Iowa Speedway 2011 Race Recap

The Right of Spring...Or Is that a Left? - April 30-31, 2011

Iowa Speedway 2011 was NLM's second race of the 2011 season and also the second race for the fabled BMW E34 540i (aka Frankenstein).  This was NLM's first of two trips to Iowa in 2011, as the team would return with 3 cars for the National Chumpionship in September.  The 540 was fresh off its debut at Road America a few months before where it finished 4th, despite a few teething issue.  It was still being sorted out at Iowa, but this race remains one of its shining moments, even though it eventually was handed some bad luck by the racing gods.

Frankenstein

Friday:

The team for the weekend was: the Admiral, Magic, Chad, Brian and Chris Peterson.  I believe this was the first race ever for Chad and Chris.  Hollywood was along to crew and beg a ride if possible and Dave also came down to crew.  Newton is practically Dav's hometown too.  Magic's mom, Diane, also came down to crew and be the team mom.

Although running as NLM, the 540 was called the Brake Duster (partly due to its insane braking ability).

The team rolled in and got tech'd.  There was some argument about the 540s compliance with certain rules, but eventually it was sorted out and we passed tech. 

Undergoing scrutiny

Finally back in the pits and had some dinner. We then sent Dave out to test the new Hella driving lights.  Unfortunately, he came back after about 10 min and said the trans wouldn't shift.  We also noticed that our not great lights were even dimmer.  Ruh-roh Raggy!  Got our new code reader our and sure enough we had a "Low voltage/DME" error.  First thought: shit! The alternator had finally bit the dust after it acted up and then fixed itself at RA.  Second though, where the heck do we find an alternator for a 94 540i in Newton, Iowa on a Saturday.  Magic and Dave pulled the alternator (not an easy job on a V8 BMW because of where the oil filer is) so we could get it tested at least on Saturday and then went to bed around midnight.  The race started in 10 hours...

Saturday: 6am-12pm

It was an unseasonably warm and dry day in the middle of nowhere (aka Iowa).

Got up at 6am for a quick breakfast and then were off to O'Reilley, Which opened at 7.  Bench test said the alternator was bad.  Of course it's special order part.  NAPA said no too.  

The Admiral and the rest of the team except Magic got on the phone to try and find one in MN - no luck at any parts place or dealer.   Magic re-installed the bad alternator (several explitives may have been uttered) and the team planned to just swap batteries when they failed to keep the car running until the new alternator arrive.

Then, Dave showed up, made one call and presto alternator for $200 (stealer wanted $700!) and The Admiral's brother-in-law happened to be coming down to Iowa that day too so he would deliver the alternator. 

The decision was made to start from the pits since usually there are a bunch of parade laps to test transponders and spread out the field before the green and we didn't want to put any more time on the alternator than we had to. We were not sure how much time the would run on just battery and were ready for battery swaps.  

Magic drove first and traffic was insane with 40+ cars on a 1.3 mile course!   About midway through Magic ran a 56.9 lap, which was the fastest lap for a Chump Car at Iowa, ever.  By then Magic had moved us up to second and was working traffic like mad. Even going 4-wide on the front straight.

I'll take the bottom lane, thanks.

 Magic knew which car was leading via the radio (the Eggboy SHO) but thought he were a lap behind the leader. He overtook the leader and then set off to make his lap back.  Magic later found out that the pass on Eggboy had been for the LEAD!!  Yes, NLM was leading the race! Magic was still in tons of traffic and as he came up on a Chevette thing at about 110 off the banking, the Chevette changed lines right in front of him.  The Chevette then chopped Magic at the next corner seemingly on purpose.  Magic dove down the inside at corner later.  There was a little contact (unnecessary if you ask Magic) and the Chevette had to use the runoff.  Frankenstein was fine of course - Rubbin is racing!     

12pm- Pit Stop #1
During the first pitstop, Chad went in to run his very first race and he was going to be in the lead.  But, he's an E36 M3 driver so he was obviously fast right from the start.  Chad did have one little rookie issue...he turned off the kill switch trying to adjust the outside mirror.  Maybe lost a lap there (laps are very short)   but still in the lead and a lap up on the 2nd place SHO, who was running roughly the same lap times.  Chad was very running consistent 1 minute laps and staying out of trouble.  Alternator/battery/trans were hanging in there too, somehow.   

