It's now just after 2:30 p.m., MMW is over and Pooh is probably the last Mini in the hotel parking lot.

We had a great rally event out through Laguna and Newport Beaches, Balboa Island (by small car/pedestrian ferry), Balboa Peninsula, Carona del Mar, Newport Coast and Laguna Niguel before returning to Irvine. 60 miles in 2.5 hours. The weather was cloudless with bright sunshine. Too bad the country lies under a smog blanket!

The rally winner was the car #35 in front of us (#36) and third place was behind us. I thought we were close on the time/distance, but we must have slipped by a slight error there - I think we were early - and by two points in the observation portion. The scores were:

Last Updated on 8/26/02
By David Haight

Navigated for Craig Jensen - who bought his first original Mini Cooper "S" in March for $8,000 US and spent $7,000 US - because when I got to the registration area adjacent to the hotel, Amanda's borrowed 1380 engined Tinny Wagon had blown the bypass hose. I fetched a new bypass hose from Pooh's parts bin and that was installed with a new thermostat and gasket also from Pooh's spares. She made a late rally start (#54 and last out) and I never even got back to the hotel to get my camera.

With all the service work going on, I didn't get breakfast, got coffee at the Balboa Ferry and bought a disposable camera for photos. However, there should be some good shots, including our Carmichael based Mini group of seven Minis including 1 Cooper "S", 2 Mini sedans, 1 Mini Moke, 1 Mini Pickup and the 1 new Mini Cooper, which we took in the lot before the rest headed out towards Ventura, San Jose and Carmichael.

There should also be a good still shot of Craig and me with his Cooper "S". During the Rally we were videoed several times by the rolling road crews and I was interviewed (with Pooh) after the finish for the meet video.

The ride with Craig was interesting because his Mini experience has been brief. I showed him how to get his sunroof in the track (was not properly installed) and lubricated, and how to clean and re-dye both his headliner and Webasto sunroof. Minicomp has installed a high compression head but I'm not certain about its set-up as we did not seem to have the anticipated power gain. Of course, Craig is perhaps yet to find it. On getting into the finish area Craig's fuel pump died, which was traced by Bill Gilcrease, who services the car, to a faulty electrical connection.

We stopped but were unable to help a rally team whose verto clutch had packed it in. Another local Mini Woody Wagon, in the hands of brand new owners, lost a wheel stud during the rally.

Several new Minis both "S" and Cooper took part and shared the fun. Nice folks too just like all other Mini owners.

Thanks for the encouragement for Portland and the Giant Slalom at the international raceway. I will air up the tires and push hard. Here, I improved my time every run and each run was clean. In the last run I almost drove Pooh out of its tire treads but couldn't catch the group leaders. Having run at PIR before, I will go for the podium with more confidence.

Will loaf here for the balance of the day, read a little more of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, get a good night sleep (<5 hours last night) and hit the morning window - 10-11 a.m. - on the Santa Ana freeway up to the Ventura freeway and on to Santa Barbara, Big Sur and Monterey.

My plan is to return to Sacramento on Tuesday night, take Kent and the new Cooper up to Seven's new California digs and spend my prize $50 US gift certificate, after we get Kent's new weight set installed. I'll leave Thursday morning for the northern California coast and Oregon, getting into Vancouver, Washington on Friday for the All British at PIR after taking Grandma Curry out to dinner.

There has been very good response to the announcement of Mini Meet West 2003 in Victoria. Set aside the second week in August next year to come if you can.

Rick Higgs (and Pooh, of course)

Pooh, E-mail:  mhabc@telus.net