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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