Mini Coopers rally through southeast Missouri

Friday, May 27, 2016
Above are the 15 Mini Coopers that arrived for the rally art the Riverfront Park in New Madrid last Saturday, May 21.

here were several on-lookers last Saturday morning, May 21, at the Riverfront Park and Walkway as a Mini Cooper Rally was about to begin. Members of two Mini Cooper clubs, the St. Louis Mini club and the Mid-South Miniacs of Memphis joined together to motor from New Madrid to Ste. Genevieve by way of backroads to find hills and twisties, or curves.

The rally itself was a two-day journey with an overnight in Ste. Genevieve. While in Ste. Genevieve, several of the Mini motorist left and returned to their homes, but none the less enjoyed the rally.

"Great route! The second half got quite twisty and exciting. Thanks for organizing it. I know from experience how much work that is," said Tony Williamson, a Mini motorist from St. Louis. The rest that stayed enjoyed walking around the historic downtown and eating at The Anvil.

Like dust in the wind, several Mini Coopers take off from the River Ridge Winery in Commerce seeking hilly and twisty roads to Ste. Genevieve.

The second day included a different route and a stop at Fort Davidson in Pilot Knob, and motoring through Iron County to Annapolis and onto Hwy. C. "The Missouri Dragon as I call it," he added.

"At one of our planning meetings last year, I jokingly said I could do a drive in Missouri, and they took me seriously," said Scott Seal of Lilbourn, organizer of the event.

"Open mouth and insert foot," he said. "My wife, Linda, and I have been traveling southeast Missouri on the weekends trying to pick out some of the better roads. Some of the members wanted us to include wineries around Ste. Genevieve, and we went in search of them," he said. "And we are not wine drinkers! I will add that out of all of the wineries, the River Ridge Winery at Commerce is by far the better. We decided that would be our first destination and lunch stop," Seal added.

"This is the first time that I planned an event like this, and did not realize how involved it was to put this event together. Sine we offered the event to the St. Louis Club in addition to the Memphis, I really did not know how many would show up due to the distance involved in getting here. Either way, it was a two-three hour drive just to get to New Madrid. My goal was for 12 Minis, and would have been happy with less. In total, we have 15 Mini Coopers and 31 participants. I was totally overwhelmed and humbled," said Seal.

"I wanted to begin the rally in New Madrid at the Riverfront Park, near the boat ramp, due to having plenty of parking space. We did make a tour of the New Madrid Museum prior to taking a group picture on the Observation Deck and heading to our Minis."

"Since I grew up in the Ozark Foothills of Missouri, I knew where some of the better hills and curves are having been on them as a young lad with my parents or as a teenager hitting the roads myself. However, in planning this rally, I learned there were more roads out there to have fun on than what I remembered from my youth," he said.

"Mini Coopers are a fun, little car and are designed to hit the hills and curves with a little speed, okay, a lot of speed," he said excitedly. "As a rule, among Mini drivers, you double what the speed limit sign says. Some do, and many do not, but for the hard core Miniacs, just stay behind them," he explained.

There are several clubs all across the USA and each have their own drives and rallies. You can also be members with several of them at one time.

The Seal's are the proud owners of two Minis, a Thunder Grey 2015 Mini Cooper S, which was adopted in March of 2016; and a White Silver 2012 Mini Cooper S Clubman, adopted in April 2016. The Seal's are members of the Mid-South Miniacs Club in Memphis, the St. Louis Mini Club and the Tar Heel Mini Club in North Carolina.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: