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BMW M235i Racing – 12 Hours of Imola

Before we get into the actual on-track action and the race, let’s talk about the car we drove for the 12 hours of Imola.

BMW M235i Racing by Sorg Rennsport

The story goes that a prominent leader in BMW Motorsport was at the 24 Hours of The Nürburgring several years ago and noticed that in the sub-GT4 categories, there were several BMW’s competing but they were old (E30’s and E36’s) and took a ton of work to get them race ready and maintained, let alone competitive.

With Mazda having a full factory developed and globally homogulated Global MX-5 Cup Car, BMW decided to build their own solution. Since its launch in 2014, the BMW M235i Racing has seen steady uptake in the marketplace, with BMW Cup Racing series all over Europe, in endurance races like the Creventic 24 Hour Series, VLN and in professional touring classes all over the world, like the TC classes in Pirelli World Challenge. As an entry-level professional race car, its hard to beat the value despite the sticker price and driving experience, as we’ll cover below.

The VLN BMW M235i Racing Cup Series  Photo Credit: VLN

We were originally supposed to drive this car below but in the prior 24 Hour of Nurburgring race, it was wrecked a couple times and was down for repairs. So Sorg prepared and brought out the “Orange Juice car” as my son named.

The car we were originally going to drive but was damaged at the Green Hell. Photo credit: Petr Frýba
The “Orange Juice Car” Photo credit: Petr Frýba

The basics

DIMENSIONS

Length: 4,454mm

Max. width: 1,862mm (without mirrors)

Height: 1,380mm

Wheel base: 2,690mm

Max. track width: 1,608mm

ENGINE / TRANSMISSION

Straight six-cylinder petrol engine

BMW M Performance TwinPower Turbo

Capacity: 2,979ccm

Output: 245kW (333bhp)

Torque: 450Nm

Racing exhaust with racing catalytic converters

Steering wheel with shift paddles and lights on the steering wheel (awesome!!)

BMW M Performance limited-slip differential

TANK Motorsport safety tank

SUSPENSION / STEERING

KW dampers

H&R suspension springs

Front: H&R anti-roll bar (2-way)

Rear: H&R anti-roll bar

BRAKES

Front: High-performance motorsport braking system –

Performance Friction (PFC); 4-pot fixed calliper

Rear: BMW M Performance 2-pot braking system

ABS / DSC / ASC

BMW Motorsport specific racing application

TYRES / WHEELS

18×10 inch alloy rims

265/60/18 tires – we ran Hankook full racing slicks though we’ve seen this car run on Pirelli’s, Dunlops and Michelin’s across the globe

SAFETY COMPONENTS

Cage with DMSB certificate and FIA approval

6-point racing harness from Schroth

Racing seat RECARO Pro Racer SPG (we had an OMP HTC-R carbon seat)

Exterior

The car is built a ‘body in white’ to make it super easy for a great wrap job. It is the 235i body with the body panels from the M2, which presumably provide a variety of aero benefits. Sorg has it outfitted with the optional rear wing, which is adjustable to aid in rear down-force.

Seth Thomas getting acquainted with the car. You can see the body in white and the full body wrap.

Bottom line, it looks awesome in just about every livery I’ve seen. A bit boxy compared to most sports car but expected for a BMW. The aero bits make it look aggressive and with the incredibly meaty 265-wide slicks, it looks beefy from every angle. You’ll notice that in most pictures, we ran with the windows up. It comes with the power windows still and fully functional. It wasn’t until the cockpit got really hot, that we’d crack a window to circulate air and feed cooler air into the helmet blower.

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Interior

This car is the standard for every production-based race car, even a club race car. Period.  The interior was clean and tidy with the factory dash just about fully intact. The steering wheel had shift lights, programmed to keep us within the meaty part of the power band and the small LCD screen that read out the amount of fuel we’ve used since the last refill/reset, lap times, water and oil temperatures.

Straight factory look and yes, my eye line is only a couple inches higher than this…

The shifters were in perfect position to shift up and down without readjusting your hands. The OMP HTC-R carbon fiber seat was on sliders, to accommodate several driver heights, of which for us ranged from 5’6″ for me to just over 6′ for Seth Thomas. I normally don’t love sliders but these were solid and provided all of the range we needed.

Much of the interior is trimmed with carbon fiber goodness, which looks great and keeps everything looking clean and professional.

The car still comes with a racing oriented but still operating Driving Stability Control (DSC) of which we turned completely off. I personally didn’t drive with it on on, so I can’t speak directly to the differences but having it fully off was great and I felt like I could easily manage the amount of corner-exit sliding with throttle and steering input.

Sorg outfitted the car with Motorola digital radio system, which was a bit random in its performance throughout the weekend. Imola is a big track, with lots of elevation changes so we rarely had good audio quality at the farthest points from the paddock and saved most critical comms for the front-straight away.

In the center console, you can see the Motorola radio and that on/off switch is for the helmet blower.

This was also the fastest and loudest (though not super loud) car I’ve ever raced, along with racing amongst the fastest and loudest cars I’ve ever raced with (up to GT3 cars). I found that my super awesome Stilo helmet with the ear muffs were simply not enough, so I had an on-track vendor install the additional component so I can have molded ear plugs, in addition to the built-in noise cancelling ear muffs and that seemed to help quite a bit.

Sorg installed an air-conditioned helmet blower, versus the standard air blower I have in my PRO3 car. This thing worked great for the most part. It needs an air intake, then it cools the air before forcing it through the air tube. The issue I ran into was that in my first race stint of nearly 2 hours, I ran the whole time with the windows up. And even though we had the car’s fan circulating air into the cabin, everything got heat soaked and with 40 or so minutes left in my stint, I was heat soaked and the blower was pushing around hot air (which was still better than nothing).

One driver mentioned that the dash was a little tall and he didn’t love not being able to see the hood and thus not having as strong of a sense of where the car body limits were. This is true but for me, I’m used to sitting low and being short, so I never see the hood, so that didn’t bother me.

The cable management, cage design and installation is pristine, though it was interesting to see that the cage is actually a bolt-in cage, versus a welded in cage at the mounting points. I’m sure there is science and logic behind this but that took me by surprise.

Lastly, the car had a full AiM data logging system built in and capturing ECU channels. As usual, we lived and died by the predictive lap timing feature and during practices, we used the Apex Pro Driving Coach tool, where Seth set some baseline laps and then we focused on making the lights as green as possible in the corners.

How did it drive?

Before driving the car, Dan and Seth said that the M235i Racing would drive like a big PRO3 or Spec E46 car, of which are my only two reference points. And after the experience, they were mostly right.

With power steering, ABS and a paddle-shifting automatic transmission, it was the easiest car to race I’ve ever driven. What you do is still the same in terms of driving but it’s just easier. All inputs don’t require much of any force and the seat, seating position and Schroth belts are simply comfortable. For example, I have an Apple Watch and when I drive my PRO3 car (no ABS, power steering and a CAE shifter) I don’t need to ‘start a workout’ on my watch. The amount of work I am doing and vibrations automatically make the watch think I am working out and it logs a workout.

In the BMW M235i Racing? Not so much. After both my racing stints, of which both were nearly 2 hours, I was toast. Overheated, dehydrated, mentally and physically exhausted I looked at my watch and no workout detected. I had to manually have it check my heart rate about 5 minutes after getting out of the car and it was still at 134bpm.

Getting 3-wheel action is easy- peasy in this car! Photo credit: Petr Frýba

So yes, it was the hardest, most exhausting driving I’ve ever done but I might as well had been sitting in a beach chair.

This thing is fast.

