management was crucial. Those with locked front diffs were tearing through the 40's in only a couple of runs so a decent diff was a good bet.  
Early qualifying went pretty much as expected, and by the time of the Rd 2 regrade it was the usual suspects populating the Top 10. A welcome surprise was the return of Chris Putnam after 6 years or so of not racing and no-one was more surprised than him to see him in with the fast boys. Andy Cooke and Brad Portelli filled 1st and 2nd spot and they had a good margin over everyone else. The consistency of the laps they were pulling was robot-like. Combine that with the fact that they were both about a second quicker than anyone else and it was no surprise that after qualifying finished they stayed in that order.  
The 4WD's really stepped up to the plate this year and were all phenomenally quick. Andy Cooke had borrowed Tim K's TN Racing TA05 Mini conversion which has won 4WD class every Mini Nats so far, and Tim was hoping it would do so again in Andys hands. The rest of the field was a mix of cars but Atomic VMII's were the real weapon of choice with a smattering of ABC Genetics also making a push.  
 
Open class was a real mix of cars. ABC Gambados, TOP Sabres and modified M05's mainly. The Gambados were quick and handled well but proved very fragile, Tony G's car finished 1 race out of 5 before he put it back in the box. This is a car that REALLY needs alloy front uprights and some aftermarket countergears..... Frankie Tang put his Sabre into TQ with Brad Portelli sniffing at his heels with what was basically a lightly modified version of his normal M05. Once again it was noticeable that the Open class cars were very little quicker than the 'normal' minis. Despite open gearing and open tyre and chassis choice they don't seem to have any huge advantage, quite why we're not sure.  
 
The Mini finals were breathtaking (check the videos) Cookie and Brad had a couple of epic battles in the first two legs with Brad managing to come out the victor on both ocassions. Both of them made very rare mistakes as they were pushing so hard. Cookie had slightly more pull in the straight but Brad was a demon through the infield. It was a pleasure to watch, and for both of them a pleasure to be part of. In the end the final Top 3 was -
1st - Brad Portelli
2nd - Andy Cooke
3rd - Luis Sola  
 
4WD saw Andy take a clean sweep of the first two finals with Ash Seward and Tony P fighting it out for the minor placings. The 3rd final was real fun to watch as Ash went out into the lead, and then slowed down to let Andy catch up so they could have some fun. It was a good indication of the spirit that the meeting was run in, race hard, but most importantly have FUN! Ash enjoyed himself so much he didnt want to give his loan car back, and Tony G ended up having to sell it to him!
1st - Andy Cooke
2nd - Ash Seward
3rd - Tony Parreiro 
Open class saw Frankie Tang finally get the trophy that he's been wanting for years. His TOP Sabre Mini was rocketship fast, and for once Frankie stayed off the boards. Brad Portelli won the first heat, but Frankie was not to be denied and took leg 2 & 3 and was a happy boy when it was all over. Bruce Rollins managed to stay on his wheels long enough (sorry Bruce) to take 3rd.
1st - Frankie Tang
2nd - Brad Portelli
3rd - Bruce Rollins.
 
 
Fastest Lap times? The top 4 worked out like this in each class.
Mini
Andy Cooke - 15.768
Brad Portelli - 15.762
Luis Sola - 16.391
Bruce Rollins - 16.397
Open Class
Frankie Tang - 15.803
Brad Portelli - 15.833
Bruce Rollins - 16.065
Jay Dixon - 16.511
4WD MINI
Andy Cooke - 14.141
Ash Seward - 14.212
Tony Parreiro - 14.752
Paul Sims - 14.850
Oh, and MASSIVE thanks from us to SERCCC for hosting the event, and to Damien Christidis for 90% of the amazing pics on this page!
Next year, we're off to Mornington Peninsula! Want to see the videos? Of course you do - THIS will take you straight to the action ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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