The Mini Cooper was No. 57 - for the age at which its driver, Carolyn Kujala, began racing.

Carolyn Kujala smiles after giving Ainslee Wittig a thrilling ride at the Inde Motorsports Ranch north of Willcox. Photo / Steve Reno.

Kujala lives in Tucson and is a founding member of Inde Motorsports Ranch, a private motor sports club that opened Saturday, 11 miles north of Willcox. She plans on enjoying the road course for a long time.

"I plan to be racing at 80. If Paul Newman can do it, I can do it," she said.

I stepped into the Mini Cooper, seat-belted myself tightly and fumbled with the bobble-head helmet - at least twice the size of my head. It took three tries to get the strap to fasten -- and it was Carolyn who ultimately managed ... I was still more worried about ruining the interior upholstery.

When I mentioned my tendency toward car sickness, she just answered, "That's what the window's for."

I left the helmet visor open, just in case.

We waited for Ryal Greenwood, the flagger, to give us the go ahead and proceeded on to the road course.

No hesitation.

Carolyn, at 60, was speeding through narrow straightaways, climbing over hills and slightly downshifting at hard turns. I looked at the speedometer to gauge our speed - it was hovering between 40 mph and 50 mph at hairpin turns and nearing 95 mph at the straightaway. (This is a Mini Cooper?) On a few turns, it seemed that rolling the car wasn't out of the question.

I waved at the crowd as we passed the observation deck. That's when I learned the importance of the grab bar on the inside of the door. Holding on is essential.

"I didn't know a Mini Copper could do this," I yelled between my own inadvertent shouts of "this is awesome!"

When we were finished our two laps, I asked her if my speedometer readings were correct. I mean, could you really take a hairpin turn at 50 mph?

Carolyn just smiled and said that I was the one looking at the speedometer.

I thought about this for a moment and realized she had a point. Thank God, Carolyn was looking at the road, instead.

(Editor’s Note: Ainslee S. Wittig is the managing editor for the Arizona Range News.)