With ~330whp and on full racing slicks, this car is easily the fastest car I’ve ever driven in a race. My perspective is a bit skewed because while we were hauling @$$, we were driving in the slowest class of the race. It literally felt like I was driving with an anchor dragging behind because of how stupid fast the TCR, GT4, GT3 and Porsche Cup cars were.

Still, this car is fast and when not over-driven, it is really easy to go fast. The key difference for me was to trust the higher than normal mid-corner speed the car could carry due to it’s more advanced suspension and big/meaty slicks. Seth and Dan mentioned that the Hankook’s were not the fastest slick available but are likely a great value because they tend to last at 90% of the peak grip for a good amount of time.

Bottom line is that this car could hang mid-corner with every car on-track except for the GT3 race cars and possibly the TCR cars. I could definitely feel the additional size and weight of the car transitioning weight from side to side, compared to a 2700 lbs PRO3 car but after a few laps, it felt normal.

Not a mistake – this car can hang with most any car mid-corner! Photo credit: Petr Frýba

Power-wise, it has gobs of torque but not an incredible top-end. Corner exit I could stay on the rears of several TCR cars but then they would slowly pull away, while just about every other car would leave us like if we were parked.

Braking was great and confidence inspiring. Braking for Turn 2 (the first chicane) and Turn 17 are full, 10 out of 10 braking zones. After building up my confidence, I found myself braking at around the 175 meter mark for the 1st chicane and the just before the 50 meter for the last chicane. HOLY CRAP! But the car would slow down, turn in and handle it, with no complaints.

Being a turbo car, there was a tiny bit of lag from throttle application to feeling the grunt. So it was even more critical to get to full throttle as soon as possible. For the most part, the LSD and the Hankook’s would take the full throttle corner after corner and lap after lap. I only got a bit more sideways than I’d want on corner exit a couple of times: once in turn 7 when I was testing the limits carrying speed through the corner and up the hill – simply too early on full throttle with too much steering input and a second time on the exit of the last chicane, when I got a bit more exit curb than the car could hold while try to get full throttle. I didn’t back out, just a simple steering correction as I still had a few inches before getting to the big turtle bumps that were there to eat up suspensions.

Final verdict: It could be the perfect race car for you and me at some point

At around $85k USD brand new, the BMW M235i Racing is seriously a great deal. For reference, to have someone build a top quality Spec E46 race car, it can cost upwards of $60k. $25k gets you a pretty much guaranteed quality and consistency, factory supported race car.

I’ve looked around and still not quite sure what they are going for used but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them available for $40-50k USD.

The driving experience is incredible and consumables are on the low end for a pro-level race car.

The issue for me is that I care most about competition. I want to race in big fields, with closer to spec cars and see how I stack up to the best competition around. And outside of Pirelli World Challenge, there isn’t a ton of these yet in the US and especially in the club racing ranks. If that were a different situation, I would seriously consider finding and racing a BMW M235i Racing.

I’ve heard and read that the BMW M235i Racing Cup is popular, with country and Europe-wide championships that are fielding 20+ cars at a time. If I lived in Europe, this would also be a strong option.

Until any of those things happen, I’ll have to settle for making my in-process, BMW Spec E-46 look and drive as close to this beauty as possible and racing with Sorg Rennsport 1-3 times a year. I can’t wait for the next time!

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Getting an FIA racing license

So you want to go ‘Pro’ racing?  Or maybe you want to have the license that gives you access to every regional sanctioning body in the US? Odds are, you’re going to need more than the regular regional racing license.  And if it is international competition, you’ll very likely need an FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) racing license.  For the Creventic 12 hours of Imola race, that’s exactly what was needed, so here is what that experience was like.

What’s different between an FIA and a national/regional (e.g. SCCA/NASA/ICSCC) type license?

One major thing: FIA licenses are for experienced racing drivers, not just accredited racing drivers.  For just about all other racing licenses, you need to prove that you’ve completed a [insert level of quality here] racing curriculum.  You need not have actually completed many races or been ‘fast’ to get an SCCA, NASA or for me personally, ICSCC racing license.  This level of training shows that you have a base level understanding of race car dynamics, how event is organized, what the flags mean and how to be safe on-track.

From the application process for FIA, they have a higher bar.  They are looking for some level and amount of experience.  They want to know who you are as a racing driver, via the driver biography.

The second thing is the general global acceptance of the license.  At least within the US, if you have an SCCA license, it will be accepted at various levels by other sanctioning bodies.  SCCA being the most widely accepted, NASA following closely behind and more regional licenses also being accepted but having to provide more proof the further outside the region you go because there is a lower probability a licensing director has heard of the regional body.

Bottom line: When you have a valid, in good standing FIA license, you can pretty much race anywhere in the world.

How to get an FIA license: Step by step

Step 1: Collect these pieces of information before you start the application process

  • A passport compliant photograph of yourself.  It doesn’t need to be exactly a passport photo but must follow the general rules.  Here is a link to the United States passport photo requirements.
    • I used a head-shot from a photo shoot at work, cropped to be 2×2 inches or 51x51mm.  Make sure it is saved in .jpeg format for best picture quality.
  • A racing biography.  This was a little confusing as there is no standard template.  So I simply created a ‘resume’ style biography of my driving.  I’ve included a PDF copy of that below for reference.  It needs to cover things like how long you’ve been racing, what organizations, how many races, finishes, etc.
  • A current copy of a medical exam form for racing, that was completed in the past 3 months.  The FIA also does not provide a template, so I used the medical exam for used for an ICSCC competition license and that worked just fine.
  • Your credit card to use for payment.
Gamaliel Aguilar-Gamez Racing Bio April 2018

Step 2: Go to the US FIA Licensing website and fill out the application

  • Application link for United States based FIA licenses
  • Fill out the form.  The first section is your personal details.
  • Select ‘No’ for Have you had a previous FIA competition license.
    • Select and upload your racing driver bio document.  PDF format is your best bet.
  • The second section you should select ‘Competition License only’ and yes for the additional fee for International Competition Authorization.
    • Select Grade ‘C’ unless you are driving a GT3 race car or higher.
  • Upload your passport style photo and completed medical exam form.
  • Check the waivers and acknowledgements.
  • Click next

Step 3: Pay the fee

Yes, this is expensive and resulting in almost $500 USD.  The positive side is that this should be the only license you need if you compete in US national and regional club racing competitions.  You might still need to pay a guest fee of some sort but that’s it.

You will get a confirmation screen and document which outlines everything and even provides a handy QR code to track the progress of your application.

Summary: Simple and straight forward

I personally did not request the expedite service and in under 2 weeks, I got the license in the mail!

My license to kill… tires and lap times!

From the moment I first clicked on the link to apply for the license, to when I got the license in the mail was about 1.5 months.  This was because I had to ask questions about what does a racing bio look like?  What medical form should I use?  Then I had to make and get to a doctor’s appointment, of which was a little hard because work-life and life-life has been a bit crazy.

But overall, if you’re looking to do FIA sanctioned competition its not a difficult process to get through, especially with this guide.  😉

Let us know how it goes for you?  Did you have a different experience?  Have you applied for a B or an A license?  Share other driver bios!

 

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1st Pro Race – 12 Hours of Imola Creventic TCE Series

Going pro racing

My first on-track experience was a 1-day High Performance Driving with Proformance Racing School at Pacific Raceways.  It was a actually a birthday present for my wife.  She had a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9 and I had a 400whp 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI.

His and her’s AWD turbo beasts!  I still miss that STI!

That day I learned that I had no clue what I was doing behind the wheel of a car from a ‘racing’ standpoint, especially one with that much power and in general the capabilities of the car.  I also realized that learning to drive a car on-track with skill and being fast was going to take time, but I was up for the challenge.