NLM is P1

1:45- Pit Stop #2

Unfortunately we had an incorrect reading on the fuel gauge and under-fueled the car during the first stop.  Because of the fuel issue we had to pit early and lost the lead.  The third driver, Chris, got in after another pretty good pit stop.  

Chris was running 59sec laps and then backed off to run consistently at 1min.  

3:00 - Pitstop #3

Then things started to go a little bit sideways.  First, the oil light came on so we had to pit again for oil.  Gave it a quick splash of 10w40 and sent him off again.  About 5minutes later he called to say he was feeling ill and needed to come out.  Damn.  Not good.  He looked a little green, but had a great stint.  Especially for his first ever race.  Iowa is such a bullring and the 540 does produce a fair amount of fumes (it had not hood at the time too), so its not surprising that it could make someone a little ill.  So we quickly got the fourth driver, Brian, ready to go in.

3:15 - Pitstop #4

Chris came out and Brian went in.  Starting to get some pretty crap wear on our right front tire - heavy car + banking + flat infield.  Brian took off without his pit time slip so Magic sprinted down pit lane to give it to him and got there just in time to give it to the official who he let Brian out.  Disaster narrowly avoided.  However, this second extra stop further screwed our strategy and meant we needed an extra pit stop before 6pm because of the two hour limit per stint.  Brian was running consistent low 1mins (:02s I think).  The SHO was running a little faster and our extra stop had dropped us to 3rd about 4 laps behind the leader.  Still quite a bit in front of 4th place though, and approx one lap behind 2nd.  About 4:30 Brian said the trans stopped shifting. Well, bummer.  Maybe our non-working alternator had finally given up the ghost.  So we got ready to swap batteries and hoped we could limp through until the break. 

The new alternator had arrived from MN and it looked like the right one. Plan was to put The Admiral in for an hour and then do the alternator, fill trans and rotate tires during the one hour break from 6-7.

5:00 - Pitstop #5

The Admiral got in in what was a fairly busy stop.  After fuel and driver change we checked the batter and it read fine (12v).  So I disconnected the battery quick to reset the computers (hopefully) and sent Tom back out.  The car shifted fine again.   The second extra stop dropped us to fourth but The Admiral was fast, as is expected of the team owner and was pushing REALLY hard to make up some lost time.  He also was talking a bunch of shit about beating Magic's fast lap. He got within half a second, but no closer.  Eventually the team talked him in to saving the car a little and he slowed to run in the 58s.  He still had moved up to third by the end of the stint.

6:00pm - Safety Break 
While Tom was out pushing Magic and Dave were getting everything ready for an alternator change that needed to be done in under an hour on a very hot car.   Here is a general idea how much fun this is: http://www.bimmernut.com/forum/5-series-bmw/28985-e34-540-alternator-replacement.html and more detailed http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1463422 (E39 is a little different and we didn't have to undo a cooling hose. Magic just had to burn his arm on it several times.)

Magic got the alternator out in 15 minutes.  There was a little trouble getting it back in, but Chris gave Magic a hand.  Diane supervised helped by providing tools and moral support (LOL). Magic, Chris and Diane got it all buttoned up with 15 minutes to spare! Most impessive.  Dave and Matt rotated the tires and topped up the trans. Well, kind of.  Turns out the trans was pretty full and we spilled a bunch of fluid because the car wasn't level so we just put some new fluid in to replace most of what we lost.  Not bad work for an hour. 

Just an alternator swap, 4 tires and trans top-up.  In 45 minutes.  No big deal.

7:00pm: The Restart
Chad went back out as dusk fell on Iowa.  This was part of the strategy as Magic was scheduled to drive but was a bit pre-occupied.  A few lights were on the main straight, but they were not looking real bright and most competitors had their brights on plus aux lighting including some with HIDs.   About 30min in we got black flagged for passing under yellow.  We though it was complete BS, but what can you do...?  We were till running third.  

Then we got another black flag.  Oh crap, we don't have tail lights just brake lights???  That's an issue apparently.  So, we sent Matt to Walmart for lights. Chris had an absolutely genius idea though and taped red oil caps from our Amsoil bottles over the element of a couple flashlights we had around.  We taped and ziptied those on the rear wing "struts" and got back out.  Probably cost us 8-10 minutes though.  Like I said, genius. Chirs' new nickname should be MacGyver!  Hollywood also set a world record in his trip to Wal-Mart to get bicylcle flashers that we later attached.  He drove the Admiral's Porsche Cayenne and allegedly broke the sound barrier.  Oh, and he did it while wearing his race suit.

