Anthony Magagnoli - '74 Porsche RSR @ Mid-Ohio
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Mid Ohio - 1974 Porsche RSR Replica Test
I took my student out in his car for a few hot laps. You can see the last few laps in the video below...
Anthony Magagnoli - '74 Porsche RSR @ Mid-Ohio
Anthony Magagnoli - '74 Porsche RSR @ Mid-Ohio
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Longest Day at Nelson Ledges
On August 1st, I found myself at Nelsons Ledges Road Course, instructing with the NOR BMWCCA, as I stopped by on my way up to visit family in Rochester. The place is even more horrible than it had been described to me. But holy crap was that track fun!! It’s incredibly bumpy, but equally as fast and just a really ballsy track to go fast on. I had a blast!
Now, my reason for stopping by, at the time, was to learn the track in advance of “The Lamest Day”; the 24 Hours of LeMons race there in October. I wanted to know the track, for myself, and also be able to prep our Toyota team for what to expect there. However, 2 weeks in advance of The Longest Day, Tim Smith called me up and told me he wanted me to fill a seat in his car, which he had specifically prepared in an attempt to win this race outright.
I was very interested in running with Tim. He had recently raced with Bimmerworld’s James Clay and won the 12 Hour of Summit, overall. I trusted that he was prepared to challenge for the win, and I respected him and the other two drivers who were on board. Jeffery Negus and Bill Heumann are both BMWCCA Club Racers who normally race M3’s in I-Prepared. Bill had recently run a Grand-Am Cup race, as well.
There were two big problems for me. The first was that my brother and his girlfriend were planning to visit me that weekend. Family is more important to me than a race, believe it or not, but I thank Joe and Danielle so much for their willingness to modify their plans so that I could attend this race and we could still spend some time together.
The second problem was funding... Racing is not light on the wallet, but that goes double if you’re looking to show up and drive a car that’s prepared for you, and even more so for an endurance race. I simply didn’t have that kind of budget. However, Tim really wanted me to fill that seat and I thought that it would be a great opportunity for me to broaden my skill set, compare myself to some other very good drivers, and experience how a “real” endurance race is run so that I could relay my learning points back to our LeMons team. Long story short, I needed help. To my own amazement, I was able to pull together a significant amount of sponsorship within one week’s time. Enough so that I was able to come up with the difference and get myself to the race. A huge thanks goes out to Scott Barton of MyTrackSchedule.com, Ken Herskovitz of Bimmertools.com, and Eric & Evan Keller of EnthusiastAuto.com. Please visit their websites in the event that you may be able to utilize their services!
So! On to the race…
I arrived on Friday night with just enough time to get behind the wheel for some night practice. This was new for me. The headlights on the car were covering just enough of the road in front of me so that I didn’t have time to react to anything I saw. I was trying to drive on reference points, which consisted solely of red reflectors in the braking zones and white reflectors indicating the turn-in, apex, and track-out points. It gave me a feel for the car, but little else. I was about 3 seconds off a typical day-time pace. Like I said, it’s a ballsy track, and I couldn’t find mine in the dark! To make matters worse, an RX-8 was going slowly coming onto the back straight, and I expected him to stay on line (as he should have). As I moved to pass on the inside, he moved down and pushed me into the grass at about 80 mph. Not what I needed! Regardless, I brought the car back in one piece. We worked on aiming the auxiliary headlights and got ready for the next day.
The car had been qualified in 4th place overall. We started among the Honda factory car (HART’s Grand-Am Cup Accord V6), the Bimmershop.ca E36 M3, the Berg Racing 1 Mazda RX-8, and the HIPII Racing Spec Racer Ford. Tim started off the race for us in good fashion. We didn’t expect to be the fastest car, but were prepared to win on pit strategy. With an additional fuel cell on board, we were looking to achieve 2 hour 20 minute driving stints. This would make it a 4-stop strategy, with Jeff being the repeat driver for the last night stint.
Tim was holding his own, hanging on in front of the RX-8. A short time into the race, the M3 pulled off with mechanical trouble. After hearing about their troubles with a rear shock busting through its mount, we played nice and I helped them locate another rear shock from our friend Bob Wright, whose race car was in the paddock. They lost close to an hour, though, and would not pose a challenge to us.
