And we’re back…

Thanks to the power of smart phones and social media, Jon and I were reminded that we were at Sonoma Raceway exactly 1 year ago for the first race of the 2021 season when an unfortunate accident resulted in our E36 BMW M3 race car being totaled. At the time, we felt two things. Relief, because Jon was safe and uninjured. But also disappointment, because we had just finished a complete refresh of that car and we were looking forward to a full season of racing.

A few weeks later, I was faced with an important decision. Hang it up and take up a new hobby, like fishing? Never. Rebuild another E36 M3 because with the parts that we could salvage and transfer over, that was the most logical and economical decision? Nah, the idea of having the same car again wasn’t particularly exciting for me. That’s when the gears in my head started turning…what if we took our time and built an E46 M3 instead? Sure, it would be more expensive but it’s also a newer and stronger chassis; which should result in a better and faster race car.

Jon and I talked about this idea and we both agreed that this would be the direction that we would go in. We would do things our way, no compromises, and this would be our best build yet. Well…fast forward to Friday March 25, 2022 (363 days after we bid farewell to the E36) and we found ourselves towing down our badass new E46 M3 from Fremont to Fontana for our first race of the 2022 season.

In case you’re wondering, we will absolutely write and post an in-depth build blog about how this car came together later. But in the meantime, scroll down below to find out how “Ursula’s” (that’s what we decided to name her) debut at Auto Club Speedway went.

Super Touring

For this weekend, we registered in Super Unlimited (SU class) because the new tire that we’re working on with Yokohama is not available for purchase yet, and therefore not legal in ST4 (but it will be soon!) Our goal was to have fun and to gather data for NASA and for Yokohama in order to help classify the tire. We decided to run in SU because it meant we would be on track at the exact same time as other ST cars, racing in the exact same conditions.

Qualifying for ST was early in the day and marked only the second time that I had ever driven at Auto Club Speedway. Fortunately, Marc’s friend Andrew Lim from Buildjournal shared his AIM data with us (thank you) which was hugely helpful in getting me more quickly up to speed. Ride along with me for a 1:51.638 lap, which was good enough for P2 in SU and would have put me P4 in ST4 class. The top 5 cars in ST4, if you included me, were all within 1 second of each other. Team Hemisphere grabbed pole in ST4 with a time of 1:50.697 in their E36 M3.

Ride along with me for my qualifying lap here:

So…somehow, both myself and our neighbors at Lang Racing Development (in their Norma M20F, which was P1 in SU and Pole for the ST race) ended up rolling to the grid a few seconds too late, after NASA had already released all of the other cars. This meant that the two cars that should have been on the front row for the first green flag went out on track P25 and P26 out of 27 cars (at least we weren’t last, kidding). So, I ended up battling through the entire field and passing 16 cars for position by the time the checkered flag was thrown. I finished on the podium in SU class (P3), and would have been P2 in ST4 class.

Ride along with me for a super fun race here:

WERC 3 Hour Enduro

For the Enduro, we decided to have Jon qualify and start the race. He did an incredible job putting the car in P2 for E1 class (out of 9 cars) with a time of 1:52.047. Ride along with him for that lap here:

We had a really strong start to the race, with Jon taking the lead in E1 class for a portion of the first hour. After the second hour, the top 4 cars in E1 class were all on the same lap and the battle became more about fuel consumption and pit stop strategy.

Unfortunately, with 40 minutes remaining we needed to make one final stop for fuel. We decided to also do a driver change then, and as I got settled into the car the team had a miscommunication around the release of the vehicle. We weren’t done fueling yet, but I thought I was being told to go. This resulted in some fuel being spilled, and a 10 minute (5 lap) penalty. So as I rejoined the race with 35 minutes to go, we tumbled from P2 in E1 class down to P7. And then, just one lap later there was a full course double yellow. The safety car came out, and another lap later they threw the checkered flag at start/finish. We ended up P7 in E1 class and 22nd overall (out of 37 cars). Bummer.

As you can imagine, we were super puzzled by what happened and obviously disappointed about the penalty and not having a chance to fight back. It was only until after the race director gathered all of us in the paddock that we learned the reason for the race ending 30 minutes early. Apparently, an elderly woman fell and injured her head in the paddock. Normally, the track staff would have called 911 but given the severity of the injury NASA decided to send this woman in the track ambulance to the hospital; which was 100% the right decision. As such, we could no longer complete the race without an ambulance on site and rather than parading us around for 30 mins under double yellow, the race director ended the race.

Hindsight is always 20-20, had we known the race would have ended 3 laps later we would have kept Jon out and cruised around on fumes. We would have likely ended up on the podium still. But it wasn’t meant to be.

We will take this as a learning opportunity for tightening up our pit stops, and we will come back even stronger as a team.

Ride along with Jon for an action-packed first 30 mins of the enduro here:

What’s Next

As always, we intend to regroup and come back better than before. This first weekend taught us a lot and we are happy about the improvements that we continue to make with “Ursula.” With any new race car build, there are always teething issues and small things that you figure out along the way.

We are also motivated by the improvements that we will continue to make as a team. The road to the 25 is long, but we are up for the challenge. Most importantly, we want to thank some truly incredible friends for their help this past weekend. Shout-out to Marc, Andrew, Karla, and Carlos. We could not have done it without you!

Also, special thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Capinpin for the delicious loompia and siopao. And thank you to Herb for the awesome photos.

See you at Thunderhill in April!