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...
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.
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