Over the next 12 months, I did several track days and learned about the then, GRAND-AM Continental Tire Series where production-based race cars, like my Subaru, raced in the GS and ST classes.  Further, here in the PNW, we had several drivers who had started out in local club racing and driven or were driving in series like that at the ‘professional’ level.

I have dreamt and continue to dream of owning and racing cars like this!

Since then, it’s been a goal of mine to at least once, drive in a professional racing series in a production-based sports car.

Getting the invitation

Over the past four years racing in primarily PRO3 class, I’ve met several former PRO3 drivers who have or still do drive professionally.  One of which is Dan Rogers and through him, Seth Thomas, of which they have co-driven in multiple race cars and series over the years.  In 2018, they decided to see about putting together a program to do at least a handful of the Creventic 24/12 Hour Endurance racing series, which has races in the most iconic circuits all over Europe and at Circuit of the Americas.

They reached out to several drivers who presumably have a minimum level of proven speed, ability to keep a car clean and ultimately, afford to take part in all or some of the races.  When I first got the email, I almost brushed it off completely, assuming it would be way too expensive for me to afford but it turned out to be not too bad and in the grand scheme of this type of racing, a solid value.  Coupling this with an extended family vacation and a couple of business meetings, taking part in the race went from a pipe dream to a bucket list reality.

12 Hours in a factory race car | BMW M235i Racing

The race will be a 12-hour race, split over two days.  I’m not exactly sure why this is but having visited Imola a few years ago, I can imagine it being a noise ordinance issue as Imola is actually a city park, with residential buildings right on or next to the track property and park.  I’ve also heard from organizing bodies that holding a race over-night is much more expensive than running during the day due to the required workers and lighting.

The BMW M235i Racing factory race car – raced in professional TC series all over the world.

The weapon of choice is a newest generation BMW M235i Racing 2-door coupe, built and sold directly by BMW motorsports as turn-key solution for the ‘entry levels’ of professional racing.  I don’t know the exact class we’ll be racing in but the car is capable of pace just slightly slower than the new global TCR cars.

Sorg Rennsport’s BMW M235i Racing car in for a pit stop

It has a 3.0L, twin-turbo in-line 6-cylinder engine and a 6-speed automatic transmission, with paddle shifters.  Dan Rogers, who has driven the car previously described it as essentially a bigger PRO3 or Spec E46 car, in terms of handling characteristics.  This is music to my ears as it means, well balanced, plenty of brakes and enough power to have a great time but not so much that you could get into too much trouble.  The car is owned and managed by the Sorg Rennsport Racing Team, out of Germany.

Learning the track

Having never driven Imola in-person, my main resort to learning the track was iRacing!  My simulator is primarily setup for iRacing, so even though I realized a couple weeks ago that Imola and a close sibling to the M235i Racing was available on Assetto Corsa, I decided to do all my training on iRacing and using the Mercedes AMG GT3 race car.  The AMG has a lot more power than what we’ll be driving but I figured it had similar characteristics from previous driving; rear-wheel drive, paddle shifters and more under-steering characteristics relative to something like a 911 GT3 or the Audio R8 GT3.

Over the past 4 months, I’ve logged over 1,000 laps and 30+ hours of seat time.  I’ve also used Virtual Racing School’s data pack feature, to compare myself with one of their coaches with a reference lap time of 1:42.xxx.  The data pack is from a different season where multiple updates to the car, tire model and track have been rolled out, so trying to replicate the lap time exactly isn’t possible but my goal was to get as close to it as I could.  My personal best ended up being a 1:45.2xx but most importantly, the last few weeks I was able to jump in and start hammering away high 1:45’s and low 1:46’s, with relative ease and regardless of fuel load.  In an endurance race, yes being fast is important but being consistent and keeping the car clean is even more important.

Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari – IMOLA!

So how well do I know the track?  We’ll find out for sure but by just closing my eyes, I can recite…

  • Turn 1, full throttle and get ready to straighten the wheel and brake past the 200 marker for the first chicane.
  • Turns 2/3, make sure to hit the backside of turn 2, so that I can square off Turn 3 and get a healthy full-throttle run at apex. Stay off the big bumps on the curbs.
  • Turn 4, slight left hander of which the goal is to stay flat but might need to lift depending on the angle of entry and how well the right rear tire is holding.
  • Turns 5/6, similar chicane but there is more distance between the two turns. Similarly, hit the back side of 5, square off turn 5 and get a healthy full throttle run at apex and use the exit curbing as needed.  Do not touch the big bumps on the inside of the corner, they will destroy your time and your car.
  • Turn 7, very slow left-hander that feels like a decreasing radius corner. Important to get the car turned and then back on throttle quick and somewhat aggressively.
  • Turn 9, very fast left-hand turn with a stab of the brakes and then quickly back on throttle – let the car nibble at the exit curbs but don’t get too greedy. It’s hard to stay full throttle with being too much on the curbs as the rear end tends to kick out.
  • Turns 11, 12, 13 – an interconnected, high-speed and critical sequence of turns. A brush of brakes to do a full ‘send it’ into turn 11 and making sure to hit the apex curb.  A stab of throttle before 6 out of 10 brakes, downshift to 3rd gear and bite off a decent size of the apex curb for turn 12 and then full throttle as quickly as possible to go up the hill and Turn 13 ends up being more of the exit curbing of Turn 12 than anything else.
    • It is very easy to let the car run over the big exit curbing here but iRacing will punish you for track limits so make sure to only get a max of 2 tires over the white line.
  • Turns 14 and 15 make up the last chicane of the lap, that feels a lot like Portland International Raceways. Take a big chunk of the T14 curb, flick the car to the left and get to full throttle at or before the apex of T15.  It’s ok and even sometimes the curbing of T15 helps rotate the car, let the car release to the exit curbing but only go 2 wheels off.
  • Turn 16, a full throttle bend in the road – create a straight line that helps you get to driver’s left to setup for a very tough T17.
  • T17, a very intimidating and high speed right-hand corner, where you are flat and right at shifting to top gear. Position the car for a late apex and be ready for 10 out of 10 braking effort, in a straight line and shifting from 6th to 3rd
  • Turns 18 and 19, the last set of real corners before the front straight away and start/finish. Important to get the curbs on both corners and T19 is the most important to get to and stay full throttle as quickly as possible.  Just a brush of brakes is needed and use all of the exit curbs.
  • Turns 20 and 21 are essentially bends in the road. Take them full throttle and have as little steering input as possible.  Steering input = friction = slowing the car down.  Make down the straight away as quickly and frictionless as possible.

Generally speaking, I think I have 80% or so of the track down in my head and developed muscle memory so that when I get into the car, I can focus on driving the car and figuring out how to go fast, versus figuring out my way through the track.

Physical training

This is an endurance race, in Italy at the start of the summer.  I’ve been in Italy around this time of the year in the past and it can get hot, really hot.  I’ve been working on my cardiovascular endurance – 60+ minute runs and cycling sessions.

I’ll be honest that while I’m in decent shape, I’m nowhere near where I wanted to be.  Life has gotten incredibly busy on all fronts and I’ve been lucky to get in 3 workouts per week and a few simulator sessions.  To top it all off, this past weekend, I did a PRO3 race weekend and only did one run group.  The driving felt great but, I improved my personal best lap time during the actual race but by Sunday afternoon, my lower back, on my left side was sore.  I’ve only experienced this last year, when I was a couple months post a surgery and next to no working out.

No expectations

Overall, I am sitting on this airplane with next to zero expectations.  There will be four total drivers, one of which I know will be faster than me (Seth).  Dan will either be around the same pace or faster because he has a ton more experience in professional races and Rob, the third driver – I don’t know at all.

I will work at being as fast, safe and consistent as I can possibly be but overall, am going to focus on having fun and taking the experience all in.

