You can use a rock as a hammer, but that doesn’t mean it is always a good idea or that is what it is designed to do. That sums up the 5 series. It tries really hard to be a race car, and Brendan has done his best to make it act like one, but its almost 30 years old. They had a number of entries since this was a big event and so they split the race groups into slow and fast. Because the sled is technically a ‘modified’ car, it was put in the fast group. Brendan invested in some racing slicks to hopefully help the old girl stay on pace with the rest of the crazy cars in that group. To help non-BMW CR guys understand - the fast group probably has several cars that cost over $100k. They circle the track in 1min 29 secs for just over 2 miles. The sled is more like a 1:38.


The sled takes the green. Which of these cars is not like the others...

He went out for practice as I warned him to be careful and take it easy. Racing slicks are tricky and if you’re not careful heating them up you can spin out and wreck on the out lap, like Craig did with his 911 (although that was more a case of street tires and poor driving so really not a good analogy I guess). He went around a few times as we watched from pit lane, and everything looked good. Then as I saw him coming down turn 12 something looked odd. That wasn’t a drift it was a slide. I said “oh sh!t, oh sh!t, oh sh!t” with increasing urgency as the proximity between the sled and the wall got smaller. In one of the luckiest things I’ve seen Brendan remains one of the few people to lose it in that turn and not have the car hit the wall.

The next practice session and Brendan comes in after a few laps with smoke and water pouring out of the car. The little off road adventure had loosened some things up and one of the belts had flipped and cut a hose. Ted quickly fixed that and Brendan took the car back out for qualifying. He came back again after a few laps. Apparently that belt had stretched and wouldn't stay in place. I ran off to AutoZone to get a replacement so that he could make the race. With the new belt installed and everything (we thought) checked out, the fast group takes the grid.

I was still concerned about the tires, neither Brendan nor I are ‘slicks’ guys. I race on glorified street tires, I was worried enough to bring a set of RA-1’s to fall back on if the fancy tires proved to be too much. The green flag dropped and we watched the fast guys go. Two or Three laps go by and Brendan’s car is missing, I get that sick to my stomach feeling. The Black Flag comes out ordering all cars into the pits. This turns into a huge mess, as the flaggers messed up, and no one in the race or on pit road can make heads or tails of what is going on. Still no Brendan, but Steve Bassen, who is friend of ours and hand’s down the best Body Shop guy maybe in the world, is missing too. I’m getting sicker to my stomach thinking please God don’t let Brendan and Steve take each other out. One of the guys with a radio finds out that Steve has crashed his car and that is the reason for the black flag. No word on Digel.

Ted’s cell phone rings. Its Brendan calling from a corner worker’s phone. He doesn’t have a radio in the car so he borrowed a phone to call us and say the driveshaft broke and he is behind the wall. This seemed pretty absurd at the time, Ted almost didn't take the call! The race ends with more flagging drama, and the 112 comes in on the hook. The driveshaft (which spins at roughly the same speed as the engine) had broke free and knocked around in the transmission tunnel with such force to bust through the sheet metal around the pedals. Brendan is okay and lucky he didn’t take a knock on the leg, but the sled is done. Maybe permanently.

Now this is on Friday, and there are races on Saturday and Sunday, with no car - sitting at a race track loses its excitement almost immediately. My car is still holding a parking space hostage under the tent, so we devise a plan to put everything back together (hopefully working) and I’ll drive that for Sat. and Sun. With lots of help from Marks, Ryan, John, and Ted we get the wheelspeed sensor fixed and the dash put back together. I’m also missing the ‘required’ stickers so we track down a set of those from the super cool Mike Hinkley and then put them on like the dude that Clay got to wrap his car. Chuck Taylor and the other O'fest folks bend over backwards to switch around the paperwork needed to change cars.


More stickers, hastily applied, will make the car look less like sh!t, right?

There are some issues classifying my car – it is at separate points in time K prepared, Spec E36, and finally Spec E30 (but too late), long story short I qualify first in class ( about 18th or something on grid) and end up winning the enduro race for my class. This isn’t recognized at the time due to the above Timing and Scoring error, but whatever, little known fact - I get paid the same for first as I do for last. I take solace in that Clay jumps in to “co-drive” the last 6 or 7 laps of the “enduro”, and my fast lap is about 1.5 seconds better than his.

Proof is in the pudding - fancy Stack data!

[Ryan Kuhn who is Seth's car chief was nice enough to help out during the race. My radios were acting up, so the mic in my helmet was on the entire time. Ryan did an awesome impression of what it sounded like - vroommmmmm, upshift, vrooommm, blip, downshift, rumble rumble (curbing), vrooooommm..... listening to that for an hour, except for the occasional road rage profanity.]

This is probably the reason Dave and I are winning the NASA-SE enduro series. I explain “addition by subtraction” to James over the sweet sweet free BimmerWorld BBQ. Mark’s brother is some type of semi-professional barbeque guy. They literally towed his super grill down from Virginia and he stayed up all night Friday into Sat. cooking. Shockingly I think there was enough food for everyone. The super grill has a huge smoker / wood fired deal, a regular gas grill, and two keg fridges all on a trailer. It is a pretty impressive piece of engineering, and of course I don’t have a picture of it.

Sunday rolls around and I’m about as tired of being at the track as you are of reading this. (If you made it this far.) My truck has decided to start making a noise that sounds like a cat caught in the axles mixed with metal on metal. I show up late to the track, go and qualify and get hung up in traffic so I don’t get a clean lap which makes me mad. The car isn’t handling the way it should but I don’t have anything to fix it since I never planned on racing the car this weekend anyway. All of a sudden a nap, and not getting stranded at 6pm on 85 / 285 / or 75 with a broke truck towing a race car and trailer seems more important than racing. If this sounds soft, it probably is. But Club Racing for me is more about hanging out with friends / driving different cars, than the racing. The stuff we do with NASA is much more competitive and exciting since there are 20 or so cars all the same vs. different prep levels of BMWs coming and going. My mission accomplished I drive slowly home with the radio off trying to listen for the truck to break something while also trying ‘not’ to fall asleep at the wheel.

Side Notes -
Truck turned out to have 2 of the 3 U joints rusting together. The grease was gone and during the flood driving through huge puddles meant water had gotten in them and started rusting things up.

Congrats to Dave White on probably locking up like his 10th BMW National Championship. People like to think its just Dave's car that is fast, but he had some serious competition this weekend including Clay racing another guys car and proved he could handle the pressure.

Stay tuned later this week I’ll post up the deleted scenes: of the practical joke on Dave White that went horribly wrong, comments on Clay’s running, how I got screamed at by a safety official, and Clay’s practical joke on Mark’s that also went sideways.

Labels: Race Recap, Road Atlanta, Sled

Programming note. I put this race report off on purpose since I had Dec. taken care of and in theory we should be racing again in Feb. This was designed to give you a full 12 months of DTOM coverage, in other words - your money's worth. There are some super cool pictures of my car from the Road Atlanta race that I've put up on the server at: http://dtomracing.com/photos/ Check them out, I wanted the quality so I didn't bother shrinking them and trying to post here since Blogger is cool, but it is designed more for words than pictures. I'll get us started with this 'not so cool' picture though since it starts the story.....



And there it sat. It is in roughly the same condition only it now sits in Craig’s garage, or what I call DTOM race car storage while I keep waiting for him to bring up rent. You would have thought that since the car broke the first weekend of Dec. and it is now mid-Jan that putting it back together would be a piece of cake. Well the pesky holidays got in the way and basically we need to rebuild the entire car.

The transmission is confirmed to be shot, and the motor had the oil light coming on repeatedly at Road Atlanta. The oil light is for oil pressure. If you ever see a light with a little oil lamp come on your dashboard – SHUT YOUR CAR OFF. Or you can do like me and run another race or so. Be advised you’re on borrowed time at this point for some very expensive repairs if luck isn’t on your side. Thankfully a piston didn’t come shooting through the hood or anything dramatic, but I really need to put a new engine in at the same time. Soo – checklist transmission, engine, and at the same time replace all the accessories and I bought a fancy new seat.

[In fact before our next little adventure started I needed to get something out of my car, Craig went to move his from under the premium lift spot my car is sitting in. Wouldn't start. This meant his garage had become some sort of perverse 1980's museum of non-running cars, since neither race car would run and his Porsche perpetually has a dead battery. He found a ladder and I climbed up so I could fish out my Traqmate from the car.]

Okay, the engine isn’t together (yet) but is being worked on, and the existing engine and tranny are still in the car. Did I mention our first race is 2/6 – 2/8th? It isn’t looking good but never say die! We’re going to pull the motor and what not out this Sat. hopefully so work will have at least begun.

The week after my car finally gave up, I had plans to go with Brendan Digel and co-drive his 1979 E12 race car. You’re probably saying things like 1979, E12 (what is that? well it is the first version of the 5-series, a 4 door family sedan), if you're thinking that all these words don't make sense together (race car, 1979, family sedan). Guess what? You’re right. Here is the problem with race cars, they’re a lot like marriages you get about one shot at things and if you’re wrong it will cost you a lot of money to make it right or tolerable. The smart thing for Brendan to do would be to pull any valuable piece off this car and sell the rest for scrap. BMW’s can be made into tolerable race cars, but they aren’t purpose built for racing. Now if you were going to pick a model from BMW’s catalog that is less suited to being a race car than a ’79 4 door car you’d be hard pressed.

However in Brendan’s defense things rarely start out that easy. It seems back in the day there were several people racing early 5-series (which doesn’t make it any more logical but when in Rome). Also the car was given to him for free. He had a buddy build the cage so that was ‘low cost’. Suddenly you’re getting married because she likes to drink beer and go bowling.

The problem with a 4 door sedan being made into a race car can be overcome; after all the BimmerWorld guys race the base version of the 3 series and it goes pretty fast. But just like their race effort, people don’t make a lot of off the shelf solutions for non-standard applications. In other words if you go down a path like this you’re walking alone. And you better like working on cars, and inventing parts. Oh and when you invent stuff you better be ready to pay someone to build it (and then really hope you’re good at inventing stuff since having a receipt doesn’t mean crap when you try to return a one off race part).

The key piece to Brendan’s race equation is the motor under the hood. However much like mine tough love had wore it out. So back in July he started to put things together and did a rebuild that was pretty basic and ‘low buck’ (as these things go). Fast forward to November and the parts are assembled and the engine is installed. Brendan goes to a BMW Club Race over in Birmingham and in typical DTOM fashion the car breaks on the first lap. Since Brendan is a mechanic it now becomes a point of professional pride to put this thing back together almost against better judgment. Now playing automotive CSI is difficult and to say what really caused it to fall apart is hard with any degree of accuracy after all race motors, especially the higher the HP versions, aren't known for reliability. The block of the engine (the bottom section) is the biggest, heaviest, and supposed to be the strongest. Well anything that is 30 years old isn’t as fresh as a daisy, and there is a tab on the block that broke on his first motor (necessitating the initial rebuild), and then on the second, and I believe again when they were machining the third. So it appears it may be a failure common to that model’s design (to paraphrase Unforgiven).

Okay, here is why we feel like the work on my car will come off without a hitch. The weekend before the 8 hour enduro while we were prepping my car, we took a few hours off and pulled the motor and tranny from Brendan’s. He then started on an ill advised shopping spree for motor parts and sent things up to the best machinist he knows – Chris Thurman at Sunbelt motors. Sunbelt motors makes pro motors for a laundry list of teams and series, Grand Am, SCCA Mazda, World Challenge, you name it. Well, being really good at something rarely means you’re cheap especially when more parts need to be invented and created as quickly as possible. Since Chris built the cage in this car, he took a personal interest and between he and Brendan and the powers of overnight shipping things started to come together.

Craig, and Bob (Brendan’s boss and owner of RWL German Imports), along with Brendan all pitched in at several points but it was a lot of late nights and stress to see if it would come together. Amazingly it did, and it started, and it seemed to run a lot better than previously thanks to some insight from the motor guys up at Sunbelt. Just in time for the BMW Club Race at Roebling Road. All Brendan had to do was finish one race and he’d be the National Champ in B-mod, which sounds pretty darn impressive! And keeping a 30 year old car together is as much part of the challenge as driving it.