 Chad was running the low 1min laps but said that visibility coming off the banking into the infield where there are no lights at all was an issue.  We may have brought a knife light to a gun fight, as far as lights.  The Hellas were really not bight enough.  We really had few options to fix this at that time.  Diane showed up with Pizza Hut and Corn Nuts around 8 to keep the team fueled.  Magic got suited up for his next stint and his first ever night stint.    

9pm: Pit #6 - Racing in the Dark is Craziness when you have essentially no lights...
We were back in fourth after our extra pitstops and black flags. We were chasing the BAR E30 and a the Brain Nerds in their Babe the Blue Ox-themed Porsche 944. Magic got in during a pretty efficient pitstop.  

Checked oil and tires and everything seemed good to go, also attached our bicycle lights for tail lights to go with our custom Amsoil/flashlight tails.  Very Chump approved.  

Magic's first lap was fine because he was behind two cars coming off the banking so I could generally see the apex at turn 4 (hairpin ).  Keep in mind you come into this corner at around 100mph or faster maybe, not sure since we don't look at the speedo right then.  Magic's second lap was a different story. He passed the two cars coming onto the banking and was well clear by the time he got to turn 3-4 off the bank.  Came off pretty fast and...OH NO!  Where is the corner??  He reported that he couldn't see for crap with the lights.  Mightily impressive how fast Chad was despite this issue.  Thankfully Chad advised Magic to remember my line from earlier.  Now Magic knew why!  He survived the first lap with limited lighting, but barely miss the last set of tires at track out on the next lap when he carried some more speed. Since you couldn't really see the apex or particularly the exit of the corner (where the big stack of tires was) Magic reported that running a slightly tighter than ideal line was the safest thing to do. 

Passing in the dark was dangerous because the 540 would catch up so fast that other drivers didn't always see me coming especially with the crap lights.  The 540 literally could be 4 lengths behinds entering a brake zone and then be ahead by turn-in.  That's how good its brakes are, makes you feel like a driving god!  Turn 4 was a great passing zone in the light, but always fun though since you never knew exactly where you were in the dark or where the apex would be.  Despite that, Magic was running in the low 59s. Not too shabby.  Had a great battle with the E30 of Chump Faces (they pitted next to us and are awesome guys who we have gotten to know better since). They were VERY fast.  Eventually Magic got away after about a dozen laps of battling. Ultimately the 540 just did better in traffic.  Was great to watch both cars run hard but clean so close together.  M

Eventually the BAR E30 had to pit for an alternator (much easier on an E30 but still took 30min) so we got back into third about 8 laps ahead of the Party Cat Civic in 4th and 20 laps behind the 2nd place 944.

10:30: "Save me Tom Cruise I'm on Fire" and other excitement:
About 30 minutes from the end of Magic's stint, he was on the infield straight approaching the banking when he saw sparks coming off the car in front entering to the brake zone.  Then it looked like fire.  Then it was definitively on fire underneath.  Then it was totally on fire in the right rear!  Fin' A!  The driver bailed out the window as the car went up in flames.  The officials through a red flag.  Unfortunatley, this caused the car to start overheating as it sit right behind another car.   Finally we get moving and I get some air though the rad before car gets to 3/4 hot.   

The car that caught fire was an E30 of It was painted with chalkboard paint (Team Back to the Drawing Board) and the rear had the above Ricky Bobbyquote written on it in chalk.  Fittingly, they won the Terrible Irony Award for the weekend.  Safety guys did a great job of putting out the fire and the driver was fine.

Tom Cruise, use your witchcraft to get the fire off me!  Or use the safety/fire crew.