 

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The Impact of Drafting: Extra Data and Gluten Free

Shake and Bake!

We’ve long heard and talked about drafting and bump drafting – how they can make or break a qualifying time, depending on what kind of car you are in and what section of the track you can catch a tow. The fundamentals behind a draft are simple:

  1. The goal is to get from one point on the track to another point, as quickly as possible.
  2. You can do that by slowing down less through a corner (carrying a higher minimum speed). This could be through having ‘better’ tires for better grip, adding downforce for better grip, braking less and/or getting back on throttle quickly.
  3. You can also focus on accelerating faster between the two points by adding more power, reducing the friction on the accelerating drive-train (lightened flywheel, gears or driveshaft as examples), increasing grip on the tires that are driving acceleration OR reduce the forces that are barriers to accelerate through – such as the air itself (e.g. reducing down-force).

We’re going to assume that you are not in formula 1 or some other series that has active aero such as a Drag Reduction System (DRS), so the only option you have to reduce down-force is to have another car punch a hole in the air, for you.

I don’t get it – the air, is the air.  Why does this matter?

For the uninitiated, let’s take a minute and explain why this is important.  You know those videos of reporters that go outside and report on a big wind storm or hurricane?  They go in front of the camera and try to walk against the wind and they get pushed back or can barely move forward.  This is analogous to what your car is experiencing.  The reporter is trying to walk against a 100mph+ wind and your car is trying to drive through the air, at 100mph+.

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When the reporter steps inside from the hurricane, it is much easier for them to walk, jog, run and even sprint!  The reporter not only moves faster but they use up less energy.

When a car is in front of your car on a race track, they are somewhat eliminating that “100mph” wind resistance, letting you step into a bubble of protection and as you get closer, that effect gets even stronger, making it almost feel like you and your car get sucked.

You gotta shake it, before you bake it!

Now we all know from the documentary/autobiography “Talladega Nights, The Ballad of Ricky Bobby“, that you can even use this to create a sling-shot effect.  Where the trailing car tucks into draft of a car, gets sucked in and at the very, very last-minute pops out and can motor past the car that gave them the “tow”.

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Ok but for reals now – here is the real thing.

This is used quite often in wheel to wheel racing conditions and sometimes, can be used in qualifying or time attack situations, when the stars align.

What does a draft look from the data perspective?

Below is a session from Spokane County raceways in June 2017.  Spokane is an old school track with a very long straight away, 1,300+ yards long and in most cases, hitting near the rev limiter ( at the top of 5th gear in a PRO3 car.  At least in a PRO3 car, after exiting Turn 8, it’s full throttle past three turns, before braking for Turn 2.

On this day, it was a dry and windy Sunday, with qualifying in the AM and temperatures in the low 70’s.  I went out knowing that I had to setup to get my fastest laps in lap 3 or 4 – when tires would be in their optimal performance window. If I couldn’t get my target lap time then, I’d have to back off, let the tires cool off and have another go at it.

After getting things warmed up, I put together two flying laps where I felt like I gave it nearly my best and being one of only two people to get into the 1:37’s over the weekend lap time from Saturday.

Check out the gradual increase in lap time delta – usually evidence that one lap has a draft and the other doesn’t.

So, what do we have?

  1. The purple lap is where I caught an ok but not great draft.
  2. Towards the end of the green lap is when I started catching the cars in front.
  3. Air Fuel Ratio seems to be about the same on both laps
  4. At the start of the lap, there was zero difference in lap time.
    1. As I start making it farther down the straight-away, the speed difference starts growing, reaching a peak of almost 2mph
    2. By the end of the straight-away and right before the brakes were hit, the green lap was already .188 seconds slower.

I felt like I had left some on the able and backed off to let things cool down for a couple laps and setup two more laps, trying to catch a draft on those as well.

This time, with some video evidence!  What happened:

  1. The red lap ended up being faster than the green lap but that was with not much of a draft.
  2. The red lap, I got a solid draft on the back straight away, where we’ll focus the analysis.
    1. Like the previous lap, the difference in straight-away speed was between 1-1.5mph, through the whole back straight.
    2. You can see the delta graph, where the green lap was shaping up to be just as good as the previous lap.
    3. Engine RPM was also consistently 50-100 RPM higher for the green lap, indicating that the it was able to rev more freely with the lower resistance from the air.

Unfortunately, the car that gave me the tow on the back straight, also didn’t give me the easiest of paths to go through turn 4 (which is totally within their right) and that essentially killed the lap.

Conclusion: The draft is strong!

There is a ton of variables that go into determining the impact of the draft, such as the weather conditions, the track and the type of car.  In this case, with a PRO3 car, which is more of an aerodynamic brick, having something else punch a hole in the air made a difference of .15-.2 seconds on each of the straight-aways.

I think that if I could have lined up a draft on both straights, it could have reduced each of those fast laps by another .2 seconds at least.  How big of a deal is this?  I lost pole position on both days but less than .1 seconds.  In fact, in this video below – we took the video of the fastest segments from that session, stitched them together and this would have been a 1:37.437 – almost .5 seconds faster than the fastest lap and .2 seconds faster than my fastest rolling lap.

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This has generally been what I’ve experienced at most tracks on the calendar because each as a decent straight-away.

Catching a draft in qualifying versus in a race is the same but it is very difficult to control this in a race.  My suggestion is if you can, work with another driver and help each other out.  Take turns having one car have a go at it and then switch, allowing that switch lap to when you let the tires cool down.

Working together is very common in karting and in light-weight and powered classes, like Spec Miata.  In the future, we’ll do a write up like this with a spec Miata and looking at the quantified impact of bump drafting!

 

 

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Pad Knock-Back for Drivers: What is it, how to anticipate it and how to best clean up your undies!

It was August 2015 at Portland International Raceways – the second time at Portland of the year, running the chicane configuration.  It was the second year with my BMW E30 PRO3 race car and this year, was sporting a fresh engine, baller status OS Giken rear-slip LSD rear differential and a fresh exterior paint job.

On the second session of the day, I am feeling good and starting to get into a groove.  Come off turn 7 into the back-straight away, hammer down… 4th gear… 5th gear… BRAKES, hit the FIA curbing on the left, downshift, back to throttle… BRAKES!!!  I said BRAKES!!!  OH $H!%!?!?!?!  No BRAKES!!! Grass… sliding… spinning… no, please no wall!!!  Pump the brake pedal again… oh, brakes!  They work!  I’m alive!  The car isn’t destroyed!  But WTF just happened?!?!?

This is the infamous pad knock-back zone at PIR

What is it?

Pad Knock-back is when for various reasons, the brake pad loses contact with the caliper piston that presses the brake pad against the brake rotor/disc.  The contact is lost for one of two reasons (below) and the result is that the driver goes to apply the brakes and the pedal falls to the floor, with little to no brake pressure on that first application.  The brake system is moving the piston but the piston lost contact with the pad, so it’s moving air and slowing down nothing.

As soon as the the driver releases the brake pedal and pumps the pedal again, the pressure usually returns and the brakes work again.  The problem is that sometimes drivers don’t realize what has happened and don’t hit the brake pedal again, that second time around at all or in time.  And bad stuff can happen when you need to hit the brakes but they aren’t there.

How and why #1: Worn out caliper components

Caliper components live a hard life, especially on a race car.  They are called on to not only slow the car down aggressively with degressive braking but also help the car rotate with long durations of trail-braking.

All of this hot and cold and hot and cold and hot and cold… action makes seals burn up, brake fluid overheat or even boil if it contains water or air bubbles and the metal components deform and lose their snug fit amongst the other brake components.  According to this great and much more technical deep dive analysis from NASA Speed News, even a slightly deformed rotor can cause the pads to separate from the pistons and the pistons to fall deep into their bores.

