I’ll start this thread to give all you suckers jonesing for a race fix something to read, hopefully it will alleviate your withdrawl pains.
This was my first Club race and I had to jump through several hoops to make it happen, including getting my medical updated and all the paperwork into the licensing folks. Getting a new number since "08" was taken, this meant new number decals, etc.
My car setup consisted of trying to place the hundreds of required stickers (very cheap)as low and as close to the cars center as possible. Removing my numbers, putting new numbers on, and the required stickers literally took over 2 hours.
Final license approval and registration came down to the last minute. But with my approvals all set and a surprise offer of a crew chief I set off for RRR early Friday so that I’d have time to get my car inspected for a log book in time to make the 4pm. practice session. Their tech steward wasn’t present as late as 3pm. So with some more hurdle jumping and favor calling I end up with a log book at 3:30pm. Time for practice and I have forgotten how to drive, at least fast.
Knowing that Patton is going to eat my lunch in this enduro, I discuss with my crew chief alternative strategies. The only suggestion that seems to make sense. Replace the driver, but with who? The two obvious hot shoes are Seth Thomas and James Clay of Bimmerworld Racing. James falls for my story about being sponsored by a charity and needing to win "for the kids" and we’re all set. I cleverly place my traqmate in the car to "help with setup" and he lays down some fast laps in practice and qualifying. Unfortunately Chuck also sensing impending Patton lunch eating cleverly counters my quick thinking by bribing Seth who apparently doesn’t care if the kids win or not.
Knowing that enduros are always won in the pits James and I come up with a can’t miss strategy - don’t lite each other on fire. Our race strategy comes down to James - build big lead; Jim - don’t screw up.
Race time - James gets a good start and sticks Seth and others behind him. This lasts for 18 or his planned 20 min. stint. Then Seth gets by him somehow (probably by cheating), and as he enters the pits it is up to me to regain the spec e30 lead since Patton had effectively removed himself from contention with a Joey Hand-esque off in turn 9 that thankfully resulted in no damage.
Not being familiar with BMWCCR enduro pit rules I’m told by crew to "POP THE TRUNK", not understanding the logic I instantly obey to the confused look of the official. Clay with his years of race experience senses the pitstop going sideways. Taking control he shoves the fire bottle into my hand, slams my face shield down, etc. I felt like a child being dressed by his mother. He then proceeds to add the necessary 5 gallons of gas to ensure my beater doesn’t stall out. More child dressing with the belts and window net, and its my turn to drive.
Clay -stop watch in hand counts down 5,4,3,2,1 - and I mash the gas - redline 1st gear, redline 2nd gear - and then I remember PIT LANE SPEED LIMIT 35mph. I get off the gas and thankfully the Lord looks after idiots and children, I’m pegged at 35mph.
Now all I have to do is run the blistering 1.26’s I had been putting down in practice and see if I can close in on Seth and Chuck.
I keep it on the track and never see another e30. The checker falls and the spec e30 victory is in doubt. I didn’t pass Chuck so I probably fell short of my goal which comes as a surprise to no one. Then the official results come out. Chuck and Seth feeling the heat in the pits make a critical timing error and are penalized one lap for leaving 7 seconds early. 3rd place overall is solidly in the hands of what I now call "team coat tail"
There is some controversy after the fact and Chuck maintains they didn’t leave early so still not sure where we finished. But we had fun and that is all that matters.
Special thanks to James and Seth who are both awesome drivers and super nice guys. I think they had as much fun as we did. Also thanks to Craig Geegar for taking on team coat tail crew chief responsibilities. The sprint race was no where near as interesting but still a good time. I’ll try to get some video up soon.
BMWCCR has some really fast cars. I was a little surprised at being able to compete with some C-mod and D-mod cars and Spec E36, JP, etc. Seems HP isn’t everything…
and being a consistent 15th place Spec E30 finisher maybe means you’re still not that bad of a driver.
***I forgot to also thank two awesome BMW mechanics and fellow racers - Brendan Digel and Jason Mascow. They both keep me from hurting myself and others when attempting to perform some type of mechanical exercise and also provide comic relief. Brendan also made sure the BMW guys hopped to it with a tech inspection so I could go out and ‘practice’ on Friday.
