Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course SpecE30

I had to miss the last 2 SpecE30 races due to other commitments, but I had still been active with coaching BMW Club Racers and testing a new supercar called the Mach 7 Motorsports Falcon. However, it was nice to get back into the Spec cars, as their inherent similarity really push us to dig deep to maximize our performance on track. The #007 car has had a large share of issues this year, starting with a fried wire harness and stemming from there, but we’ve worked hard to get the car performing at its peak level again, as well as continuing its development.

We arrived at Mid-Ohio just before dusk on Friday, already knowing that our usual SpecE30 compound had been overrun. With the NASA National Championships being held at Mid-Ohio in September, we had a large number of out-of-region competitors attending in order to learn the track. In fact, we had Robert Grace join us from the Mid-Atlantic region, which is one of the largest regions for SpecE30. Robert is considered to be their regional hot-shoe, especially since Mike Skeen moved to the pros and Chris Cobetto moved to another class. We found ourselves some room among the other SpecE30’s, though, and got unloaded before heading to the hotel.



Limited as we are on adjustability, we were making small suspension adjustments, hoping to find a bit more speed in the car. Saturday morning’s practice session was a bit short – only 4 laps – but, on old “practice” tires, I set a 1:44.234, running the Pro Course. This was a time that no one, including myself, would match all weekend. The temperature rose rapidly after that morning session, reducing the grip levels for everyone. We had to rely on my feel for the car, more so than strictly lap times, in order to evaluate the changes that we were making. We made an adjustment going into qualifying and posted a 1:44.429. This was good enough for the pole, but concerning at the same time. The driver who qualified 2nd was Cameron Bullard – a relatively newer driver, only 20 years old, who was at least a second off my pace all of last year. I had helped him out in April by having his rear suspension completely refreshed (parts from Ireland Engineering and work performed at DTR Performance) and setting up his alignment. For that, he returned the favor by qualifying 0.333 seconds behind me. That was definitely within fighting distance. With 3 separate race groups, we were all thankful to be separated from the Spec Miatas. However, we had some very fast GTS (German Touring Series) cars in the group ahead of us. I would be leading off the start of our 2nd wave of cars, taking our own green flag on the back straight for the first time I can remember.


Qualifying Video from Side of Car – IN HD!


On the start of the race, Cameron dragged me down through Turns 7 and 8, but I pulled into the lead from there. He pressured me for a few laps before I was able to open up a gap wide enough to take a deep breath every once in a while. From there, I just tried to run consistent and quick laps, working through traffic as efficiently as possible. I had increased the gap to a half a straight away between us and was feeling comfortable with the car’s performance. On lap 7, though, as I was approaching the Keyhole, I entered to find a Porsche 944 spinning ahead of me. I could have picked a direction and shot by, hoping that his car hooked the other way, but I decided to play it safe and slow down to see which way his car was going. He ended up heading backwards off the track and I pulled to the right. Unfortunately, this had absolutely killed my exit speed onto the back straight. To make matters worse, I was going so slow that I needed 2nd gear and I couldn’t find it. I so rarely downshift to 2nd that I might have put it over in the Reverse gate, but regardless, it took a couple tries to get it engaged. As it ripped to redline and I upshifted to 3rd, Cameron blasted by on my right, having gotten full exit speed from the Keyhole.



Well, this race just got interesting… I gave chase as he pulled away from me down the straight. I pushed to get close and when we came around to the start finish line, I was within two car-lengths. As we entered Turn 1, I saw him turn in a couple feet early and, while he held a sweet 4-wheel drift right to the curbing, he pushed off the outside of the turn. I watched his splitter grab a big scoop of dirt and grass before it proceeded to fold under his car. He came right back on and was able to rejoin the battle, albeit with a little less grip in the front, and he held off Jeremy Lucas to finish on the 2nd podium position. In the meantime, I had run the remaining laps uncontested and brought the 007 home in 1st place, with a 7.5 second gap to 2nd!




Race 1 Video - IN HD!



We arrived at the track on Sunday morning to a fog that was thick enough to mandate the cancellation of our morning practice. So much for testing a change we had made since the previous day’s race… Considering the big picture, we decided to risk the qualifying session to evaluate the change. This turned out to put us in a bit of turmoil, as the qualifying session did not go as planned…

During our 4-lap session, I ended up running with an out-of-class car that was hindering me in the turns and I was not able to get a clean lap. The cars that qualified 2, 4, and 6 were impounded for weight checks and for dyno runs. In my head, I assumed that we had still qualified 1st. However, when I looked at the qualifying sheet, I realized that I had actually qualified 3rd. Cameron was second and the pole-sitter was Mid-Ohio newcomer Robert Grace. I’d be lying if I said we didn’t panic a little bit. We were not sure whether we were slower due to the other car or the change in the suspension, so I set to analyzing the video and data to compare against my feeling of how the car was acting. Should we return to the previous day’s setup, which PROVED to be good enough to win? Or, should we continue to evaluate the change, which I felt should make the car a touch quicker, overall, and risk the race? I ultimately decided that I would look forward to having a real race on my hands and we would let the cards fall where they may.