The fix? Rebuild or replace your calipers at least.  For us, this quickly fixed the problem.  On that first experience, we had back in August of 2015, we bled the brakes and went out for a 1 Hour mini endurance race – the brakes felt better but were still getting knock back every lap before braking for turn 12.

Before Sunday AM qualifying, we sourced a new set of calipers from Advance Auto Fabrication (who also did all of the off season upgrade work), got them installed and presto!

Putting the finishing touches on new calipers for the weekend at Portland International Raceways

Pad nock-back was gone! Over the subsequent years and travels to various tracks we realized that PIR uniquely had the most FIA curbing of all the tracks on our schedule. If a set of calipers had more than 3 race weekends on them prior to heading to PIR, we’d slap on a new/rebuilt set of calipers.

Here is a video of a competitive race at PIR – note the use of the FIA curbing towards the end of each lap (turns 10 – 12):

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How and why #2: Driving hard on the curbing/gators

You might have fresh brake components but if you’re driving hard, eating up apexes and letting the car track out, odds are you are driving on the curbing, if the track has them.

Tracks have a variety of curbing designs but the end result is almost always the same, they cause vibrations that can and do shake up brake components – pad knock-back! This is so common that if you were to watch any pro-level sports car racing on TV or online, you’ll see brake lights light up as the cars are roaring through straight-aways. The drivers aren’t brake checking or trying to confuse a trailing opponent. They are lightly tapping the brakes to get the pistons seated back next to the pads and ultimately, make sure they have a brake pedal.

This is part of what happened to us in Portland in 2015 and just about every other time we went back. But this past June of 2017, we were at Spokane County Raceways, who does have apex and exit curbing.

Here is a pretty fast qualifying lap at Spokane County Raceways.  Note the elevation chart – it shows that it is pretty flat but if you listen closely, each of one those changes in elevation is going over a seam in the road.  Each of those bumps plus the curbing result in harsh vibrations applied to the braking system.

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We’ve been there twice before this, all have been 3-4 days of being on track and not a single issue.

Well this year, we were competing for pole and wins – nearly breaking the track record for a PRO3 car on Sunday AM qualifying. Sunday afternoon, final race of the season – qualified 2nd and was ready to make a great start and pull away.

Coming around the final turn and… GREEN FLAG! Full throttle in 3rd gear… I got a decent start and I have the inside for turn 2. Exit of turn 2 and in the lead, barely positioning myself for the outside of turn 4. Full throttle… 3rd gear… 4th gear… 5th gear… wait for it, wait for it, wat for it… BRAKES! NO BRAKES!?!? WTF is going on? I don’t want to die!

Note – Spokane is an old school track. High speed, built on a budget and in the high desert of Eastern Washington. The pavement nowadays is good. Not great, not horrible – but good. Stay on track with maybe a dropped wheel here and there, and everything is good. Go on an excursion, there will be pain. There are big rocks and boulders watching the action, waiting for a visit.

I was able to pump the brake pedal and luckily – this was the first lap of the race. We were still in traffic with faster cars so we weren’t going at full speed for that corner, which is usually a 4th gear corner.

We’ll update this post later on with the video from the race but what does pad knock-back look from a data standpoint?

An not annotated version of the pad knock-back session
Here is what is really happening on the lap

A few positions were the only thing lost in this occasion but it hammered home the lesson, always pump the brake pedal in between braking zones.

What should you do? Pump that brake!

The more I’ve been racing and steadily improving, getting closer to the front of the pack, stuff just keeps breaking or getting tweaked.  It’s a natural consequence of just pushing the equipment to the limit.  The braking system is not just the most powerful system on road racing and street cars, but it is the thing (and how it’s used) that separates the good from the great and the great from the greatest.

If you watch any form of pro-level racing, even NASCAR, you’ll see the drivers pumping that brake with their left foot because pad knock-back and other potential failures are a fact of life.  It happens all the time, so from now on, assume it will happen every time you go on track, every lap and on just about every braking zone.  PUMP THAT BRAKE!

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No training or exercise for 2 months = Not great performance

Surgery…

On July 7th, 2017 I went in for what was supposed to be a minor surgery.  I was diagnosed with a non-cancerous cyst, which is quite common except for it was located right on top of my tailbone (not on the tailbone but right next to it).  This meant that I was regularly sitting on it, especially when I would slouch.

It had originally come up 3 or 4 years ago after 6 months of karting all the time.  I thought it was just a result of all that trauma to my tailbone.  It was an annoyance but never very painful until this past June, during the second Portland International Raceways weekend.  After the first day of testing, I woke up sore all over my body and my cyst was really tender.

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I ignored all the pain and discomfort and made it through the weekend but went to the doctor the following week.  It turned out that my cyst had gotten so swollen, it was infected and those body aches, were my body fighting the infection.

Long story short, I needed surgery to have it completely removed.  It is a straight-forward procedure and usually within a week, someone can go back to normal activities, but because of the location, the recovery was at least 2 weeks and possibly up to 2 months before feeling ‘normal’ again.  Well for me, it ended up being the 2 months.

+ Bad Decisions

For 2 months, I wasn’t able to workout, do much simulator training and was on various combinations of pain medications.  2 weeks after the surgery, I decided to compete in a race at Pacific Raceways, where I got pole and finished P2 but I needed help getting into the car, out of the car and was icing my incision all day long.

A week after the Pacific race, I was reading to my kiddo and his friend, but I was also laid up, trying to take the load off my incision.

The next couple of weeks were really tough.  I don’t know how differently or faster things would have healed if I had not raced but I think it slowed things down.  A checkup with the surgeon a couple weeks later showed everything looked good but she was surprised to hear that I was in so much pain.

I headed her advice and just tried to rest up, sprinkling in some yoga and days of more walking.  1.5 months after the surgery was the August 19-20 Dash for Kids race, back at Portland International Raceways.

Our setup at Portland International Raceways

= Sub-Par Performance

During the race weekend, we decided to hit the ‘reset’ button on our suspension setup, seeking coaching and advice from the 2016 PRO3 Champion, Olivier Henrichot (a future post on that experience).  We made dramatic changes to the setup, where in the end, I was able to hit the same lap times as before, with less of an effort and more confidence in feedback from the car.

All good things except, I was beat.  On Friday, we had 4 total on-track session and I awoke on Saturday AM, full-body sore.  Saturday, was a typical day of practice, qualifying and the 1-hour race, of which this time, I was splitting seat time with Olivier. We won the race but I again felt beat, after a 30 minute stint.

The next morning, we only had qualifying in the AM and the main race in the afternoon; not a ton of physical workout time.  I qualified P2 and was ready to go for the win during the race.  But about 5 laps into the race, my lower back started hurting.  Halfway through the race, it was throbbing and I was actively thinking about it during the front and back straightaways.  Not a good.

Qualified P2 for the main PRO3 race on Sunday

Long story short, I did not perform anywhere near my full or regular potential and one big reason that I was just not physically fit enough.  Here is the race video from the weekend, of which again, isn’t all bad and 1 year ago, I would have been thrilled to finish P3.

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But How Did I Do So Well at Pacific?

I’m not entirely sure but I think that while I was in pain during the race, I still had more of my strength, stamina and was also on lots of Ibuprofen, which could have masked some of the pain.  At Portland, I think my strength, stamina and reflexes were not at the same level.  This variables resulted in a heavier mental toll and it started impacting me even worse.

At the end of the day, it’s not like I really sucked.  I still finished on the podium, against a couple of strong drivers that I’ve battled with all year.  Jeff McAffer, who overtook me for P2, had a really strong race, with the fastest lap of the race.  Olivier and I also won the 1-Hour endurance race!

