Sponsor: Cranes Pigskin Picks

My first sponsor!!! Admittedly it's not like John Deere was banging down the doors, but I'm not proud and will take what I can. Friend and fellow trombone player from Purdue Brian Crane runs a great football entertainment website called Cranes Pigskin Picks. Go Boilers!!!

Competition School

National Auto Sport Association (NASA) is the sanctioning body for the Spec E30 race series. They held a two day competition school as part of their Hotlanta Challenge. The first day consisted of classroom sessions and on track exercises. Other Spec E30 racers taking the school included Chuck Taylor and Laura Patton. The second day consisted of participating in the lightning sprint race sessions. The Lightning race group included Spec E30, 944 cup, Spec Miata, and Honda Challenge cars. Sunday's practice and qualifying sessions were exciting as I saw more spins and offs that my entire driving school career.

During Sunday's race there was a total of eleven Spec E30 and due to a mix-up I was gridded for the standing start in third place behind Robert Patton (the southeast Spec E30 ambassador) and Carter Hunt. I was supposed to be gridded at the back with the rest of the comp school graduates. The car classes were not separated out so during the race I mixed it up with a number of Spec Miatas and after watching Robert and Carter walk away through traffic lost a position to Damion Moses. That was my first race craft lesson... defend your position. I finished fourth in class and outside of the bump draft from the Miata between 10a and 10b didn't have any incidents.

Body & Graphics

It finally came time to put the car on track wheel to wheel, so the final touches for racing included primarily the mandated stickers but also some dakar yellow accents to make the car easier to pick out on track. Lastly, I added a black flag graphic on the front drivers side corner.

Safety

As I adjusted to the dynamics of the E30 and developed as a driver my speed picked up I began to work on safety items preparing the car for Spec E30 competition. The seat is a Racetech HRV 4009 and the cage was installed by Genesis 1 (B.J. Fisher). Additional items that went in included the fire system, new belts, kill switch, etc...

Suspension

After routine maintenance, it
was time to start the build beginning with the spec suspension consisting of H&R Race Springs, Bilstien Sport shocks, fixed front and adjustable rear sway bars.

Additionally, all of the original rubber bushings were replaced with urethane/delrin replacements better suited for the track.

Acquisition

I found the car online when it was 14 years old. Originally purchased overseas by a US serviceman, this 1991 BMW 325i spent it's first four years in Germany. The Laguna Green with black interior was not available here and the sport package and OEM side skirts made it a rare car.

While most people felt the car was too nice to turn into a race car, I thought it was perfect. The first order of business was to bring the car up to speed with routine maintenance items. Considering the 210,000 original miles on the car it was in really good condition.