We loaded up on Friday morning and headed over to Savannah along with Brendan’s buddy and another superb mechanic (now retired to insurance sales) Ted McMahan. Ted and I were as nervous as two cats outside a Chinese buffet in case something should break or go wrong. As we pulled up on Friday my buddy and fellow Spec E30 racer Robert Patton had an interesting proposition. How would I like to drive his second car (used typically by his daughter Laura). The plan all along had been for me to co-drive the enduro with Brendan and with his championship secure he would go somewhere and sleep. I would drive the sprint race on Sunday on my own.

I suddenly found myself in a unique position. I have never really driven anyone else’s car, unlike Clay or Seth or these hired pro guns that have enough talent to justify someone saying – “Hey break and or use up my stuff”. So here I was in demand! Wow what a feeling. I gleefully took Robert up on his offer since running the whole enduro by myself was more seat time than sharing an enduro with Brendan. To replace my awesome driving skills we sought out Mike Skeen.com since the guy he was supposed to be helping had somehow managed to get himself kicked out of the event. Brendan takes the car around for the last practice session and it runs fine and looks good. Ted and I start to relax.

** Interesting sidenote. Two years in a row someone has gotten in trouble for effectively the same thing. Ted and I happened to be going down the street from the track during lunch to get gas, when this race car comes roaring down the road in the opposite direction doing easily 80-90mph. Now the first thing they tell you at Roebling – DON’T SPEED. They tell you this for a few reasons. The main source of civil revenue in the greater Pooler, GA. and the surrounding area is generated through traffic fines and secondly the ‘neighborhood’ which is a loose collection of trailers and rural homes is eager to hate a bunch of fancy guys driving fast cars at excessive speeds outside their home and they’re probably justified in that thinking. Well apparently this dude didn’t get the message. As he blew by one house a few good ole’ boys got into the back of a pickup and followed him right after they called the sheriff. To save this dude a beatdown and possible arrest, the track mgmt. and race stewards kicked him out of the event. Strangely a similar thing happened last year when a guy needed a part down at autozone and decided to drive his TOTALLY non street legal car there complete with the loudest exhaust you’ve ever heard - at night. Showing that this may be some type of syndrome that afflicts racers they both had their girlfriends along for the rides. Neither car had more than one seat. **

Sat. morning arrives and it is chilly. I’m set to practice in Brendan’s car first thing, and then qualify Robert’s car (from here on called the Police car since that is what it looks like it even has working flashing lights, Patton’s other car is the “taxi” because – you guessed it, it looks like a taxi). Last time I sat in Brendan’s car was probably more than a year prior when it was like a fat man in a little coat. Brendan is a couple of inches shorter than me and an avid bike rider. So in other words the typical race car driver build. I’m slightly above average in height and don’t miss many meals. I shoe horn myself into the seat and find that everything is a little tight (ala Dave White) but manageable. I hit Roebling Road and it is worth the price of admission. HORSEPOWER it’s a helluva drug. Brendino’s car is probably making 280-300 at the wheels and weighs about the same as my E30. It also has big sticky tires and nice stiff springs. In other words it is more like a race car than mine. I can’t see through the frost in the windshield and the tires are slick as glass due to being cold, but I can tell driving this car is going to be a good time. I putz around a bit but don’t push it since the goal is to finish the race today, not for me to goof around.

