Das Race: My '97 M3/4/5

[Jake]

Season Opener - March 2019 at VIR

OK, got this up on my blog so I can share the relevant bits here too. I sent the car to FlimFlam over the winter and it was SO nice to just pay him to handle everything. 

Friday was a great test day. I went out for one session on my new BFG R1S tires to break them in, then switched back to the year-old R1 set for the remainder of the day. I ran some 2:12's on the new tires, then ran 2:13's on the old ones. Realizing there should be a bigger gap between new and old, I kept pushing. Got the old set down into the 12s, I think. Went out and played/evaluated the Comp School students Friday afternoon and then ran the Fun Race with them and a bunch of other experienced racers. BIG congrats to Kaan, Sean, and Jeremy (from PDA) - all three of them faced some setbacks and all three passed Comp School!

Saturday saw a great qualifying, but then on the first lap of my race, my kill switch failed and cut the engine off at 100 mph, going down the hill to Oak Tree. I got a solid power-assisted push of the brakes, slowed it, got some cars past me, and coasted off into the South Paddock pit road. Came back to the North Paddock via tow strap. Bummer man. Kevin was on-site and he got the kill switch finangled enough to work for Sunday.



Sunday's morning qualifying is now a race! The "Beast of the East" is a race in which all Thunder or Lightning racers are gridded according to Saturday qualifying lap times. We were classed by lap time, so I went out to race against other E36 and E46 BMWs, a few older Mustangs, and a C5 Corvette. Ended up chasing a red Mustang driven by Bill Purdy for much of the race but it was a fun chase. 



Sunday's race was awesome. Had a good start (thank you, Alex, for calling the race for me) and slipped past Matt Davis somewhere around Turn 3. Got a sizable gap on him and held him off for about half of the race. At that point, I overcooked my tires due to lack of focus and he caught back up. I kept a nice gap on the rest of our field and finished fourth. The biggest accomplishment was getting solidly into the 2:10s for lap times! I worked with Dion Von Moltke and his Racers360 online coaching business to get some pointers for VIR - and they worked. He is working with me now for Summit Point, and we'll be there in a few short weeks!