Sep 1-3 @ High Plains, CO

After a rough but successful eastern run we head back to San Diego and begin the prep for the only “Western” race on the schedule. As WRL considers Colorado a western race. We chuckled as we were still traveling further than only one other team, as High Plains was 200 miles closer to us than it was to our friends Open Throttle from Florida.

There we significant repairs needed to the front frame of the #15 but the real work needed was on the #14. It had been months since we had the time to properly service the car and it was showing. It took Bimmerspeed a week, but at the end of that time the suspension had been completely refreshed as had the powerplant and brakes. We also prepped the #15 and when we loaded up in the new rig, now with a running generator, we felt a renewed confidence in the team. The cars were ready to head East and Wednesday afternoon Ryan and Mike ran non stop to meet the team 24 hours later on Thursday in Colorado. While setting up our paddock Thursday afternoon we met our new drivers. Andrew Gardner would be joining us for the first time this season after his last run with the team in the 25 hours of Thunderhill. While we would have Alan Leukhardt join us for the first time. We would also have Lucas Weisenberg come out and join us again as he had a break in his Toyota GRCup schedule.

Friday came early as always and the boys headed out on the track. Ryan went first in the 15 for a few shakedown laps but didn’t get far, something was wrong with the transmission/driveline and he was pulled back in on the hook. We would need a new transmission, driveshaft and transmission mount. Well we had the transmission but somehow the trans mount and driveshaft didn’t make it into our spares package when we switched rigs. Luckily for us this community is amazing and one of the teams from Colorado also runs E36’s. So after a 5 hours parts run we had everything needed to complete the repairs. Meanwhile we would get time in the 14 throughout the day but we were definitely fighting some issues. Cooling was affecting everyone on the track and we were not alone. It was determined to completely replumb our cooling system and when we finished late Friday night we would pray our repairs would make the difference.

Saturday proved that we had definitely made a difference in the cooling, but we still needed to be careful, and then a major failure in the 14, the AIM PDM unit failed, of course it took close to an hour to determine that was the issue as who suspects the PDM unit as the ignition problem. Luckily through remote support by Brett Strom and Ryan Lindsley we replaced the PDM and got back out. Only to need to send the 15 back to the paddock as it was hopelessly vapor locked and it would take 15 minutes behind the wall to get it to breath, short filling for the rest of the weekend would be needed. Don’t ever ask what else can go wrong because the answer is Murphy always plans ahead, and this time it’s the alternator in the 15. But with just over an hour to go we cant quit, we change the battery and use jump boxes to keep the car running.

Both cars manage to take the checkered flag, the 14 will finish in 7th with the 15 in 8th. Not the finish we had planned especially as were absolutely top 3 in pace but we again persevered. To the finish.

Saturday night we will again ready the cars for Sunday. The never ending story of racing is prep, especially endurance racing. We must replace the alternator on the 15 and recharge its battery. We check the cars for anything else that needs to be addressed and then head back to town for a decent rest before the Sunday race.

We are on grid early and feel reasonably ready. At the drop of the green the 14 takes off with better pace than we have had in quite some time. Lucas runs consistently P2/3 for his first 2 stints before a handoff to Nik. Unfortunately on the out lap he was racing for 2nd when he was bottled up behind a GP3 car. He had to move on the GP3 car while also defending the 3rd place GP1 car behind him. Unfortunately the GP3 didn’t notice the rapidly closing pair of GP1’s and they made contact. The GP3 car put his front fender into our rear fender and we got loose letting both the other cars past us. In a couple laps he regained both positions on track, unfortunately the officials deemed it an aggressive move and so on paper it cost us 2 laps. It could be costly, we’ll see.

The 15 gained 6 positions at the start and Andrew was excited with the cars performance and then it lost most all power. After a few laps playing with it he found that if he keeps the ABS turned off we had full power. Ok no ABS for the rest of the race. Hmmm, now reporting an issue with 5th gear. No worries let’s try no 5th gear, it’s a short track and frankly we can do without it. But things are getting worse not better. Alan gets in the car 2nd and is clearly uncomfortable. Deep into his stint he is struggling with the gears and then it gets exciting, well scary is a better description. The driveline has again separated from the trans this time in a dramatic way, the transmission is destroyed, the cross brace again shattered, even the engine supports have broken. Nik in the 14 comes on the radio and says, “Something big happened to the 15, big pieces of metal are all over turn 13”. We asked for a ride in on the flatbed, and then we heard something coming into pit road, it was our 15 car on a hook with the driveshaft whipping around under the car. It hurt to listen to, eventually we would learn it destroyed the car beyond repair.

The 14 continued to make laps and eventually Matt gets in for the final stint. His only task is to keep the car turning easy laps and maintaining the temps. Not his favorite instructions but he ran 2 hours at a conservative pace and when the checkered flag flew we had finished 2nd on the podium. If we hadn’t been penalized maybe it would have been a close race for the lead, but honestly Morehead was pacing us in 1st 3 laps ahead, unless we could have pushed them into a failure we couldn’t have made the pass. In the end the penalty didn’t hurt us.

What a weekend, again we had to work our ass off for it but managed to earn another podium and prove we can be competitive. We will pack up the rig and get everyone back home to regroup once again, next up will be Hallett in Oklahoma.

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

Radios amongst others for all your support.