I qualify the police car and find out what Patton is talking about when he told me ‘it doesn’t work right’, and here I thought he wanted me to drive it because I’m awesome. Turns out I’m a glorified test pilot, oh well semantics. The car won’t put power down coming out of corners and is spinning the unloaded wheel. I pedal as fast as I can but can only manage a 1.27 vs. the 1.25’s / 1.24’s I can do in my car. I spend the rest of the day bragging about what an awesome start I’m going to get and how much I’m going to kick a$$. I recruit Ted to help me make some minor modifications to the police car to see if we can help our cause any. The Green Flag drops and I’m caught in la-la land dreaming about something, in fact it takes me a second to register “Why are these cars speeding up”. I was so far back it was hard to see the flag station never mind what the dude had in his hand. No problem I’m awesome, watch this. Wait a minute why is this car shaking so bad it feels like it is falling apart? When Ted and I made our ‘improvements’ we added thin pieces of metal to the rear wheels called ‘spacers’ these can slightly adjust the handling characteristics of a car. Turns out they didn’t ‘quite’ line up with the rims correctly. I do one lap and then another and it isn’t getting better. If this is my car, I’d roll the dice. After all what is the worst thing that can happen? Oh Yeah the rear wheel can fall off. Instead not wanting to buy Robert a car I come in and get chastised for not trying to fix it in the pits and going back out by Clay, and Ted, and others.

The positive spin is I got to watch the race and Brendan came in and did a smooth hand off to Mike Skeen.com who proceeded to tear it up. The B-mod national championship was in the bag and all the hard work, expense, and late nights had paid off. Well kind of, since there really isn’t anything besides a plaque and rumors of an Al Taylor – home made possum fur coat for BMWCCR national champs. We celebrate by freezing our nuts off and eating BBQ. **I can’t begin to tell you how sick I am of pulled pork barbecue at these functions. I know it is a cheap way to feed a crowd but when you only marginally enjoy it, having it once or twice a month becomes excessive.

So Sunday is all me and I’m chomping at the bit to get some more seat time in a go fast car. I suit up for qualifying and I have to try and live up to Mike Skeen.com’s fast lap of 1.18 in a race, in a car he had never even sat in prior to the race. @#$@$@#

I hop in and tear off, first lap is a 1.21 something. Good get some heat in the tires. Third lap is a 1.20, looking good, looking real good. I’m braking at around 400ft going into turn one playing it safe and I figure “Hmm this car can certainly go 50ft deeper” as I race down the front straight at 140mph. My hypothesis proves to be incorrect as I find out dramatically how ABS must save my a$$ on a regular basis in my car. The front right tire locks up, I get off the brakes a bit and nothing happens. I turn in hoping to pitch weight on the front tires to give more grip and get it to bite, good in theory, in practice I slide off the track. 4 laps total. I go around slowly and head for the pits to make sure I didn’t break anything.

Everything thankfully checks out and I’m cleared for race launch. My qualifying time puts me about 10th on grid and I’m close enough to see the green flag drop and I’ll be d@mned if I’m going to have 2 lousy starts in a row. We take off in a group with all the big boys and run 3 deep in turn one. It occurs to me that this is all happening about 100 times faster than in my car. I pick up two spots and then get down to the business of absolutely making sure that I flat spot all 4 tires. I never feel very smooth but I manage a 1.195 in the race and win the B-mod class (of which I was the only participant). Still it earns me a few things 1) a sticker that says “Class Winner” 2) I beat Mike Skeen.com in the B-mod points battle, suck it Skeen. 3) I won a $100 tire rack gift certificate in a raffle and 4) I got a free t-shirt (well I would have got that for just showing up).
BAM! Better luck next year Skeen.


So we had a happy ending, Brendan’s car held together, I had a blast driving something moderately fast, he won his championship, Ted had some beers and got to hang out and all’s well that end’s well.

Here is a picture of the sled from a happier time, with the Cobra as co-driver instead of me, Brendan was crew chief that day, and TJ used to race with us before he had a kid and stuff....


Now we just need to try and do it again for Feb.

The 2008 points were released I finished 4th overall, 27 of which did 4 or more races, so pretty respectable. Unfortunately that may be my swan song for points. Our NASA-SE schedule this year sucks, so I may make my own with a combination of any races I can con Brendan into letting me drive his car again, the NASA crowd SouthEast and Mid-Atlantic, and BMW Club Racing. Unless of course someone reads this and feels like giving me a few hundred grand in which case I’ll be in World Challenge or Koni destroying even faster and more expensive cars, but I’m not holding my breath.

Labels: Roebling Road, Sled