Course has been revealed:
Last we checked, Road Atlanta was a famed professional 2.54-mile racetrack, not an oversized autocross layout on a training skidpad. Somebody may need to remind
Mini USA, as the maker of famously small cars has just announced the "track" (their word, not ours) for its overly-publicized "
Rumble on the Racetrack" (their title, not ours) challenge pitting the
Mini Cooper S against the race-bred
Porsche 911 Carrera S.
While Mini promises "No tricks. No gimmicks. No jokes" in its latest
Facebook post, the map of the so-called challenge track autocross is nothing more than a few hundred cones dropped on the "School Course & Training Area" located in the infield of Road Atlanta by turns 6 and 7 (this is hardly the same asphalt that hosts cars like the Corvette C6.R, Porsche RS Spyder, Ferrari 430GT and Audi R10 TDI at the Petit Le Mans).
With the big shindig scheduled for Monday (with or without an official
Porsche showing), this event has gone from entertaining to mildly disappointing. We don't need to explain to any of our readers that a Mini Cooper S is as comfortable on a loop-de-doo autocross course as Porsche is, well... on the winner's podium at Road Atlanta.
Mini has yet to answer the
challenge from Hyundai (the Koreans were kind enough to offer to take Porsche's vacant spot on the grid), but they had better get on it. With a track autocross this tight, they should be expecting a call from
Smart first thing Monday morning.
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/06/20/m...y-road-atlant/