Dec 1-3 at COTA, TX

What a year it has been, but we are officially at the end of our 2023 first season with WRL. Our last event is at COTA and we have amazed everyone including ourselves by actually not only making it to the race, but with 2 cars both technically new cars. We have upgraded and prepped the new to our
15 car and we have also managed to completely rebuild the 14 a􀅌er last months devastating total loss. In fact the old #15 lives on as the donor to replace the front clip on the 14. Mashore’s Auto Body managed to perform a miracle as did Ryan and team at Bimmerspeed to completely rebuild this car in less than a month. It wouldn’t have been possible without the help of most all of our sponsors. Bimmerspeed sourcing parts at the last hour, some were shipped direct to the track. Wheels were replaced by APEX, last second replacement pads from Ferodo. Rugged rebuilt the damaged radio from the High Plains wreck. Not to mention a stunning quanitty of Red Line fluids consumed by both cars as a result of the new engine and transmissions. That’s right another new engine in the 14 thanks to more than 1 allnighter by Bimmerspeed to fet us back together. The month saw Blair make the near 4 hour trip south to the shop no less than 4 times since Hallett toput in yeoman work on both cars.

All this effort was driven by the fact that we had not only made a commitment to ourselves to try and make the race, but also to our partners as well as a top team of drivers who had made the commitment to be in the 15 at COTA. To arrive to the track on Wednesday night and get to take this picture was nothing short of inspiring.

Thursday morning the balance of the crew began to prep the cars for the days activities. We would put both cars on track in the afternoon. With final prep and tweeks complete it was time to see if all the work had paid off. Nik was in the 14 and Zak Anderson (2023 SRO GT4 Champion) was in the 15. After the first session they both came in smiling, we had done it! Next out went Matt and Jeff Wilson, then a red flag flew and only Matt was still talking to us. The 15 had been hit by a GTO car and we suffered pretty serious damage. The entire driver side suspension front and rear needs to be replaced. From wheels to control arms everything was bent. Time for our Bimmerspeed mechanics to get busy. Thanks to Bimmerworld our spares package is well stocked and we were able to find all the parts needed, but this was the end of the day for the tes􀆟ng on the 15. The 14 continued through the afternoon and not only did it handle like the 14 should, but we had power.

Friday morning we get ready to hit the track. Our focus is the 15 and to get our drivers comfortable in their car. First out is Fabian Buenaventura. Unfortunately he hadn’t had a chance to get in the car on Thursday due to the damages incurred. So out he went and after just a few laps we lost contact and then the red flag flew, not again. Next up was a message from our photographer Chance, “guys it hit hard.” The car spun in the S’s and hit the Armco on the right side of the car hard enough to roll it up on its side before it fell back to the ground. It seemed like forever before the car came back to the garage on the wrecker, it was definitely wrecked. The look on Blair’s face said it all, we were crushed to be looking at a car that was so good, that we had worked so hard on, only to see it out of the event on a Friday morning. Technically the decision to withdraw wasn’t made for another couple of hours, but I think we all knew as soon as we saw it. It was hurt too much and the more we looked the worse it became. Devastating…an understatement to the team.

But we are here to race and we have to press on with the remaining 14 car. So while the 15 is being assessed we get the 14 back on track. Thru the day we put it through the paces and while we aren’t the fastest GP1 on track we qualify P5 out of 21 cars. What I did see is that we could run the same pace throughout the day, in fact we put our fastest laps down at the end of the day. Having a competitive car gave us all a bit of a life, it was still tough to look at the other car, but knowing we were going to have a chance at a great finish gave us the hope of being able to show what we can do. At the end of the day we take a hard look at the car to make sure all is ready for the race tomorrow. We finished our checklist and left the track to visit one of Austins great BBQ shacks, the Salt Lick proved worth the trip even if it may have caused a few to have a bit of heartburn through the night. Saturday morning and we are ready to race, the car is brought to temp and sent to the grid. Today we will start with Nik Romano taking the first stint, followed by Ryan Keeley and then Matt Million bringing us home to the checkered flag.

As with all races it starts with Blair calling the “Green, Green, Green!!!” and off we go. Whoa, we are really moving, like as in actually passing cars into turn 1. The dyno wasn’t wrong, the car has competitive power, paired with our top drivers this really could be a great day.

…Throughout Nik’s stint we find ourselves running between 1st to 4th. Other than missing our pits resulting in effectively a drive thru without service it was a flawless run. After 3 hours Keeley gets in and motors on, our fuel economy is giving us as much as 15 minutes run time per stint over our competition for the lead. We could possibly have one less stop than the other frontrunners. After Keeley’s fuel stop, he reports power seems to be dropping, well his lap times certainly show it. With 3 hours to go in the race we decide to bring him in and see what Matt can do.

After a few laps its obvious, it wasn’t Keeley, it’s the car. We are still running top 3 until Matt comes into the pits, he has no throttle control and the car was limping in. We jump to the repair of a broken throttle pedal and despite the loss of 2 laps in the pits we exit in P4, but the car is now running some of its best laps of the day. It is clear that the pedal was the cause of the earlier power loss, than not only cost us the 2 laps in the pits to repair but likely cost us a win. At the checkered flag we were still scored 4th, only 2 laps down from the leader. The fact that a stupid plastic throttle pedal cost us a win was frustrating, but after this season this was a win for us.

Saturday night saw few repairs needed other than a real throttle pedal repair. We did take the opportunity to improve our cooling ducts in the nose. For once we are not trying to pull a miracle engine change, or suspension replacement, we have time to fine tune and get a great meal followed
by a full nights sleep. Real progress is occurring here.

Sunday morning starts with Blair calling the green for Matt. He gets off to a strong start but officials are calling on all cars to respect track limits. We tell Matt he is exceeding limits based on our in car stream, he needs to tighten up his line. A couple laps later we are advised we have received a specific warning, one more infraction and we will receive a 1 lap penalty. A couple laps later they call the penalty. The penalty takes us from 3rd to 17th. But the penalty was called on a corner that we didn’t exceed limits, we have video proof thanks to the live feed. After much argument with officials the penalty is reversed, but we are on edge as we have no room for error. Keeley is again called on to keep us in the hunt for another strong finish as he takes the wheel for the middle of the race. He does a great job and with 2.5 hours to go the car is handed to Nik to bring us home to what is clearly a potential podium in the last race of the year. During Keeley’s stint we somehow lose a lap to the leader despite passing them in the pits when they came in and we didn’t. Despite petitioning the officials they cant explain what happened, but stand by the scoring as correct, hmm. Nik races through his first fuel stint and we maintain a position of 3rd according to official scoring. In his last stint, Nik excitedly explains he has made contact with another car in class, the contact caused the other car to spin but no damage is apparent to either car. Hope this doesn’t hurt us…

Finally with under an hour to go we have a red flag for a car off course on fire, timing couldn’t have been worse as all our competitors get essentially a free stop for their last splash of fuel, a splash we didn’t need so we don’t gain a lap on them. The checkered flies after another hard fought 8 hours. In the end the scoring is held and we finish P3, ultimately the lost lap may have resulted in a 2nd but most likely not.

It was a great finish to a humbling season. After 8 engines, and a loss of 3 cars we brought the team to the finish line with a 5th place in National standings.

Thank you to Bimmerworld, Apex Wheels, Red Line Oil, AGA Tools, Swift Springs, and Rugged Radios amongst others for all your support.