Red flag for about 30min to put out the fire and clean up the mess.  Cars were parked on pit lane. Magic was up about 6th in the line behind the pace car as they got ready for a re-start.  The leading SHO was at the front and Magic clearly wanted to go get him (even if he is 20+ laps ahead).  Magic laid back a little and then got a great run at the restart (he's watched a few IndyCar races) and passed 4 of the cars in front before he got to turn 1 (M60 power!).  He got passed the other car between him and the SHO was in his sights.  It took a few laps, but eventually Magic got under him through 1 and 2 and then managed to out brake him going into 4.  His HIDs helped Magic find the corner big time!  The SHO was not going anywhere though as he was a bit quicker through the infield and especially off of corner 4.  He stayed right on Magic's bumper as they battled through some traffic.  About 10 laps after Magic got by, the SHO made a move on the outside of a lapped car as Magic went low entering the banking. They ran door-to-door all the way through the banking but Magic had the inside and was not giving the SHO a chance.  They hit more traffic the next lap and Magic managed to get around a lapped Mustang before the SHO who then got held up a little by the higher HP Mustang.  Magic gapped him a bit for the next 10 laps before he pitted. 

11pm: Pit #7

Magic handed over the car to Brian still running in 3rd 8 laps behind 2nd.  The 540 still had Amsoil taillights too.

Both the driver of the Chump Faces E30 and SHO guys came over afterward to talk with the team about battling with Magic.  Direct quote from the SHO driver: "I kept trying to shake you by running up late and trying to get you to make a mistake.  But it just didn't work.  I was like shit this guy must be driving like only 8/10ths!"  Very nice compliment for Magic, but we all know he was working that 5 foot 7in frame of his pretty hard especially since he couldn't see turn 4!

Sunday 

12am - The beginning of the end
The weather was starting to get quite chilly by now.  And the wind was really whipping-up.

Brian took over the car and was running very well for a while which was pretty good in the dark.  He couldn't hear us on the radio though because his ear bud must have fallen out a little.  No big deal.  He got on the radio and said the tranny wasn't kicking down again about 12am.  We assumed the same issue as before with not pushing hard enough once he got a little fatigued.  The Admiral had gone to take a nap because he was getting in the car at 1am.

About 12:45am, Brian is yelling on the radio that he is coming because the car is steaming.  He comes in and sure enough the car is boiling over from the reservoir and is past 3/4 on the temp gauge.  Chris did a quick diagnosis and determined it's the thermostat which makes sense since none of the hoses are leaking and the inlet hose is way ove-pressurized.  

We don't have another tsat, so we decide to pull into the pits to cool it off and then just run sans tstat.  Disassembly is a b*tch, particularly as it is now in the low 40s and incredibly windy.  Apparently Iowa is a very flat state...  But we got the tstat out and it looks shot.  Put back together without tstat and we get a big leak from housing.  It’s now about 2am.  Then we cut the middle section of tstat out and reinstall.  We still have a leak.  Tried to reassemble with spare housing.  Still have a leak.  Try gasket maker on the housing.  You guessed it, still have a leak.  It's almost 3am by now and Chris and Tom and I are all pretty tired (even after The Admiral drank another Java Monster!).  We took the tstat apart again and it looks like the o-ring is not sealing and the tstat itself either got bent or warped and this why we can't get a seal.  I'm so tired I can barely stand up.  We decide we're out of the running for a podium (lost 120 laps or so) and needed some sleep. 

Sadly, Hollywood was back at the hotel getting some shuteye as he was going to drive the car at 4am.  We had to call and give him the bad news - we were out of the race.

That's how it ended.  We all got some sleep. Got up at 9:30, packed up and headed home.  Not the result he hoped for, but we ran well and learned a lot.  Not only that, we lead our first race and held fastest lap for a LONG time. Sadly, the Chump Faces E30 that Magic battled with Saturday night stole fastest lap early in the morning on Sunday.  The 540 still held second fastest lap and was classified P20.

Here's a little (slightly foggy) video that's actually from 2011's Chumpionship of the 540 in action.

Team Eggboy's SHO eventually pulled out the win.  They were fast, consistent and kept their car running.  Congrats also to the Brain Nerds, who finished second in their 944.  

________________________________________

Iowa Speedway is not on the 2013 Chump Car Schedule, but NLM will be running its stable of E30s at several other tracks for 24 hours straight this year!!  Think you have what it takes to survive 24 hours at Virginia International Raceway or Heartland Park of Topeka? Seats will fill up, so e-mail northloopmotorsport@me.com for pricing and details.

Iowa 24 Hours 2010 Recap (updated)

The "I Ow, Ah...$24" Recap: June 26-27, 2010

Race #2 in NLM's History was the 24 Hour Race at Iowa Speedway on June 26-27, 2010.  This was NLM's first 24 hour race and NLM's first wet event. The team drove NLM's original 1984 318i (aka NLM1).  NLM1 had a stock M10 with 200k+ miles and made roughly 85 HP, and yes, it had a satellite dish from Magic's garage as a "spoiler."  This was also NLM's first (almost) top 10 finish, but it was memorable for more reasons that just that.  Looking back on it now, it seems like a long, long time ago.  In fact, the team wasn't even called NLM back then!

