BMW Club Race

Before moving to Texas, I was able to do one more event at Road Atlanta. This is the third event on the new Toyo RR's. In the endurance race on Friday I lot my O2 sensor. I put a bolt in the hole to finish the weekend.

In Saturday's qualifying race, I broke a wheel finding the big hole track right under the bridge. Starting from the back, I was able to come in 2nd in the race. Camera broke, so no video :(

Sunday I was able to take both the pole and the victory ahead of Robert & Chuck.































- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Road Atlanta

Savannah Sizzler

No video as my camera was having issues all weekend 

Saturday, I qualified 8th... Herrington got by me between 4 and 5 on the first lap and made his car pretty wide for the first half of the race so I fell as far back as 9th. Chuck bobbled in two and we both got by, halfway through the race I used out of class traffic to get by Harrington, and then caught up to Lako with a few laps to go. He does need an engine, but my tires we're pretty slick by then and he always got a good enough run out of the carousel onto the front straight that I couldn't capitalize. A thunder roadster pitting as Lako tried to take turn 9 leading onto the white flag lap caused him to lift and gave me an opportunity to get by and secure 6th for a set of brake pads (Thanks Bimmerworld!!!)

The bunny race Saturday evening was fun... staggered inverted start meant people we're spaced out and slowly grouped together. I put on an OLD set of severely heat cycled RA-1s and skated around a bit. Towards the end, the pseudo inverted three wide standing restart (in hindsight) may not have been the best idea in the world. It resulted in a side/side bang  Nothing too bad... it'll buff out ... Thanks to Geno's Garage for putting it together. 



Sunday's qualifying (for me) was not good... I could not find the fast line and get the car to stick to save my life. After holding up Lako and a couple other folks I let them by and settled for what ended up being 10th place. After noon on Sunday all eyes went to the weather as everyone tried to forecast whether or not the (large) storm would make it before, during, or after our 45 minute race... Team owner (Wendy) made the dry tire call, Julio & Eric went wet, and most everyone else went dry. While we saw some sprinkles in the race, nothing heavy enought to impact grip... good call Wendy! Unfortunately, lap one turned double yellow as Herrington, Robert Patton, and Sumpter got together through with all three ending up track right. At the restart, I ended up in a group behind Lako & Julio. It was interesting to see head to head differences between the RRs and the RA1s... Julio held on for a while but I eventually worked my way by and using traffic settled into a comfortable 5th place finish. 

My first road trip with the new truck & trailer... I definitely liked the setup, especially packing up after the race (in the rain). Also, it was great meeting some new folks (to me) in the series.

Pot of Gold Rush

First event back after almost a year off with a broken leg.

Saturday was interesting trying to get back into the car after that much time. Throw in the new tire compound just to add a little spice. I ended up qualifying 7th, not bad. Went for a ride up the hill in 1 on the first hot lap of qualifying... apparently the RR's need a little more time to warm up. Post qualifying the car weighed in at 2708 with ~ 1/4 tank of fuel on the gauge (~ 1/2 tank). The race was fun... no major incidents in Spec E30 but it was shortened due to a car getting stuck at the exit of 5. Part of me was glad it ended under yellow as I'm not sure how much more I had in me. Finished 4th making up some ground when Stoops went off allowing me to get by both him and Robert. Post race weight was 2718 with ~1/3 tank shown on the gauge.

I positioned myself well for qualifying Sunday, but ended up 7th (again). Another great race with Robert & Sandro working our way through traffic. Unfortunately the race was shortened after a 1st lap incident in Turn 5 with a Spec E30.

I want to thank Tony Bush, a friend of mine that hung out and helped with the car this weekend. Wow did having someone to crew really make a difference. Hope you had a good time, I sure appreciate the help!!!

Saturday's Race (front camera didn't record):


Sunday's Race:
Front Camera:


Rear Camera (Thanks Brian!!!):



Another view of Saturday's Race from #401 Chuck Taylor

Brake Master Cylinder

Replaced the brake master cylinder. Kept the original as a spare. Complete brake fluid flush as well.

Location:Marietta, GA

Trailer Flooring

Because Gretchen likes to leak oil, protecting the floor of the trailer is a necessity before the car can be stored there. I decided to follow Ranger's lead and go with a a 2 part epoxy... Started with a primer:



First (base) coat of epoxy:

Location:Powder Springs, GA

Spec E30 Dyno Day

Two years after building the engine, I finally got it to the dyno. A big Spec E30 group came out. It was pretty humid to start the day so that may have dropped power down a little. Overall pretty happy with the car putting down about 154hp & 150 ft pounds of torque.
Here are the graphs:

Location:Balanced Performance