As Tim pushed on, the first round of pit stops came due for some of the lead cars. The HART Accord was very fast (3-4 sec/lap faster than us), but made its first stop at only about 1 hour into the race. And, on top of that, they were changing front tires. The Spec Racer had a very small fuel tank, and they were pitting frequently, as well. It looked like our stiffest competition would be the RX-8 and the Accord, barring any problems.
As Tim called in that the stock tank had gone empty and he was prepared to transfer fuel in from the fuel cell, we were amazed that he was nearing the 2 hour mark already. That meant that the car could go significantly longer than the 2:20 that we needed. The question was, could he? As I looked at the time that I figured he could go, I realized that, if we could make it close to 3 hours, we could eliminate an additional pit stop or, at worst, make the last stop a splash-and-go. That could translate into 5-8 minutes of off-track time that we could recover. I proposed this to Harvey and Doug, who were running our show, and they decided to push for this strategy. In the meantime, we noticed the RX-8 team beside us preparing a transmission for installation. That couldn’t be good for them. It turned out that they had lost their higher gears and then toasted the engine by running on the rev limiter too much. They retired before our first pit stop. Tim stayed out there for 3 hours and seemed relieved to finally be out of the car. The pit stop went smoothly, save for some minor fueling issues, and we clearly had the longest pit strategy of any car. With new Nitto NT-01 tires and a full tank of gas (as well as a good nap before his stint), Jeff got in the car to take over.
We had been trading the lead back and forth with the HART Accord as they passed us, then pitted, then passed us, but pitted again, etc. Jeff did great and posted our best lap of a 1:16.622. Without the few caution laps that Tim had had during his stint, Jeff was out for about 2 hours 30 minutes. I had been doing what I could to prepare. I was drinking lots of water, ensuring that my urine was running clear (too much information?), and trying to nap. When I got in the car, Doug got me strapped in, Harvey did a radio check and I was on my way. It was too bad that no one thought to clean the bug-splattered windshield! I got to work on trying to pick up speed. I was having a good run with the Berg II Miata until I was able to pick up enough to get past and start distancing myself from him. My improvements were put on hold, though, due to some rain that came down for about a third of my stint. I was actually amazed that the track didn’t slow down much at all, but I was breathing off the gas a bit before the 120mph kink.
The rain came down for just long enough that I was able to get the windscreen mostly cleaned of the bugs. I hadn’t run into too much trouble on the track, other than a few slower cars that weren’t yielding to lap traffic. The majority of the time, though, the other drivers tried to be very cooperative. There were just a couple scuffles with an Integra and a couple Miatas. As the rain let up, it came time to transfer the fuel to replenish the stock tank, and it was time to buckle down and turn in some hot laps. Tim came in over the radio and told me the announcers were making fun of me for being slow. Well, that was what I thought he said, anyway… This really made me want to buckle down and find some more speed. Unfortunately, it made me almost crash 3 times on that next lap! It turned out that the announcers were just teasing us because the HART Accord was so much faster than us, and they weren’t picking on me, specifically. Regardless, I was getting a second wind.
I had been trying to retain my endurance by alternately resting my arms on the back straight. With the track being so rough, I could really sense my wrists taking a beating. As for hydration, we had a camelback on board, but there wasn’t really a lot of time to be sipping away. So, at one point in the middle of my stint, I put the tube in my mouth and sucked on it for 3 laps straight, taking in as much water as I could while still breathing. Considering that my 3-layer nomex suit was completely soaked through with sweat, this was probably a good move. What? Too much information again? At least I didn’t need to relieve myself while I was in the car!
With some guidance from Tim on the radio, I concentrated on picking up speed through turns 1 and 2, as well as coming onto the back straight. Harvey called out some of my lap times and did show that I was able to shave off a solid .5 second from my times. I would’ve liked to be as quick as Jeff or Tim, but Nelsons Ledges is their home track and it was only my 2nd day there. While the track was simple, each turn became very complex to take quickly, since the bumps added so much more variation than just simply the shape of the curve. I managed to pull a 1:17.289.
Here’s the last 30 minutes of my session:
12 Hour at Nelsons - Team KYFA - Anthony Magagnoli
My stint came to a close as I felt the engine stutter at the 2 hour 35 minute point. I immediately brought it in to hand over to Bill, as we were running 2nd overall, 2 laps behind the HART Accord. I loosened my belts before pulling to a stop and Doug pulled me out of the car, supporting me on my feet for a moment to ensure I could walk and wouldn’t topple over. Don’t laugh. I saw other drivers stepping out of cars and just falling to the ground! It was a long time to be racing continuously.
