Das Race: My '97 M3/4/5

[Jake]

NASA Eastern States Championships at VIR

Don't call it "Nationals" bro. :lol: So, this was my first championship event and I eventually had a blast after a few hiccups.

Start off with getting new tires on the Denali. Shop puts them on over the weekend prior, great. I specifically asked them to re-seal the one inner barrel and check the others for corrosion, because chrome wheels like to corrode and leak air. They said they did that, and really, they didn't re-seal the one. So, I get in to pick up my trailer (after driving Convertiblau to work for three days) and one tire is down by almost 10 psi. Fack. I figured it was the same slow leak I experienced when I first bought the truck, so I filled it up and watched the in-dash TPMS like a hawk. It was fine, just had to air back up to drive home.

Got to VIR on Thursday around 4:30 - easy drive, no traffic. I thought my clutch master cylinder (or clutch itself) was failing and was kind of bumming as a result. My parents were coming down on Saturday morning and offered to stop and pick up parts if I needed them. I eventually decided to just run the damn thing and see how long it held out.

Thursday night was kicked off by an all-staff meeting and then an all-hands meeting, the latter of which went on just short of forever.



Friday came around and I was only going to be driving pace car. We (very last minute) were provided with some Mazdas, thanks to Mazda USA who is a NASA sponsor. So, my friend Chris and I paced in a 2016 Mazda6 and Mazda3. Yay.



The day was pretty uneventful and wrapped up around 5:30-6. I drove the M3 around the paddock a bit and while the clutch engagement "feel" still sucked, it bit hard and drove fine so #fuckit I'm driving it as hard as I want.

Wake up Saturday, get down to my paddock space early and start prepping the car. GoPro installed, transponder mounted, windows cleaned off, fueled up, tire pressures set, let's do this. Go out for my first TT session, which is "warm-up/practice" and thus not officially timed. We all come in and the whole TT group gets sent to the scales.



I knew I needed a spare wheel/tire in the trunk to make weight, but what I forgot was that I had removed most of the sound system when I got the convertible, to transfer it over. So I roll across the scales (having only burned ~3-4 gallons of gas) and I'm already 5 lbs under weight. DQ'd for first session and need to add weight if I want anything to count. Fuck. What now?

My parents are there at this point and (this is where they earn best-parents-ever award) start helping me ask around for ballast bricks, dumbbell weights, whatever we could strap into the car to add another 20 lbs or so and offset the fuel consumption. Mom goes into the TMI Racing store and the guys in there had no idea what "ballast" was, great. Eventually, after swinging by the Spec3 paddock, we settle on throwing a second wheel/tire in the trunk and ratchet-strapping it down. Not the "ideal" solution but it worked and everything stayed secure all weekend.

Oh, immediately after this scales stuff, I had to go pace a Spec Miata qualifying race. It started raining HARD on the front half of the track. I'm sitting in the pace car and hear Turn 1 call in to control. "Control this is Turn 1, I've got a Miata off in the gras... wait, 2, no, 3, no, 4 5, 6, 7..." He lost count at 12. When he got to "3" I slapped the Mazda into Drive and knew "Roll Pace" was coming... I stood on the gas as soon as I heard the "R" sound come out of the radio. Blast out of the pits as fast as a 185 hp, 3,600 lb car can do it and suddenly two Miatas appear on my left! They had spun off before the braking zone and managed to get back on the asphalt right as I left pit road. A bit hairy but they fell in line behind me and we were okay. Only 2 of the Miatas that went off ended up with bad damage to where they had to be towed in.


Not taken during the Great Monsoon Race of 2015

The rest of Saturday went on with no huge hiccups. Car ran fine, I was running all over due to working and driving, and the best lap I laid down was like a 2:20. Better than my 2:21 in the Chump Car, better than my 2:23 in the M3 last time I was at VIR, but still not where I wanted to be (high teens). Went out in a rain session on Saturday evening and it was way too wet to even have fun. And I had cracked a brake rotor - this is why you bring multiple spares. The day ended and after changing the rotor, I wandered over to the Spec3 paddock for dinner and some slightly boozy discussion of braking zones with Jim and Simon.



Got some great tips from the both of them (including Simon half-slurring "lookman just brake after the 1 everywhere and if you don't make it, justdrivethefuckoff it's fiiiiiine" ) and applied them Sunday morning.

Sunday came around and our first session was early - 8:55 or so. I got gridded behind a CR-X and a Mini Cooper. Promptly passed the Mini on our first green lap, but every time I tried to get by the Honda, he shut me out. This went on for two laps and at multiple turns where I already had my car most of the way past him - he just turned in. Finally, he shuts me out at Oak Tree, I'm frustrated, and punch the horn button in the steering wheel... which is still connected. He realizes what he's been doing, falls back and lets me get a run... FINALLY.

Now I'm driving in slight anger, trying to remember what I was told the night before, and turning what seem to be some resonably fast laps. I come in and check the race monitor... 2:18.04!! I was ecstatic. Still not "competitive" to run with the front-runners of TTD (they're running 2:11/2:12's) but it's about 4 seconds a lap faster than what I've run in the M3 before, and I felt pretty comfortable driving that fast, which means I should be able to keep chunking time off in future weekends.

The rest of Sunday didn't go any better but I was pleased with the time I got. Ended up 4th in class for the weekend!

Still need to figure out this clutch nonsense. Never had an issue other than "it feels weird" so I'm going to poke around a bit more. Might end up doing a clutch this winter just as a matter of course, dunno yet.



Oh yeah, you guys like videos, right?

[youtube]fJwrgY033cs[/youtube]