The main point is that to perform at or near peak levels, you need to be mentally and physically at your peak.  I know there are drivers that aren’t into physical fitness and they are solid, if not incredible drivers.  They have other strengths, such as functional fitness and years and years of experience.  I don’t have more than a few years of racing experience, so I rely on physical fitness as a way to compete.

Moving Forward

For me personally, I am much healthier now and turning my training back up.  It will be some time before I’m as physically as fit as before but that is the goal.  And if in the future, I am injured, I am going to bite the bullet and rest/heal properly before trying to get back into the cockpit.

 

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I crashed: HPDE Edition

What: The very first time I crashed, which happened to be an HPDE road trip/event.

If I knew then, what I know now:

  1. I would have actively sought out training on how to handle “going off track.” Going off track is not a bad thing inherently and will happen. Handling it properly would have saved me a ton of money.
  2. Had a HANS or NecksGen device: the impact was a classic sudden forward neck movement, with a concrete wall.
  3. Reinforced that in motorsports, even recreational – if you’re competitive (I am) it’s not if you will crash, but when you will crash.  How are you going to move forward?

Things you should check out:

The car: 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9 GSR

This car, was technically, my wife’s car. A few years prior, I had decided it was time to get back into ‘car game’. It was about 3-4 years from when I had graduated from college, had paid off my student loans and bought a house. Prior to college and for some time in college, I was active in ‘modifying’ street cars.  But after several cars, experiments, blown engines and essentially sunk money, I bought a 1999 Ford Contour SVT (black), which had an aftermarket exhaust, broken sun-roof and called it good.  So I thought.

Fast forward to 2011 and we had a heavily modified (and unnecessarily) 2008 Subaru WRX STi (mine) and a 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution GSR (my wife’s).

Soon after we bough a house, we had an STi and then an Evo 9. This was in 2008, maybe 2009 but not sure why the pictures look like it was in 1988 or 1989.
Yes, we did car shows and here is my wife claiming a prize for best something. Oh the shame…
Proof from the car shows…
And we even did photo shoots. Oh, the double shame!!!

I slowly took over the Evo because I had gone too far with the STi, making it not track-capable.  With an upgraded turbo and 400whp, it was too much car for to handle and very likely wouldn’t make it a day or two without over-heating or blowing up as EJ25 engines were and are notorious for not liking even mild track sessions.

I’ll be writing a car profile post and update this article later on, but in terms of specs, it had the basic bolt-on’s, a tune by Cobb Tuning, a harness bar, some gauges, upgraded brakes (lines, pads and rotors) and I removed the rear seats for “weight reduction.”  😆  Functionally, it allowed space to bring alone a full set of track tires/wheels, a jack, jack-stands and pretty much everything I needed for a track day.

My experience thus far: Intermediate run group, on the cusp of Advance

This was the first year that I had decided I was done with simply modifying cars and hard-parking.  I had taken an HPDE full-day event the prior November and the bug had bit.  I had spent that entire spring and summer, attending track days and this was also the first year a friend and I had started developing Track Attack.  Each time we went out on-track, it was not only fun but a chance to test and improve Track Attack.

At the time, I had somewhere around 8-10 track days, without any real incident; a spin here and there.  Generally, I felt quite ‘seasoned’ by the time this trip came around but by no-means did I feel fast.  I had also done a couple autocross events and had decided that was not my path.  Nothing wrong with Autocross but all that standing around, with no practice runs and for at most 4 under 60 second runs (of which I sucked at all of them) – I was OK sticking with track days.  🙂

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The setting: A three-day track day road trip (Portland International Raceways and Oregon Raceway Park)

Most of my track days were with either ProFormance Racing School or The Ridge Racing School (now the majority of their events run by Turn 2 Lapping).  Each year, ProFormance racing school would organize a ‘road trip’, hitting Portland International Raceways for two days and Oregon Raceway Park for another two days (Thursday through Sunday).

I was excited and intimidated a little about Portland, mainly because it had the ‘International’ in the name – implying, at least in my head, the more professional and potentially hard aspect of the track.

The back-straight at PIR getting some instruction and likely told I suck.
Coming off Turn 12 at PIR
Holding up traffic in the Festival Chicane

The first two days at Portland went great!  I had hired an instructor for the first day at each track, to help guide me through the track as it was my first time at each.  At the end of the day on Friday, we caravaned over the mountain range.  I stayed with a friend (Robert) I had made in my modifying days, that was a Shop and History (I think) teacher, in The Dalles, OR.  He was/is a big car guy and had just gotten into Evo’s and was gracious enough to let me stay at his house.

That first day went really well and aside from frustrations with the Track Attack app (no cell phone reception at all) was ready to get back to the track and make some serious gains on my lap times.  That Sunday morning, Robert came out in the AM and we were able to give parade rides, which was fun to show him around the track.  Once he left, it was time to get back on it.

What happened

It was what would have been the second to last session of the day.  I forget my exact lap times, but I want to say they were in the 2:10-2:15 range, of which looking back on it now, is well below the abilities of that car.  I honestly don’t recall having too much of a structured learning or driver development plan, so I was pretty much just lapping around “trying to go faster” but no real thing I was actively or consciously working on.

Oregon Raceway Park is an incredible track, with lots of rolling hills, blind corner exits and no real long straightaway, giving little time for brakes to cool down or a rest for the driver.  It is ran primarily in the clock-wise direction, though it is regularly run counter-clockwise.  It’s out in the middle of nowhere, high central desert, Oregon, where if you go off, there really isn’t anything to hit.  Generally, go off, pick up small rocks and dust – come back into the paddock, clean and vacuum your car and you’re back at it.

Except one section: Start/Finish main straight with a wall

Check out this video of one of the best club racers (and drivers in general), Cody Smith in a race at ORP.  You’ll see that right at the last corner, there is a wall that protects the hot-pits.  The only real place to get in trouble here is that wall and that’s what I learned.

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You see what happened at 2:32 mark?  That’s exactly what happened to me. 

On what would end up being my last lap for that weekend, I was coming up on the final turn, I braked, turned but turned in too early and probably too lazily.  As I started exiting the corner, was on throttle but noticed I was going to run out of road and I lifted.  🙁

Off-Throttle Oversteer: Engaged

Not sure if the car actually dropped a tire but the rear end whipped around and next thing you know, I am sitting there, staring at a wall and corner workers running over to me.  I then look to my left to see if any other car is going to collect me and this awesome green E36 M3 purposefully goes off-track, along with a nice 370z.  No damage to them, aside from a dusty car.

Within 10 minutes, I’m out of the car, physically fine and am able to limp the car back to the paddock, where front end is pushed in a few inches, the Seibon carbon fiber hood latch is broken but that’s about it.  If it weren’t for the leaking radiator, I might have even tried to drive it home.

The aftermath

First, I have to thank Don Kitch Jr on how calmly he handled himself (not having been his first rodeo by a lot) as that helped calm me down.  I had recently started working with English Racing, in Camas, WA and made the call to see if I could have the car towed to their shop, so they could take over assessing and fixing the car.

I also called my insurance and told them I had run into a mechanical issue while on a road trip and needed a tow truck.  With no approved partner within 100 miles, they allowed me to use the local tow truck provider (a story for another time) and I had the car towed to English Racing, with me going along for the ride.  Myles Kerr (Gringo Integra) was incredibly awesome, meeting me at the shop (I think they were actually there anyway) and giving me a ride to the local airport, where I picked up a rental car and drove home.