Bill went out on the faster BFG R1 tires, but that was when catastrophe struck. We soon learned of a full-course yellow and that we were the reason. The car had gotten squirrly on the cold tires and he lost it around the banked Turn 3. As he came down the hill and into the tires, the car went up on its side and then settled on the roof. There went our chance at the overall win. I suppose it could have happened to any of us, though.
You’d think that the story would end there, but the team actually got the car back on track in about 30 minutes. Bill went back out in the car, but came back in a few laps later with a stuck transmission. It had had some issue already, but having the fluid dump out of it when the car was upside down probably didn’t help. As the team began packing it in, I couldn’t help but notice that there was a spare transmission in the trailer, 3 BMW technicians on hand, and almost 3 hours left in the race. With a little prodding, the crew set to replace the transmission and Jeff was back in the car with 1 hour left in the race. Of course, we were way out of contention, but we finished the race in the dark, and that was certainly rewarding, in itself.
I had a great time and hope that I’ll be doing more enduros in the future. There was a strong camaraderie brought on by driving together and having so many people in support of the same goal. It was fun just hanging out, even when I wasn’t on track, but also it was good to push myself and see that I could race for close to 3 hours with room to go. Of course, there is no doubt that I could not have done this without Tim’s support, and the support of MyTrackSchedule.com, Bimmertools.com, and EnthusiastAuto.com. I look forward to everyone’s continued support in the future!
Now, my reason for stopping by, at the time, was to learn the track in advance of “The Lamest Day”; the 24 Hours of LeMons race there in October. I wanted to know the track, for myself, and also be able to prep our Toyota team for what to expect there. However, 2 weeks in advance of The Longest Day, Tim Smith called me up and told me he wanted me to fill a seat in his car, which he had specifically prepared in an attempt to win this race outright.
I was very interested in running with Tim. He had recently raced with Bimmerworld’s James Clay and won the 12 Hour of Summit, overall. I trusted that he was prepared to challenge for the win, and I respected him and the other two drivers who were on board. Jeffery Negus and Bill Heumann are both BMWCCA Club Racers who normally race M3’s in I-Prepared. Bill had recently run a Grand-Am Cup race, as well.
There were two big problems for me. The first was that my brother and his girlfriend were planning to visit me that weekend. Family is more important to me than a race, believe it or not, but I thank Joe and Danielle so much for their willingness to modify their plans so that I could attend this race and we could still spend some time together.
The second problem was funding... Racing is not light on the wallet, but that goes double if you’re looking to show up and drive a car that’s prepared for you, and even more so for an endurance race. I simply didn’t have that kind of budget. However, Tim really wanted me to fill that seat and I thought that it would be a great opportunity for me to broaden my skill set, compare myself to some other very good drivers, and experience how a “real” endurance race is run so that I could relay my learning points back to our LeMons team. Long story short, I needed help. To my own amazement, I was able to pull together a significant amount of sponsorship within one week’s time. Enough so that I was able to come up with the difference and get myself to the race. A huge thanks goes out to Scott Barton of MyTrackSchedule.com, Ken Herskovitz of Bimmertools.com, and Eric & Evan Keller of EnthusiastAuto.com. Please visit their websites in the event that you may be able to utilize their services!
So! On to the race…
I arrived on Friday night with just enough time to get behind the wheel for some night practice. This was new for me. The headlights on the car were covering just enough of the road in front of me so that I didn’t have time to react to anything I saw. I was trying to drive on reference points, which consisted solely of red reflectors in the braking zones and white reflectors indicating the turn-in, apex, and track-out points. It gave me a feel for the car, but little else. I was about 3 seconds off a typical day-time pace. Like I said, it’s a ballsy track, and I couldn’t find mine in the dark! To make matters worse, an RX-8 was going slowly coming onto the back straight, and I expected him to stay on line (as he should have). As I moved to pass on the inside, he moved down and pushed me into the grass at about 80 mph. Not what I needed! Regardless, I brought the car back in one piece. We worked on aiming the auxiliary headlights and got ready for the next day.
