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.  

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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.