Lessons learned:
1) 24 hour races are grueling tests of man and machine, but there are few things that feel better than taking the checker at the end.
2) Apparently you can kill a car by putting in a full tank of gas
3) Trying to drive, pit crew and keep a car running for 24 hours is hard.
4) Awnings need to be put away when there is a storm. Ask me how I know.
5) Driving through Iowa when you have been up for 36 hours is still really boring.

Friday: The Admiral towed NLM1 down on the open trailer and Magic caravan'd with him in a 1989 Jamboree Searcher.  What's a Jamboree Searcher you ask?  This is a Jamboree Searcher.

  

Magic's Brother-in-law had kindly lent it to him for the weekend.  In the headwind driving to the track, it was good for about 60mph.  It was a slow trip to the track.  

Drivers for the race were: the Admiral, Magic, EC, Hollywood, Dave, Brian and Lee (making her racing debut).

This race actually pre-dates the Admiral and Hollywood nicknames, but we'll use them here anyway.  This was the weekend, however, that Magic's nickname really took hold.

The team arrived early and got through tech. no problem.  Then it was off to WalMart for supplies (Funyons, 5-hour energy, etc.).  We then grilled up some burgers and beer.  Magic went to bed at 10ish in the RV with the awning out on the RV. The rest of the team wisely retired to nearby hotels.  Magic awoke at midnight with the RV rocking from strong winds and sheets of rain pelting the roof.  He looked outside to find it looked like a tornado.  Then he saw that the awning was coming loose from RV.  He ran out to try and retract it, but it was ripped right off the side of the RV as he tried and he claims it nearly bashed him over the head for his troubles. Magic decided to call it a night with the awning still on the tarmac. Although he tried to go back to sleep, but no real luck, as the RV was still rocking (from the wind, remove your mind from the gutter).

Saturday Pre-Race: The skies had cleared, leaving only awning wreckage and puddles. It was very hot on Saturday morning though and the team knew we were gonna be in for a tough one. Magic got the rest of the awning removed from the RV and drove out to WalMart again to buy a window AC unit because the roof unit on the RV was way to weak for the heat. Magic and Lee managed to totally jimmy-rig the install of the AC (Magic lost some skin and blood in the process).  Almost time for racing.  

First 2 hours: NLM1 ran well and we were running in about 6th-8th. Hollywood was doing some really good lap times and taking really good care of the car. He kept it out of trouble even though there was plenty of nonsense going on. Somehow a Fiero that one team was driving managed not to start on fire. The Alfa Romeo was also managing to not implode. Ironically, both of the Hondas were out in the first hour with engine failure. Tough luck for team Party Cat and team Slugworks, both had engine probs at the BIR race too, if I recall correctly.  Magic was getting ready for his first stint and was optimistic that the car was ready for his Magic Touch (Magic had a string of bad luck that summer, he broke things a lot just by coming in contact with them - head gaskets, RV awnings, trailer lights, E30 BMWs, air conditioners, his skin, etc.)

First Pit Stop/: Car came in and looked good. By then the heat index was ~110, and 95 ambient. Magic got in and noted that it was really hot. He ran 5-6 laps before car stalled again, same issue that had dogged the team (and Magic in particualr) at BIR. The team had spent a significant amount of time diagnose and trying to remedy this issue and thought they had solved it, but apparently the problem had come back.

How are an Alfa and a Fiero running and not us (eventually both had major failures and DNF'd)? Waiting for the tow truck was painful for Magic. Thankfully, he was am very good at getting flat towed at this point. It was REALLY hot - did we mention that?

Lunch-to-dinner: The team tried to figure out what was causing the stalling only right after a pitstop and usually only after Magic got in. Dave and the Admiral swapped the MAF and ECU for spares that had been tested recently. Magic went out on track again and made it through three corners before the car stalled again and he had to get another tow. The team decided to grab some lunch and rethink the issue.  No one was throwing in the towel!

Hollywood was not feeling well.  The heat and strain of driving the first stint had dehydrated him.  Thankfully, we had the RV so he stayed in the A/C to recuperate.  