The car had been qualified in 4th place overall. We started among the Honda factory car (HART’s Grand-Am Cup Accord V6), the Bimmershop.ca E36 M3, the Berg Racing 1 Mazda RX-8, and the HIPII Racing Spec Racer Ford. Tim started off the race for us in good fashion. We didn’t expect to be the fastest car, but were prepared to win on pit strategy. With an additional fuel cell on board, we were looking to achieve 2 hour 20 minute driving stints. This would make it a 4-stop strategy, with Jeff being the repeat driver for the last night stint.
Tim was holding his own, hanging on in front of the RX-8. A short time into the race, the M3 pulled off with mechanical trouble. After hearing about their troubles with a rear shock busting through its mount, we played nice and I helped them locate another rear shock from our friend Bob Wright, whose race car was in the paddock. They lost close to an hour, though, and would not pose a challenge to us.
As Tim pushed on, the first round of pit stops came due for some of the lead cars. The HART Accord was very fast (3-4 sec/lap faster than us), but made its first stop at only about 1 hour into the race. And, on top of that, they were changing front tires. The Spec Racer had a very small fuel tank, and they were pitting frequently, as well. It looked like our stiffest competition would be the RX-8 and the Accord, barring any problems.
As Tim called in that the stock tank had gone empty and he was prepared to transfer fuel in from the fuel cell, we were amazed that he was nearing the 2 hour mark already. That meant that the car could go significantly longer than the 2:20 that we needed. The question was, could he? As I looked at the time that I figured he could go, I realized that, if we could make it close to 3 hours, we could eliminate an additional pit stop or, at worst, make the last stop a splash-and-go. That could translate into 5-8 minutes of off-track time that we could recover. I proposed this to Harvey and Doug, who were running our show, and they decided to push for this strategy. In the meantime, we noticed the RX-8 team beside us preparing a transmission for installation. That couldn’t be good for them. It turned out that they had lost their higher gears and then toasted the engine by running on the rev limiter too much. They retired before our first pit stop. Tim stayed out there for 3 hours and seemed relieved to finally be out of the car. The pit stop went smoothly, save for some minor fueling issues, and we clearly had the longest pit strategy of any car. With new Nitto NT-01 tires and a full tank of gas (as well as a good nap before his stint), Jeff got in the car to take over.
We had been trading the lead back and forth with the HART Accord as they passed us, then pitted, then passed us, but pitted again, etc. Jeff did great and posted our best lap of a 1:16.622. Without the few caution laps that Tim had had during his stint, Jeff was out for about 2 hours 30 minutes. I had been doing what I could to prepare. I was drinking lots of water, ensuring that my urine was running clear (too much information?), and trying to nap. When I got in the car, Doug got me strapped in, Harvey did a radio check and I was on my way. It was too bad that no one thought to clean the bug-splattered windshield! I got to work on trying to pick up speed. I was having a good run with the Berg II Miata until I was able to pick up enough to get past and start distancing myself from him. My improvements were put on hold, though, due to some rain that came down for about a third of my stint. I was actually amazed that the track didn’t slow down much at all, but I was breathing off the gas a bit before the 120mph kink.
The rain came down for just long enough that I was able to get the windscreen mostly cleaned of the bugs. I hadn’t run into too much trouble on the track, other than a few slower cars that weren’t yielding to lap traffic. The majority of the time, though, the other drivers tried to be very cooperative. There were just a couple scuffles with an Integra and a couple Miatas. As the rain let up, it came time to transfer the fuel to replenish the stock tank, and it was time to buckle down and turn in some hot laps. Tim came in over the radio and told me the announcers were making fun of me for being slow. Well, that was what I thought he said, anyway… This really made me want to buckle down and find some more speed. Unfortunately, it made me almost crash 3 times on that next lap! It turned out that the announcers were just teasing us because the HART Accord was so much faster than us, and they weren’t picking on me, specifically. Regardless, I was getting a second wind.
I had been trying to retain my endurance by alternately resting my arms on the back straight. With the track being so rough, I could really sense my wrists taking a beating. As for hydration, we had a camelback on board, but there wasn’t really a lot of time to be sipping away. So, at one point in the middle of my stint, I put the tube in my mouth and sucked on it for 3 laps straight, taking in as much water as I could while still breathing. Considering that my 3-layer nomex suit was completely soaked through with sweat, this was probably a good move. What? Too much information again? At least I didn’t need to relieve myself while I was in the car!
