Jul 7-9 @ VIRginia International Raceway, VI

VIR, a track that has been on Palomar’s bucket list and was one of the deciding factors to come to WRL. But first we need to get the cars ready. The good news is we have 6 weeks to get the engine woes figured out. Well first things first, get the car back up to Bullett to drop in another engine. Other than losing 2 engines, the cars weren’t bad so the focus is on the engine program, but what is causing the failures?

Late July comes sooner than we would like and the cars make in in the hauler and on the way to Virginia just in time. The Thursday before the race arrives and the team meets in the staging lot so we can load in ASAP. A quirck of WRL is that load in seems to always be too late in the day and despite the efforts at order it seems to evolve into a land rush. Amazingly being from the other side of the country tends to mean we are one of the first in the staging lot, as we have to leave plenty early to be able to deal with issues on the road if and when they pop up. But when the tow is smooth we generally get our pick of the paddock, meaning a prime display space and easy access to the track.

Friday practice is reasonably good, power is still down from optimal but engines are running mostly as planned, until the 14 calls in it has lost power on the back straight, wait its refired and running ok. Oh no, what is it this time… A􀅌er diagnosing everything possible we cant find the issue and in the paddock its running fine. Maybe just a fluke. Meanwhile the 15 is running reasonably well though not with the same pace of the 14 when running. Time to get ready to run for the race on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning the race starts and its mostly going per plan, unfortunately we are definitely not on pace with the top teams but definitely running with the 2nd tier teams. Then the call comes in again, lost power on the back stretch, uggghhh. We bring the car in and try to diagnose the issue but again nothing is obvious. Meanwhile we send the engine data to Strom hoping he will see the file. Its 2 hours into the diagnosis when he calls, the engines MAP sensor is getting random readings, its malfunctioning. Unfortunately we don’t have a spare as these never fail. He advises to convert it to a vacuum reading and he will send a new tune that will use vacuum to replace the MAP reading, ok. It takes a bit but we get the job done and manage to finish the race. Unfortunately we were off track for just over 4 hours meaning we finish just less than half the laps of the class leader, it will be a DNF again for the 14.

The 15 meanwhile manages to turn laps consistently with NO issues. Theu manage to take the checkered after 9 hours in 2nd place. What an accomplishment for the team! But the run came at a price, the curbs ar VIR are brutal and they resulted in massive damage to both cars suspensions. Repairs would take hours, frames were welded, hubs replaced and camber arms replaced but eventually we were done and ready for Sunday., hopefully.

Sunday morning comes and as usual the team is up early and ready for another race. We begin to prep the cars for the day, fuel, tires, cool suit boxes and time to warm the cars and fluids. All is going per plan and then we start the 15, what is that, everyone is shocked as the engine starts and immediately shoots to red line and then is cut off. Start again and same thing happens, oh no…what is it? Meanwhile the 14 is taken to grid, its time to go. The boys thrash and realize what is causing it and after a few cut knuckles the culprit fittng is reset and the car is started again, it idles just as its supposed to and immediately taken to grid just in time.

The race begins and all is well. After a couple hours a black flag brings the cars into pit road and its announced that the race is stopped for lightning. It’s a beautiful day, hmmm. Then we start seeing the lightning and thunder around us and retreat to the paddock, next we know the heavens open and rivers appear in the paddock. We are holding down our trailers canopy and moving everything we have out into the trailer, an hour goes by and we wonder if the race is over. Then an announcement goes out to the paddock to return to pit road, we are going green. With rain still coming down in buckets, are they kidding? No apparently the lightning has moved out of range and its time to race in the rain. This should be fun, or not, our cars are truly not prepared for this kind of rain, we have wipers but no real means to clear the inside of the windscreen.

The race restarts and more cars are off track in the grass than on the asphalt, of course even seeing the cars is a challenge with the amount of water on track. At the restart both the 14 and 15 spend time in the grass, it made for an intense stint as we did our best to dance around the track and avoid catastrophe. Multiple pit stops ensue to clear the inside window to no avail. Our drivers are struggling to the point that the 15 pits and the driver gets out and says its impossible, he is replaced and the car soldiers on. Eventually the rain clears, the track dries and the race finishes. At that checked our cars manage to finish with the 14 in 5th and the 15 in 6th place. Respectable considering the challenges and conditions and a decent points day for the team.

We pack up the rig perhaps for the last time and send it North, to our friends at Autotechnik inConnec􀆟cut. We are going to try and prep the cars on the east coast rather than haul all the way west just to return to Atlanta in a few weeks. We will see how it goes and maybe even have a rig more suited to our current team when we arrive at Atlanta.

Thank you to Bimmerworld, Apex Wheels, Red Line Oil, AGA Tools, Swift Springs, and Rugged

Radios amongst others for all your support.