After lunch the team kept diagnosing and started to change fuel pump but could not find necessary parts and thought we might be done. Keep in mind it was now 4pm on a Saturday in the middle of Iowa. Found one of the other BMWCCA guys who used to have a 318i and he said the car might have a fuel venting issue and that the old fuel system was getting overfilled and creating vapor lock and killing fuel delivery. So, we drained about 2 gallons of fuel (and by drained I mean spilled part on ourselves and the car and the ground and drained the rest) and the car started right up. Since Magic has such good luck the team sent him out for a test drive in the middle of Iowa. The car ran great! So Magic suited up a little after 6 and was going to run till the break at 7pm for dinner and night time driver's briefing. There was a red flag for a car going off in 3 which worked out great for getting back on track.  Mercifully, the day had begun to cool off too.

Back in Action around 6pm: Car was good and Magic had learned enough about the track in his first 6 laps to immediately start putting down some good times. By the end of the session he was running pretty much even with the leaders in about the 1:02 lap range. Sadly, the team was almost 250 laps down because of the fuel issue. Magic looked to be having some really good battles and a couple of very tense moments (he almost got put off at about 100mph coming off the banking. NLM1 took the 7pm checker and Magic finally got to come down the pit lane under his own power! We were about 20th place at this point.

7pm Break: The team had a quick dinner and danced a jig of excitement that the fueling issue had been solved.  Sadly, no video of the jig exists.  The driver's meeting was pretty straight forward: try not to crash; it's gonna be dark.

Night (8pm-2:30am): Frankly, it's all a bit of a blur. There were 5 pitstops and the team was a looking a little rough around the edges. Most of the team retired to get some shut-eye at one point or another. A 4-wheel/tire change was made around midnight when we heard a thunderstorm was coming. Put on the Falken Azenis that had a bit more tread than the Dunlop Star Specs. Dave had gone a bit overboard and the Star Specs needed a rest too (the apron is not gentle on tires). Lots of the oval lights were on which was very cool.  The Admiral and Magic were the only team members up at this point and may have started smoking Winstons at some point and consumed several 5-Hour Energy drinks.  

As the rain clouds began to form again (and the track confirmed the approaching storm), Magic went to Walmart and bought windshield wipers. He had an interesting encounter when the lady in front of him had about 60 items in the 10 item lane and would not stop talking, she was probably on meth given her irratic behavior. Did we mention this was at 2am?

NLM1 was up to P17 at this point. Brian may or may not have had a small off in the night but the car was fine and he ran a very good stint considering he hadn't seen the track before and it was dark! The Admiral put in a very fast and consistent stint having been up for about 20 hours. Lots of cars had broke by now and more were limping along.

A little look at some night action...


2:30am: The storm came. It was nasty, maybe as bad as the night before even. They red-flagged the race and announced a drivers meeting at 6am.

2:30-6am: Most of the team somehow slept for about an hour in the RV, or in the case of the Admiral in the back of the Cayenne (did you know he used to drive a Porsche SUV? True Story). The team showed up for the drivers meeting in the garages to find people sleeping on the floor, some may or may not have been alive. Someone had a projector and was projecting Top Gear on a wall. Everyone looked awful.

7am: race about to restart. We put the Dunlop Star Specs back on (despite Dave's abuse they still are the better rain tire). The track was still very wet and Hollywood did a great job passing just about everyone in those conditions. The Lexus LS400 went off bigtime in turn 3 (exiting the oval to the infield) and got stuck in the gravel trap. We were running P14, but catching the cars in front of us at a good clip.  About 7:30 one of them broke. By the end of Hollywood's stint we were running P13 about 12 laps behind P12 and 90 laps behind P11.

Some video from after the storm (not NLM's video)


9am: Lee went in for her very first stint as a racing driver (!!) and she did a very good job. She got much faster over the course of the weekend too. The P11 place car broke during this stint, so we were making up laps on them at a good clip and thought we might have a chance at them (they were up like 100 laps or so). 10th was like 300 laps ahead, so that was not gonna happen. The P12 place car - Lexus SC400 of Team Bear Patrol - also had some issues and we were within a dozen or so laps of them. 

