Not Minis, and definitely not trail braking—but effective. I wonder why my instructors' didn't mention this technique. [link]

One of the classroom sessions was entirely devoted to trail braking. The instructor mentioned several times he was not seeing my brake lights come on after the initial hard braking before the turn in, and wanted me to focus more on trail braking right up to the apex. The first lap the instructor took in Rosebud he almost came to a complete stop before the turn in and had to re-accelerate to the apex. Ha! He never mentioned trail braking to me again.

To quote Stirling Moss...the way to go fast is to NOT slow down...that is why Minis are so much fun. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS4MIfA5i64

Chaparral as in this one:

Used to happen to me as well at the Longbeach Porsche slalom events, they would let any cars on with them to help spread the cost. The first time I went out they held me back to be at the back of the pack, so I wouldn't get in the way the marshal said.....well after a couple of laps of picking off cars they black flagged me and sent me out with the big boy's, after that it was great fun. Couldn't touch the really fast guys but the old mini gave a good account of herself.

"Jim Hall Racing Club" Oxnard, CA [link]. It was a go-kart track for 36 years, owned & operated by Jim Hall II. This month Jim rebuilt the track to accommodate cars. Jim's father is a famous racing driver and car builder from the '60's [link]. He developed and raced Chaparrals [Chevy powered] and was locked in a rivalry w/ Dan Gurney [Lotus Ford] for years. Jim senior was also an early developer of automotive aero effects. He was one of the first to put downforce wings on his cars and pioneered ground effects with auxiliary powered fans and side skirts. My dad and I used to watch Jim senior and Dan Gurney do battle at Riverside Raceway in the early 60's.

Last Tuesday at the Oxnard track, Rosebud and I were grouped with 3 new Porsches ('17 Cayman GT4, '16 Porsche Turbo, '17 Porsche AWD) and a '15 BMW M3 w/ a V8. We were all beginners, although the other guys had their own helmets—so they might have been sandbagging a bit. I couldn't have been more proud of Rosebud! She smoked everybody through the slalom and consistently had the best lap times! Jim took her out for a couple laps and couldn't stop talking about her every time we returned to the classroom. I think the other guys were getting annoyed. The German iron could reach about 85 mph on the straight and Rosebud could only manage 75 mph, but naturally, we didn't have to slow down much on the turns. Jim sent out 2 cars at a time and I kept getting yellow-flagged to slow down and leave a ½ track gap between me and the other car. Atta' girl Rosebud!

Where is the track? Does not look like Santa Barbara...

Rosebud and I took a 1-day performance driving class the other day. The class features a smallish auto-X track and 90 mins. of classroom instruction. This vid shows the first couple of laps before any classroom time. I eventually learned how to hit the apex... [link]