Josh Wardell’s MINI Cooper S

Two of our local MINI friends, Joe Rose and David Thibodeau are competing in this year’s One Lap of America. If you remember the old cross-country Cannonball Run from Brock Yates and Car and Driver magazine, this is the current version of that race. Instead of simply racing along public roads as fast as possible, it involves track racing and other events at various destinations around the country.

You can follow along the race since it started this past weekend as they post to their blog on sooper.us. Live updates are posted from the road via their Blackberry. You can also view photos on their Flikr photostream, and they will eventually have videos posted of their track racing as well. You might be able to read about them in Car and Driver in a few months but it is much more fun to follow along live!

They are also carrying the famous Quack Quack Jack duck, in memory of Ed Smith/MaxaMini. It had just finished a tour of many MINI friends in Europe and was quickly shipped over to join Sooper in OneLap. You can follow QQJ’s travels on this MINI2 thread.

This is also a good opportunity to mention another local MINI friend, Pete Basiliere, who just opened a new local MINI parts store and tuning shop, Oxford Motorsports. Pete is sponsoring a big part of Dave & Joe’s One Lap race.

Joe, Dave, and Sooper are facing some stiff competition, include two other MINIs, so wish them luck!