With some guidance from Tim on the radio, I concentrated on picking up speed through turns 1 and 2, as well as coming onto the back straight. Harvey called out some of my lap times and did show that I was able to shave off a solid .5 second from my times. I would’ve liked to be as quick as Jeff or Tim, but Nelsons Ledges is their home track and it was only my 2nd day there. While the track was simple, each turn became very complex to take quickly, since the bumps added so much more variation than just simply the shape of the curve. I managed to pull a 1:17.289.
Here’s the last 30 minutes of my session:
12 Hour at Nelsons - Team KYFA - Anthony Magagnoli
My stint came to a close as I felt the engine stutter at the 2 hour 35 minute point. I immediately brought it in to hand over to Bill, as we were running 2nd overall, 2 laps behind the HART Accord. I loosened my belts before pulling to a stop and Doug pulled me out of the car, supporting me on my feet for a moment to ensure I could walk and wouldn’t topple over. Don’t laugh. I saw other drivers stepping out of cars and just falling to the ground! It was a long time to be racing continuously.
Bill went out on the faster BFG R1 tires, but that was when catastrophe struck. We soon learned of a full-course yellow and that we were the reason. The car had gotten squirrly on the cold tires and he lost it around the banked Turn 3. As he came down the hill and into the tires, the car went up on its side and then settled on the roof. There went our chance at the overall win. I suppose it could have happened to any of us, though.
You’d think that the story would end there, but the team actually got the car back on track in about 30 minutes. Bill went back out in the car, but came back in a few laps later with a stuck transmission. It had had some issue already, but having the fluid dump out of it when the car was upside down probably didn’t help. As the team began packing it in, I couldn’t help but notice that there was a spare transmission in the trailer, 3 BMW technicians on hand, and almost 3 hours left in the race. With a little prodding, the crew set to replace the transmission and Jeff was back in the car with 1 hour left in the race. Of course, we were way out of contention, but we finished the race in the dark, and that was certainly rewarding, in itself.
I had a great time and hope that I’ll be doing more enduros in the future. There was a strong camaraderie brought on by driving together and having so many people in support of the same goal. It was fun just hanging out, even when I wasn’t on track, but also it was good to push myself and see that I could race for close to 3 hours with room to go. Of course, there is no doubt that I could not have done this without Tim’s support, and the support of MyTrackSchedule.com, Bimmertools.com, and EnthusiastAuto.com. I look forward to everyone’s continued support in the future!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
August Mid Ohio NASA Spec E30 Race
Coming off the July race, I had pulled the transmission to repair a leak that had caused the clutch to slip and also solved my overheating issue, so I was hoping that the car would be good to go. My venerable competitor, Simon Hunter, was unfortunately unable to make this race, but Jeremy Lucas was joining Michael Osborne and I for what would turn out to be a weekend that Simon surely regretted missing.
The weekend started off problematic. I had been trying to diagnose what I thought was a steering issue that was causing the car to pull left and then randomly pull right. With the help of Kevin at DTR Performance, we had confirmed all the front end suspension components and aligned the car, but hadn’t found any problems. During the practice session, a loud clunk became apparent when transitioning load. Upon investigation, I still couldn’t find anything wrong with the front end. Eventually I discovered that my rear trailing arm bolts had loosened completely causing my eccentric bushings to shift under transitioning load. I tightened the trailing arm bolts and performed a rear toe alignment, but couldn’t get anywhere close to a desirable setting. Despite this, I managed to qualify the car on pole for our class.
While I had the preferred position at the start of the race, it didn’t much matter. By the end of the first lap I had lost position to both Michael and Jeremy. On the following lap though, I was able to use traffic to get to the inside of Jeremy when approaching Thunder Valley. As I made a chase for Michael, Jeremy was left to deal with traffic and a gap developed between us. I caught up to Michael within a few laps, but passing him was a different story. We battled lap after lap and I got along side him several times, but was unable to get up far enough to complete a pass. With our bout continuing, Jeremy was able to reel us back in once freed from traffic. He applied some pressure from behind me, but ended up going wide in turn one and took a trip, bounding through the grass and leaving his chin spoiler behind as a souvenir for the corner workers.