10:15am: Magic ran the last stint and he was hoping to see the checker. NLM1 was within 50 laps of P11th and we hoped we could pass P12 (the Lexus) since they were in the pits again with a recurring issue but when they were on-track they were very fast and still running. Fueled the car and swapped right side tires. The Admiral said that he "thought" we should have enough fuel to make the end... 

Magic ran a couple of fast laps straight away before the Admiral yelled at him on the radio to slow down and save the car.  Magic ran consistent 1:05-06 for about 45 minutes and was pulling a small gap on the Lexus and was within 20 laps of P11 (a Saab). 

The top 3 at this point were a group of cars now familiar to anyone associate with Chump Car or NLM :BAR, Tubby, and Cougar Bait.  They were having a furious battle and ALL ON THE SAME LAP! 

By now Magic had been given the green light by the Admiral were almost up to P11, but the car behind (Lexus) was still close and stalking. Put in a bunch of hot laps and got by a bunch of cars. Magic was having a nice duel with a 280Z when he radioed that the oil light was coming on when he was on the T1-T2  banking, but it immediately went off. The Admiral told Magic to stay out and not to "F*ck it up"...  Any questions why the Magic nickname stuck?  

About 5 minutes later the team ran out to the pitwall and Magic came around turn 9 and saw a beautiful sight - THE CHECKERED FLAG! 

As NLM1 pulled into the pits, the entire team was thrilled with the finish. We finished 11th! Just 10 laps ahead of the Lexus after running almost 800 laps! If we had figured out the fuel issue earlier we could have been maybe in the top 5 and definitely in the top 8, but hey that's racing.  Like I said at the beginning, it was almost our first top 10 ;) And a cold beer still tasted fantastic after such an amazing race.

Magic, Hollywood and Dave had all done laptimes at around 1:02.  

You can see a whole collection of photos from taken by someone with BAR here.

Team Cougar Bait won the race (in the car they build in the pits during the BIR race) after BAR had to make a late splash for fuel after a small strategy miscalculation - a mistake they did not make at the Chumpionship in 2011.  Tubby finished 2nd, but set fastest lap (by far).  The forum chatter started shortly thereafter about E36s being cheater cars...

Iowa was also the last race of 2010 for North Star Chump Car (nka NLM).  For 2011, we would roll out 2 new cars and begin racing as North Loop Motorsport.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Road America Race Recap

NLM - Road America Race Recap: October 20-21, 2012

Road America was the setting for the "Drift Into Winter Classic," the final Central Region race of NLM's 2012 chump car schedule (with two West Region races left on the 2012 schedule).  

After a long preceding week of wrenching and an all-nighter on Thursday, all 3 E30s (NLM2, 3, and 4) were ready to head off to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin - sleep deprivation be damned.  NLM3 received a used engine in place of the engine that let go at BIR and NLM4 was fresh off its last race and top 10 finish at the Central Region Championship race at Heartland Park of Topeka.  This was also NLM2's first race since BIR, with a new craigslist differential installed after it destroyed the previous on on the last lap at BIR.

The Pro had found a bottom end to replace the old NLM3 bottom end around 9pm Wednesday night after we noticed an issue a piston ring in the old one.  Getting an engine assembled and installed in a single day (plus working a real job) was a monumental task, but no surprise that he got it done.  Magic helped as long as he could before being summoned home to a crying child @3am.  Suffice to say, neither of us slept on Thursday night.  We then both did a fair amount of driving to tow the cars to Wisconsin on Thursday.  Lots of Coke and Red Bull was consumed. 

Our arrival at the track was greeted a cold wind and light, cool drizzle.  But we made it through tech with no problem and none of the cars received any penalty laps, which is NLM SOP at this point.  We then set to the monumental task of setting up our paddock and pit area for the weekend.  With three cars, this is fairly involved and all of our drivers for the weekend were awesome pitching in while we completed some last minute tasks on the cars - securing a spec exhaust, bleeding brakes, seat fittings, etc.  Big thanks to Dr. D, and Blake for helping with the cars on Friday night too. Eventually the Spotted Cow and pizza arrived and we held a brief drivers meeting.  For 5 of the drivers, this would be their first Chump Car race...ever.

After the Admiral and Magic finally arrived at the Osthoff at 10pm or so, the nice lady at the desk informed them that the computer system was down and we could not check in.  No biggie, Magic only had been awake for like 36 of the last 38 hours and had to drive a race car about 8 hours later.  So they went to the bar, had some scotch, met some interesting characters and eventually made it to bed.

