Get to know us

Race To the Flag Motorsport - there's a bit of tongue-in-cheek eye-winking background behind the name. RTFM - followed us most of our professional career supporting customers with technical expertise. Aside from "have you tried turning it off and on again?" RTFM as in "read the f**ng manual" is the most commonly used term in helping customers helping themselves in the high technology, computer and IT world.

It also applies immediately to the motorsport and auto racing world as well, as it does to many others. Beginning with the early morning drivers meeting, mandatory and usually at 7 am or if you are lucky at 8, and typically gets unnecessarily prolong by questions that, of course, can easily be answered by RTFM. Then there's the time when you have to diagnose a problem and ask your friends "where do I start?" (RTFM), and how to fix it (RTFM) all the way to what is the correct adjustment for ... (RTFM).

So, as we move our focus to automotive motorsport and vintage racing and begin to bid a friendly fare-well to the professional world, having a reminder of what actually allowed us to fund this silliness sounded sensible.

The only issue with RTFM when it comes to racing Classic Minis is the lack of actual manuals beyond a few books. which are decades old and don't cover new parts and materials. e started racing in around 2022, and it was quickly necessary to find information about classic minis and the right way to prepare them for racing, fixing/building reliable engines for racing, set up of the car, and tuning. That was the motivation to collect and share information on this website, along with stories.

Non of this was invented by us, and chances that it's not in line with your opinion are high. Send us a message if you know better. We try to be infinitely teachable.

Christoph

When I developed the interest to experience higher speeds than what was legal on public roads, race tracks came into sight. Well, growing up in Germany that almost sounds silly, right? But safely driving fast (above the legal limit) was always more important than just "driving fast".

Motorcycles were the thing in those days, experiencing them on race tracks was the answer to saving my license and keeping points on it in check. And, while living in Backnang, Germany, Hockenheim was just an hour away .

Anita

A Mini Cooper S R53 daily driver, inspired by of course "The Italian Job" served it's purpose for many years, battling the traffic in the bay area, avoiding potholes and being challenged by Mustangs driven by "silly coworkers".

Mini Takes The States (MTTS) 2016 marked the end of the mundane surface road life of Anita's R53, which soon turned into a "wolf in sheep's clothing" and became the tool of choice for Anita's AutoX journey.

AutoX was fun, slowly learning that the car has more than 3000 usable RPM available and the realization that "competing and winning" somehow was left out from her passport, even though it should have been the true middle-name, the journey began.

The newly acquired NC Miata, power retractable hard top AND AC, soon turned into a track car and weekends were spent in Laguna Seca and Sears Point-Sonoma Raceway.

Classics were always more interesting to me, and one of Anita's friends was teasing us with his Cobra, but also had a couple of Mini's around. Visiting Andy, and after a thorough garage session and BSing about cars, it "just happend".

California generally turned out to be a bit too toasty to endure long days in an all leather suit, or maybe I became a little too wimpy? Whatever it was, cars with AC looked so much better than sweating in hot black leather.

Now it was just a "small step" for Anita towards race tracks and classic cars. Well, not that small, but still. Trackdays in the R53, somehow finding a 1965 Morris Cooper S on Crgslst which was already hot-rodded but in dire need to technial help, then there was CrazyMike and the VARA University, and boom! Anita was racing Classic Minis.

TinyMNI just showed up in our garage. Well, not "just so". It included a trip to DsnyLnd which I wasn't too keen of, CrgsLst, and a roadtrip back to the bayarea in a newly acquired classic car (wait, what? you drove the Mini 600 mls after you just bought it?) was part of the story. But just like Tiny just showed up in our garage, so did the Race Minis. Strange how that happens, right?

Get to know us

Christoph

Anita

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