With Jeremy out of the picture for the time being, I concentrated on how to get past Michael. I could see that I wasn’t quite matching him under braking and tried to focus on this area. Drafting him down the back straight, I was able to pull to the inside and get up far enough under braking to at least go side by side through turn seven. As we came down from madness, I had the inside line for turn nine and was alongside him. Being on the outside, he was able to brake a little bit later and through what was purely a racing incident, I gave his right rear wheel a light shove with my left rear front as we were entering the turn. His car over steered, but fortunately he was able to save it and continue on. My steering wheel was cocked to the right, but otherwise drove fine. I continued to give chase right down to the last lap. Unfortunately for us this had allowed Jeremy to make up the time he had lost and he was once again on my bumper. I couldn’t hold him back and he got by me on the second to last lap. While I was still looking for an opportunity for them to screw each other up, it didn’t happen. Jeremy managed to get by Michael on the last lap to set himself up for an amazing come-from-behind win! We remained nose-to-tail and all crossed the finish line within one second! It was the hardest fought third place finish I have ever had.
Spec E30 - Anthony Magagnoli - Mid-Ohio Pro Course
After the race I realigned the front end to compensate for the steering angle “adjustment” in preparation for the next day’s racing. As a result of Sunday’s qualifier, I found myself starting second to Michael. In addition to this, having observed Jeremy’s tremendous braking capability, I knew I was going to have to step it up if I was to compete with them. I nervously had a new set of Hawk HG-10 brake pads put on, as I have never used that compound before, but knew I needed a fresh set. It turned out to be the right move. While I still wasn’t matching Jeremy’s braking points, I felt I was getting a better drive out of the corners and was at least matching Michael’s points.
As we came around the keyhole on the pace lap, I was positioned on the outside and some of the cars ahead of us blocked my view of the starter stand on the back straight. I was looking desperately, but had to react to seeing Michael jump on the gas first. Jeremy followed Michael as they pulled ahead down the back straight. I was back in third by the time we came through turn seven, however, as we came into the carousel, I was able to get to the outside of Jeremy and hold my position entering the front straight, which was relatively sideways for me. As Jeremy backed off, I pulled ahead into second place down the front straight. We maintained our positions as I went after Michael. In a repeat of the previous day, the competition with Michael was very close. We went several laps nose-to-tail, but this time I wasn’t losing any ground in the braking zones. As we came up under the Honda bridge, we approached a slower car. I took advantage of the situation and was able to make a pass while Michael was forced to check up. I’ll take it however I can get it. From there I pulled away, but unfortunately Jeremy had made his way by as well and was soon pressuring me. While he was racing hard, I could also see that he was exerting patience, just waiting for me to make a mistake. I knew where we each had our strengths and I was trying to use mine to maintain the position while not giving Jeremy the opportunity to out-brake me for position. This went down to the very last lap and Jeremy got a better than normal run down the back straight. I positioned myself in the middle of the track to defend my line to Jeremy’s imminent passing attempt. As we rounded the kink, I noticed the corner worker was waiving a yellow flag for a local caution. I pulled back on to the fast line, realizing that this would preclude Jeremy from passing. He followed suit and tucked back in line, making one last desperation attempt going into nine. It didn’t work and I was able to hang on for the win!
SpecE30 Anthony Magagnoli - Mid-Ohio
This weekend was exactly the type of racing I expected coming to spec E30. It was a great time and I look forward to more of the same, joined by Simon and the others who are preparing to compete in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions!
A big thanks goes out to my sponsors: DTRPerformance.com, MyTrackSchedule.com, Bimmertools.com, and EnthusiastAuto.com!
The weekend started off problematic. I had been trying to diagnose what I thought was a steering issue that was causing the car to pull left and then randomly pull right. With the help of Kevin at DTR Performance, we had confirmed all the front end suspension components and aligned the car, but hadn’t found any problems. During the practice session, a loud clunk became apparent when transitioning load. Upon investigation, I still couldn’t find anything wrong with the front end. Eventually I discovered that my rear trailing arm bolts had loosened completely causing my eccentric bushings to shift under transitioning load. I tightened the trailing arm bolts and performed a rear toe alignment, but couldn’t get anywhere close to a desirable setting. Despite this, I managed to qualify the car on pole for our class.