At the end of the day, the damage wasn’t bad at all and the learnings were great.  The majority of the front end needed to be replaced (front bumper cover, lower lip, radiator support, radiator, intercooler, headlights [I think]).  The rest of the body parts were repairable and while it was at a body shop, I had the body shop massage all of the fenders so I could easily fit the 275/45/17 rubber I was running without rubbing and had English do a full mechanical evaluation, tune-up, install a new TRE rear differential, bigger injectors, new fuel pump and a new tune, bringing the power to 334whp and 276ft/lb torque.

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The Dark Side

I’m not gonna lie, I had some dark thoughts in the first 24-36 hours after the incident.  Even before I got out of the car, staring at the wall, I thought to myself – “What the hell am I doing?  This isn’t for me.  I’m not good at this and I can’t afford this.  Did I just financially ruin us?”

The scariest thoughts were those “this isn’t for me and I’m not good at this” thoughts.  I had already heard from Don and other experienced drivers that crashing on-track isn’t a question of “if but when” it will happen.  And multiple “when’s.”

Luckily (or maybe not), I’ve had a history of dealing with thinking and being told that certain things weren’t for me and that I sucked at them.  In most cases, I’ve been stubborn and hard working enough to prove others and myself wrong.  So it took some time, but I consciously decided that this incident would not hold me back.  Motorsports and specifically, being the best driver I could possibly be was something I wanted to be a significant part of my life.  So I picked myself up, dusted off, fixed my car and got back it.

At ORP a year later and more than 10 seconds faster than the prior year.
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My first track day!

What: My first track day!

If I knew then what I know now: I am not sure I would have changed a lot. The never give up attitude can get you along way at the track, and in the end I ended up driving a great car!

Check out: The Proformance Racing School has many great programs to choose from to fit your driving needs. Also other schools have arrived in the northwest as well like The Ridge Racing School and Dirt Fish Rally School.

The line up from the Family at my first track day!

My first track day was my 18th birthday gift from my parents. I thought it was the best thing I ever could have received as a gift. A chance to drive as fast as you can and not worry about the law. It turned out to be SO much more than just a thrill. My dad was always into track events as far back as I remember. As kids we would get to go watch him drive his, at the time Porsche 912, at the then called Seattle International Raceway (SIR) now called Pacific Raceways. I was hooked by the motorsport bug early. This brings us back to modern times at Proformance Race School for the One Day Advanced Driving School. Excitement level: high!

My car: 1985 Ford Mustang SVO Comp Prep – needed to be prepped

Leading up to the event we went over the recommended things to do before a day at the track. That list will be covered in another post but needless to say I did non of them. The car I had at the time was going to be great for this event. I was going to drive my 1985 Ford Mustang SVO Comp Prep. It was a bare bones version of the special edition SVO Mustang that was built to be sold to club racers in the 80’s. One problem was the car had no motor. So in the weeks and days leading up to the event we were trashing on the old SVO to get it running again. There is a longer story for another time. Got the car running about 1:30 am the day of the track day. So much for a good nights rest…. Wake up early and warm the cars up and I find a coolant leak from a bad sending unit under the intake manifold. Can’t drive a leaky car on track. Bummer factor:  Max at this point.

Drivers meeting.

Enter Dad for the save. He had recently got into BMW’s and was getting an E30 325is ready for track duty. He also had gone through and rebuilt an e28 533i BMW to daily drive as well. Being that he had two capable track worthy cars and is a 100% bad ass dude, he offered to let me drive the E30 for my first event. This may have been a bad thing because I have a couple E30 track cars, now. We unload my gear from my car to the E30 and dads gear from the E30 to the E28 and we were on the road. Excitement Level: Back to pumped!

The day of the event

It was the most enlightening thing I have ever done in a car. In the morning we did driver skills training with a panic braking stage, an eyes up flag drill and an emergency lane change drill. In these drills the basics of driver safety are tough, things like steering wheel hand position, seating position and were to look out the windshield. I felt like I was a sporting driver before but I had know idea I was just passing over the simple things to make me a better driver. The main thing that set in was eyes up and forward looking. Look to see whats ahead, what a novel thing. I still practice looking ahead every time I get in a car. Feeling pretty mind blown at this time.

The afternoon was spent lapping at Pacific Raceways. Now we are getting into some speed. Using the ideas we learned in the morning to improve our actions during spirited driving. I had a great instructor. She was calm and was very clear on instruction. As the afternoon progressed my vein tap was deeper and deeper. As I started getting more comfortable in the car the speeds came up and the fun factor as well. I would say I was getting to maybe 70% of the car capabilities but at the time was more than enough to fill my speed fix at time. Later this would change, but being the first time I had done anything at speed on a track I was cool.

All happy after a good day.

Literally the most valuable driving thing I’ve ever done

To this day I think this is the most valuable thing I have done to help my safety as a regular day to day driver. The lessons of eyes up and looking forward has become how I drive, not just something to do when I drive. Following this has saved myself and property from many (read lots of times) events on the road. Being able to see whats coming and react/ anticipate to whats about to happen, you end up being out of a situation before it even happens. You can then watch it and go “man, Glad I wasn’t in that” rather than “damn, I wish I would have seen that.” In my opinion this course should be done by anyone with a drivers license. The roads would be a much safer place. This was my gateway into the track world.

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My track car – 1987 BMW 325is

What: My track car – 1987 BMW 325is

If I knew then what I know now:  not a lot… have a larger budget.  My track car has evolved as I feel I have needed at a rate that has been on a equal plain as my skill.  Could use a little more power now……

Check out:  Any of your local track’s and driving schools!

Early days of my track car.

My track weapon of choice is a 1987 BMW 325is. I bought it in 2007 with the idea that it would become my track car. It is what i wanted in a track car, it was in my price range, it was the color I wanted, it was well maintained by the previous owner, and all the work done on the car was at the company/shop I was working for at the time. the only thing it didn’t have was the small plastic late series bumpers. Not to sound snoody but I could look past the bumpers as that was the only bad mark I could come up with when looking at the car. At first i was also going to drive it on the road as well. Well that lasted about two weeks and a car with a bunch of good track race parts that had been wrecked in the guys driveway by a drunk driver became available. This was going to help my rack budget out very much that year. By the time
I had got my parts car home and used what i wanted and parted the rest, I was onto my car pretty cheap. And it had some good stuff at this point. The first parts push ended up with a full Ground Control coilover set, Treehouse Racing front control arm brackets, a set of SSR Comp wheels with Falken rt-215 tires ( in the day one of the top street tires), a new set of stainless brake lines, a low miles E30 M3 4.10 limited slip diff, a set of Powerflex subframe and rear trailing arm bushings, a Momo steering wheel hub adapter, and a new OEM set of euro head lights and grills and a pair of Bride sport seats. I added a set of brake pads, a steering wheel, and a pair of harnesses i had picked up a year or two before on sale. All these ended up costing about $1500. Like I said my track budget looked good that year. others have cost a bit more.

It still had some style at this point.

At this point I would say it was still a street car. It still had a back seat and carpet and a radio. I drove it like this for a couple months, but the track bug kept calling. So soon later I found a real race seat. No more reclining. This did now mean I was going to need to look into some sort of roll over protection as I had now defeated that safety measure. I did a lot of shopping and research about fit, style, cost, shipping, availability ect. The one that went in the car was made by a company called VSROne. It had the best clearance and fit in the car. It was not the cheapest option but for sure one I was OK with paying for. Remember I am not a fan of that compromised safety thing. So now the radio has half its speakers, there is no rear carpet or side panels anymore. The seat is in a fixed position. There is scaffolding in the back of the car. but looking forward from the drivers seat it could play the street car part for now……

And out goes the rear seat.