Saturday
Saturday morning was cloudy and crisp, but the drizzle had left.  The drivers were ready and after a few last minute tweaks it was time to suit up and get down to business.  The lineups for each cars set as follows:
NLM2: Gordy, Bill, Jim, and Blake.
NLM3: Tim, Dr. D, Peter, and Lee
NLM4: Magic, Notorious JCE, Tom, and Brian E.

70+ cars were entered for the race, making it a big field and a potentially busy opening stint.

Magic, Dr. D, and Blake were set to start.  Unfortunately, we had an overheating issue in NLM4, but the Pro, Nick and Bryan quickly had it fixed, but we sadly lost a number of laps.

Blake had an interesting start to the race.  Some people just cannot get their heads out of Forza and realize that its a 7hr race...or that they are on cold tires on a cold track.  Sadly, they took out some innocent bystanders.



Things were going well and all the cars were running well through the first hour.  Then things took a bad turn for NLM3.  Dr. D experienced a loss of power.  The team determined it was a headgasket failure and set about swapping in a new one (big thanks to Chump Faces for the part).  Sadly, it was not to be as it turned out to be a machining issue on the head.  NLM3 was very quick before this so it was a real shame.  Thankfully we had two cars, so after shuffling the lineups everyone would still get plenty of seat time.

NLM4 and NLM2 were running strong and staying out of trouble.  NLM4 was having a fuel consumption issue that required two additional pitstops though that hampered its chance for a top 10 finish.  After 7 hours and 14+ combined pitstops, NLM2 and NLM4 finished in the top 25. Fastest laps were 3:00.2 for NLM4 and 3:20.5 for NLM2.

After the race, several Spotted Cows were consumed and a few tweaks were made to the cars.  The team then retired to the Paddock Club Restaurant for a fantastic meal and a few more refreshments (if you are ever in Elkhart Lake, this is a must dine place).  The night was capped by the obligatory stop at the Last Open Bar at Siebkens.  Then a few hours sleep before getting ready for Sunday.

Sunday
Sunday also had its share of excitement.  JCE would start in NLM4 and Gordy started in NLM2.

NLM4 continued to be dogged by a rich mixture that require pitstops every 50 minutes, which meant at least two extra stops from the ideal strategy.  Despite this, NLM4 hung around the Top 15 all day.  JCE put in a killer first stint at the start, passing 8+ cars on the first lap and setting his personal best time of the weekend.  Brian and Peter put in fast and consistent laps in the second and third stints.  Magic continued his traditional of stealing fast lap with a "blazing fast" double stint, as the Admiral called it, in the afternoon.  That moved NLM4 to the top 10 before the final pit stop and the Admiral's stint. The Admiral also put down some fantastic laps, and just barely missed out on snatching 8th place (darn E36s), but secured 9th for NLM4.  Overall, a great finish (data from Sunday for NLM4 below).

Meanwhile in NLM2, Gordy, Bil, Lee, Tim, Blake, Derek, and Jim did a fantastic job again.  All the drivers got quicker and again stayed out of trouble.  Blake put down some fast laps, Magic and Dr. D. performed a surprisingly quick seat change after the slider mechanism failed on the primary seat, and Bill overcame a less than ideal seat position.  NLM2 just missed out on a second top 25 with a P26 finish. Data below shows how well all of the drivers did in NLM2.

So, after a second 7 hour race and another 13 combined pitstops, NLM2 and NLM4 saw the checkered flag on Sunday. Fastest laps on Sunday were 2:58.5 for NLM4 and 3:15.9 for NLM2.

Special thanks to Nick and Bryan from BMW of Minnetonka for all their efforts over the weekend, including some amazing photos which can be seen here.  Also a big thanks to Dr. D-Rock for all his help on the cars beforehand, at the race, and getting NLM4 to the track.  Finally, a big shout out to Beertech for all his help getting the cars ready and for almost getting impaled by a hood pin.

Here's a few video clips from the race.  The first is JCE making moves at the start on Sunday.  The second is two of our first time racers, Blake and Tim, in NLM2 on Sunday.  




Historical Note: NLM2 used to belong to Blake, before NLM acquired it in 2010.

The team all made it back in one piece on Monday morning (2am or so) and NLM's smallest and youngest member helped unload the cars later that day.

NLM will be returning to Road America in April and October of 2013.