BMWCCA Club Race Report (Weekend of 9/9-10)
Infineon (Sears Point) Raceway
This was my rookie race weekend and it was an absolute blast. Other SpecE30 guys in attendance were Steve D., Cole G., and Lee P. Cole and Lee rented Mike Mills’ 325 and 318. Joe S. had to cancel at the last minute which was too bad.
I have a lot of seat time at this track, but it was my first time running with all the SpecE30 goodies so I had to get used to all the downgrades. Saturday morning practice went off without a hitch. I got myself reaquainted with the car and the track and was putting down 2:00 laptimes. Steve, having only been on this track once, put up impressive times in the 2:05’s. Cole and Lee matched each other with 2:09’s which is quite good considering they have virtually no seat time in an E30 (coming from E36 M3’s).
Saturday qualifying was pretty much the same as practice.
Saturday race was pretty boring for me. I couldn’t quite keep pace with the tail end of the J-stock group in front of me so I was out there by myself. Steve was running by himself as well. The highlight was the fierce battle Lee and Cole were having at the back. They were consistently matching each other in laptimes which resulted in a crazy photo finish where Cole outpowered Lee’s 318 on the front straight to overtake him at the finish line.
Sunday was more interesting for me. The track was driving a little better in morning practice, but my tire pressures were a hair off and I couldn’t better my Saturday times. Steve improved into the 2:02’s and I think Cole improved as well. Lee, having made no improvement, rented my spare set of Toyo’s to replace his Yoko’s in his quest to exact revenge on Cole for the previous day’s heartbreak.
Sunday qualifying went well and I dipped into the 1:59’s and outqualified the two J-stock E30 M3’s that I couldn’t keep up with on Saturday. I think Steve qualified with a 2:02 and Cole with 2:05 and Lee improved to a 2:07 on my Toyo’s.
The race went extremely well for me. I sought out advice from some of the veteran guys and worked on a race plan to hold off the 2 J-stock cars. Having the advantage of in-car radio proved to be the deciding factor as I was able to hold my position on the start by getting a jump on the guys behind me since we can’t see the starter tower from that far back in the
field when the green gets dropped. The two J-stock guys were back there battling it out for a few laps and it bought me a little bit of breathing room. They eventually started closing the gap to me. Each lap, I noticed I carried a lot more speed than them going through the esses. This opened up just enough breathing room to putt-putt my way down the back and front straights and get back into the twisty haven of the hills. The gap closed enough on one lap and one of them got a little run on me coming out of the carousel, but I was able to defend my position. After that, I opened up the lead just a little bit and that’s when the front runners were coming around to lap us. My radio guy did a good job of helping me manage the traffic situation and I didn’t get slowed up as much as the guys behind me. I
finished .8 and 1.4 seconds in front of the two JS guys.
The other 3 SpecE30 guys were back there driving all alone. Steve managed to set a fast time of 2:00 which is really awesome for only his second time at the track. Cole and Lee managed to improve their times to 2:05. It was a very good weekend for all of us.
