MINI JCW Team Claims TC America Manufacturers’ Championship

Woodcliff Lake, NJ,  October 24, 2019. MINI USA and the MINI John Cooper Works Team are proud to celebrate the TC America Manufacturers’ Championship at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the site of the last two rounds of the 2019 SRO TC America race series.

“After an incredibly successful season last year, I thought things couldn’t get much better, yet here we are,” said Luis Perocarpi, team owner, LAP Motorsports. “To win back-to-back Manufacturers’ Championships in two different series is truly a testament to the unrelenting hard work of the entire team, including the drivers, their families, our MINI service technicians and everyone at MINI USA. I couldn’t be prouder.”

Race one saw the team score a double podium with Mat Pombo in the #61 STEP and MINIDealerCareers.com MINI JCW and Mark Pombo in the #59 STEP MINI JCW, crossing the line in second and third place, respectively. As the team headed into race two, it seemed to be the class of the field. The MINI JCW race cars ran 1-2-3 for the majority of the race, with Mat leading the way. Nate Norenberg in the #60 and Tomas Mejia in the #62 Pledge to Humanity MINI JCW held down the next two positions under intense competition.

With two minutes to go, Mat’s car suffered an issue that caused him to drop out of the lead, but Norenberg and Mejia stepped up to fill the gap. Both were able to hold off two hard-charging Mazdas in bumper-to-bumper racing to claim a 1-2 finish.

The win was the first for Norenberg in all competitions and proved to be an emotional moment for him. In addition to the first-place trophy, Norenberg’s finish secured the Manufacturers’ Championship for MINI and the MINI JCW Team.

With the Manufacturers’ title and five total race victories – three for Mark Pombo, one for Mat Pombo, and the aforementioned win for Norenberg – the team completed an extremely successful debut season in TC America.

The MINI JCW Team had their usual fulltime race crew supported by six service technicians from the MINI dealers in the Western Region, including Schomp MINI in Denver, Bob Smith MINI and Nick Alexander MINI in Los Angeles, MINI of Las Vegas, MINI of Tempe and MINI of Reno. These are the same technicians that repair consumer MINIs and have proven time and again that their knowledge transfers to the racing world.

About the MINI JCW Team
The MINI JCW Team, operated by LAP Motorsports (@lapmotorsports), drives MINI’s most powerful Hardtop ever in the two-door John Cooper Works. The team competes in the fiercely competitive SRO TC America Series. For additional information please visit minijcwteam.com or email luis@minijcwteam.com.

About MINI in the US
MINI is an independent brand of the BMW Group. In the United States, MINI USA operates as a business unit of BMW of North America, LLC, located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey and includes the marketing and sales organizations for the MINI brand. The MINI USA sales organization is represented in the U.S. through a network of 122 MINI passenger car dealers in 39 states. MINI USA began selling vehicles in the U.S. in 2002 with the introduction of the MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper S Hardtops. Since then, the MINI Brand in the U.S. has grown to encompass a model range of five unique vehicles.

Journalist notes: Media information about MINI and its products is available to journalists on-line at www.miniusanews.com.