While I had the preferred position at the start of the race, it didn’t much matter. By the end of the first lap I had lost position to both Michael and Jeremy. On the following lap though, I was able to use traffic to get to the inside of Jeremy when approaching Thunder Valley. As I made a chase for Michael, Jeremy was left to deal with traffic and a gap developed between us. I caught up to Michael within a few laps, but passing him was a different story. We battled lap after lap and I got along side him several times, but was unable to get up far enough to complete a pass. With our bout continuing, Jeremy was able to reel us back in once freed from traffic. He applied some pressure from behind me, but ended up going wide in turn one and took a trip, bounding through the grass and leaving his chin spoiler behind as a souvenir for the corner workers.
With Jeremy out of the picture for the time being, I concentrated on how to get past Michael. I could see that I wasn’t quite matching him under braking and tried to focus on this area. Drafting him down the back straight, I was able to pull to the inside and get up far enough under braking to at least go side by side through turn seven. As we came down from madness, I had the inside line for turn nine and was alongside him. Being on the outside, he was able to brake a little bit later and through what was purely a racing incident, I gave his right rear wheel a light shove with my left rear front as we were entering the turn. His car over steered, but fortunately he was able to save it and continue on. My steering wheel was cocked to the right, but otherwise drove fine. I continued to give chase right down to the last lap. Unfortunately for us this had allowed Jeremy to make up the time he had lost and he was once again on my bumper. I couldn’t hold him back and he got by me on the second to last lap. While I was still looking for an opportunity for them to screw each other up, it didn’t happen. Jeremy managed to get by Michael on the last lap to set himself up for an amazing come-from-behind win! We remained nose-to-tail and all crossed the finish line within one second! It was the hardest fought third place finish I have ever had.
Spec E30 - Anthony Magagnoli - Mid-Ohio Pro Course
After the race I realigned the front end to compensate for the steering angle “adjustment” in preparation for the next day’s racing. As a result of Sunday’s qualifier, I found myself starting second to Michael. In addition to this, having observed Jeremy’s tremendous braking capability, I knew I was going to have to step it up if I was to compete with them. I nervously had a new set of Hawk HG-10 brake pads put on, as I have never used that compound before, but knew I needed a fresh set. It turned out to be the right move. While I still wasn’t matching Jeremy’s braking points, I felt I was getting a better drive out of the corners and was at least matching Michael’s points.
As we came around the keyhole on the pace lap, I was positioned on the outside and some of the cars ahead of us blocked my view of the starter stand on the back straight. I was looking desperately, but had to react to seeing Michael jump on the gas first. Jeremy followed Michael as they pulled ahead down the back straight. I was back in third by the time we came through turn seven, however, as we came into the carousel, I was able to get to the outside of Jeremy and hold my position entering the front straight, which was relatively sideways for me. As Jeremy backed off, I pulled ahead into second place down the front straight. We maintained our positions as I went after Michael. In a repeat of the previous day, the competition with Michael was very close. We went several laps nose-to-tail, but this time I wasn’t losing any ground in the braking zones. As we came up under the Honda bridge, we approached a slower car. I took advantage of the situation and was able to make a pass while Michael was forced to check up. I’ll take it however I can get it. From there I pulled away, but unfortunately Jeremy had made his way by as well and was soon pressuring me. While he was racing hard, I could also see that he was exerting patience, just waiting for me to make a mistake. I knew where we each had our strengths and I was trying to use mine to maintain the position while not giving Jeremy the opportunity to out-brake me for position. This went down to the very last lap and Jeremy got a better than normal run down the back straight. I positioned myself in the middle of the track to defend my line to Jeremy’s imminent passing attempt. As we rounded the kink, I noticed the corner worker was waiving a yellow flag for a local caution. I pulled back on to the fast line, realizing that this would preclude Jeremy from passing. He followed suit and tucked back in line, making one last desperation attempt going into nine. It didn’t work and I was able to hang on for the win!
SpecE30 Anthony Magagnoli - Mid-Ohio
This weekend was exactly the type of racing I expected coming to spec E30. It was a great time and I look forward to more of the same, joined by Simon and the others who are preparing to compete in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions!
A big thanks goes out to my sponsors: DTRPerformance.com, MyTrackSchedule.com, Bimmertools.com, and EnthusiastAuto.com!
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