A couple events into the life there was a thirst for more cornering load. Need to find some tires. Lucky for me there is a local race series that runs a similar car to mine and they tend to go through a lot of tires. So after a little hunting I acquired some real track rubber. in this case early on it was Toyo RA1 tires. These are great tires! They last along time, they can take many heat cycles, they made a lot of sizes, they are one of the cheapest track tires around. If they were still in production I would still be on them. Anyway, now I got some rubber and the car is pretty good. Springs in the car are now a little soft, I can feel the car hitting bump stops and floating a little on the grippy tires. The car already had pretty stiff springs. It was a bit stiff for the street, but not to bad. Front springs were rated ant 375 lbs/ in and the rears 475 lbs/in. At this point I had been working on a few Pro3 cars and had learned a few things. I almost doubled the spring rate of the car. Went to 650 lbs/in front and 800 lbs/ in in the rear. This was the next level of feel I was looking for at the track. Man is it stiff. Think of driving a skate board. So in making the suspension on my car up to track use I ruined the street ride quality. Not the best street car anymore.

Gripped up at Portland.

Then there was the day I killed the carpet. Was still daily driving the car at this point when almost home from work the heater core blew a end tank and sprayed the entire left side of the carpet with coolant. For me at this point the decision was easy. Yank that smelly coolant soaked carpet out! All the rear was already gone so why not. The heater core fix itself is pretty easy, but the mess was amazing. couple issues I found with no carpet. The car is super loud, the passengers feet can get a bit warm, and I had no place to rest my foot when not on the clutch. So I built a dead pedal for it and that is all I reinstalled. Screw the passengers feet, and I can deal with a little noise, because racecar. Speaking of noise. I have had at least five different exhausts on the car. I bought it with a Dinan muffler, I killed that one looping turn 6 at Pacific Raceways in the rain. Then the custom Magnaflow cat back, this was great until I smashed it beyond repair at a PGP Time Attack on the rumble strips back when you could do that. Then I scored a IE stainless that was on the car for maybe three days, it was way to quite. I then built a Meghan racing muffler catback out of some spare parts. Didn’t look that cool but it was cheap and it worked. This was on the car until it was no longer driven everyday. It now has a pulse tuned equal length header and a flow matched exhaust built by the now closed Volvo custom shop RSI (R-Sport International) when they were developing a Pro3 race exhaust system. The sound on this is amazing but its is on the very loud side.

This is a street car still?

So now I have been tracking and driving this absurd track car that I have convinced myself is still a street car to the point that it has worn out again. The shocks are all worn and the fronts are dead. DEAD. All the rear suspension bushings, rear wheel bearings, the drive shaft, and a couple other normal maintenance items. So as you should do with any track car i went through and replaced all worn items i found again. I also took this opportunity to think about things I would want to change and the largest one I could come up with was the the shock travel. The car always felt a little held back by the shocks. The valving in them was set for a way softer spring combo, the travel was near the bottom of the shock stroke and they seemed to bottom out a lot because of this. So after much deliberation I got a set of BC Racing coilovers. you can order them valved to specific springs and come with some pretty good hardware. I got a set valved to the springs I had, and because I had springs I had them ship me a softer set (These will be used in another car). I did have to weld the strut tube to my spindle but that is something well in my comfort zone. Once installed and set and tested, I was able to get the result out of the car i was looking for. if felt way better on track, the shock adjustments are now felt, the cat doesn’t bottom on the shocks and they are running in there normal stroke range. I also again made another safety up date at this time. I removed the old race belts and my trusty Sparco race seat and installed a new set of Hans device compliant belts and a Momo head restraint seat. Also upgraded the passenger side belts from 5 pt to 6 pt. Again you can never be to safe.

Wooof!

The look of the car was also something that needed a update. Wheels and tires are getting long in the tooth so lets start with that. We are gonna put a little larger tire on it as well. So off come the old trusty 15×7 wheels and 225-50/15 tires and on go the new Roto 17×8 wheels and the same Toyo tire in a larger 235-40/17. This has created a new problem. The slightly larger size is now hitting the bumper trim and stop the tire. Bring on the fender roller. Little work there and they are in! Thats pretty up to date on the car as of this blog. Still on this seasons update list is a set of Massive Brakes big brake kit and a Diff limited slip unit rebuild. then next season the removal of the old roll bar and sunroof and the installation of a roll cage and clean up the interior wiring. Stay tuned in!

Bonus action shot!
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Walk This Way! Track Walks:

Looking out the pit-lane exit at Circut of the Americas

What: Track walks, why you like them, even if you don’t know it yet

If I knew then, What I know now:  I would have studied harder on these when I was younger.  I would be a better driver and team member overall, now as a result.

Walking the track before an event is a very important part of your race or track weekend.  It spreads across all forms of motorsports, and any amount of wheels used.  Getting your feet on the same ground you will be driving your car on will give you valuable perspective regarding placement or the vehicle, surface conditions, line options and so on.  It is a great way to get the track layout in your head prior to getting into or on your machine.  There are a couple of key things to pay attention to and try to do while on a track walk.  I will try to outline some of them to help you get the most out of your next track walk.  I will start with some of my experience from the first events I went to as a young lad in high school with my buddies.

A group of friends of mine in school were also into cars.  We would set up a couple of days a year where we would all meet up the day before an auto cross event, hang out at one of the guys cabins, and then take all of our cars to the event the next day.  Auto cross was a good introduction into motorsports as a driver for me.  The first day I went to an event was with the Porsche Club (PNW Region).  I had a little old VW Jetta that had some sticky tires on it.  We got to the event, stood through the drivers meeting, then everyone set out and walked around the course that had been set up.  A course walk at an auto cross is essential.  The track will never be the same from event to event, so getting a feel for the layout is an important first step.  Auto cross does not allow for a lot of set up and testing time, so getting the most out of your runs is key.   I learned how valuable it was.  I was able to pip my friend on our first time out, and he was driving a 911.  There were more events after that, and as I grew to understand the track walk it made perfect sense to me.

Flash forward 15 years and now we are doing track walks every week we go to the track.  I went out and rode a new Motocross track a few weeks back – I did not get a chance to walk it, but I took 4-5 laps at just above a walking pace just to feel the place out – 2 laps later I was ripping around just fine.   We will often times end our first night at the track with a track walk.  It is a great way to wind down after a work day, and also a good way to walk some miles if you did not get a chance to before!  My first race back after a couple of years of just crew work, I ended up racing at the Ridge in Shelton.  It is a place I had driven before, but it had been a while.  We took the time the night before the race to walk the track, twice actually.  It was great.  I had one of the instructors at the track walking with us and they provided great insight to where to place the car due to seems in the blacktop in braking zones.  Entry and exit lines were discussed.  Gear selection (which can depend a lot on your equipment) was discussed.  I felt a lot better after walking the track to just jump in the next day and go.  Everything was fresh in my mind again.

Elevated view of the turn 17-18 complex at Circut of the Americas

Gama asked me to do a track walk with him this weekend at Pacific Raceways in Kent.  We have a race this weekend in the Pro3 car and he will be the only driver for the team this weekend as Manu’s car had a mechanical issue we found during a post-race inspection (more on that later).  I was quick to agree, as I have had many track days there, and 2 school days at that track, but had never actually walked a full lap in all of my years.  I had been to points of the track, but not all of the way around on foot.  We will be walking the track tonight and I am going to make notes, and take pictures to share our experience with the walk!

We try to track walk every weekend.  it is good exercise, knowledge, and you will have a great feel for the layout the first time you are behind the wheel at speed.  Be prepared for a walk, and be prepared for weather as well!  Some tracks are large, and weather can be different from one side to the other.  One of the other things that will help you a lot with our track walk, is walking with someone with lots of knowledge of that track for insight.  Most racers are instructors also, so their points of view are sound usually!  Just walking the track can gain you a lot, but having someone there to compare notes and tips with is very beneficial.   Having someone that drives a similar vehicle is even better!