Between qualifying and the race, we did some checks on track width and differential break-away torque so that we could be familiar with the procedure and see where we all stood in terms of compliance. This drew some interesting results. We also eagerly attended the dyno sessions for the 3 cars that were selected. I realized very quickly why my motor never feels very strong compared to the others… While I make a good peak horsepower number, I’m down on torque across the powerband.

On the start, I had Robert Grace in front of me and Michael Osborne beside me. I was amused to watch Michael bump Cameron, as Cam wasn’t moving up into his line up position as quickly as Michael would’ve liked. We got sorted, though, and rolled onto the back straight, awaiting the green flag. Robert and I jumped at the same time, while Cameron was either in the wrong gear or taking a nap. I pulled ahead and followed Robert into Turn 7 and through Madness.



Coming through Turn 1, I pulled along side him, to the inside on the exit, and we went side-by-side up to the Keyhole. And then side-by-side down the back straight. And through Turn 7, and 8, and 9, where I gave him a little too much room and allowed him to pull back ahead, while Cameron was right on my rear bumper. I gave chase again and when we went through Turn 1 this time, I got the run and passed him on the OUTside, with 2 wheels in the grass, and we dragged up to the Keyhole again. This time I had the inside line and made the pass going in. I would love to see this guy’s dyno sheet, though, because he managed to get beside me again at the end of the back straight. I had the inside line for T7, though, and I used it to hold on to the lead.



On our next time through Turn 1, I watched Grace get completely sideways through the apex and I watched the other SpecE30’s scatter to avoid contact. Fortunately there was none and they kept going, but this also gave me a bit of a gap to the rest of the field and allowed me to focus on turning laps. Jeremy Lucas was the next car back and I watched him hold the gap, and a couple times he seemed to shrink it. I put my head down analyzed and made sure to hit all my marks, as I had been off a foot here or a foot there while I was in traffic on the first few laps. This improved my times and opened the gap back up through the remaining laps. The only challenge was a particularly hard-headed driver in a GTS 330i, supposedly a World Challenge-prepared car, who I had passed in traffic. He had about 100 hp on me, so he had the legs on the straights. On the LAST lap, he was closing on me on the back straight. I clearly positioned my car on the right side of the track (approaching the right-hand Turn 7) to indicate that I did not want to be passed here. Well, he pressed the issue and dove WAY to the inside, probably with tires in the grass, so I pulled back to the left under braking so he didn’t punt me off the track with his idiocy. Still, with being off-line and distracted with paying attention to him, as well as giving him room, it put me wide in T7 and in the marbles. Nothing that I couldn’t handle, but it really pissed me off that he was that slow and being bull-headed about the position with an out-of-class car. Of course, I still passed him in Turn 8 and gapped him through the remaining turns to bring home the class win, with another 7.5 second gap back to Lucas in 2nd place, while Grace had worked his way back up into 3rd.


Race 2 Video


3rd-to-1st - Driver Cam



As always, we have a lot of work to do between races, despite the positive results from this weekend. We will be racing on August 13-14 again at Mid-Ohio, and then we are expecting 30 SpecE30’s for the National Championships on September 8-10! Keep an eye out to see how the season progresses!



A big thanks goes out to my 2011 sponsors: IMGT3 Performance, Ireland Engineering, MyTrackSchedule.com, DTR Performance, and Bimmertools.com!

All photos courtesy of Katelyn Harley Moss.

Mid Ohio - SpecE30

It’s amazing how much work there is to be done in the off-season to a car that won all but one race in 2010. The work surrounded mainly around 2 items. The first was a rules change that decreased our minimum weight requirement 50 lbs while also allowing us to place our ballast weight more strategically. The second item was a personal commitment to increasing the level of safety in my car. That meant a new wrap-around seat, HANS-specific harnesses, and quick-disconnect steering wheel. A lot of the remaining work went into “while we’re in there” items. I also repainted both sides of the car to create a fresh canvas for my sponsors’ logos. I was out of town for work 5 days a week for the 3 months leading up to the first event, so there is no way I would have completed the car without the help of my Crew Chief, Nate Thulin. Nate was in my garage on many weeknights that I was away and was with me almost every minute that I was working on the car. A huge thanks goes out to him for his hard work and support! Our focus this year is on the NASA SpecE30 National Championship at Mid-Ohio in September, and Nate is as big a part in the effort as I am.

There have been some changes for this season in regards to sponsorship. Scott Barton’s MyTrackSchedule.com and Kevin Kreisa of DTR Performance continue the support they’ve shown me since the beginning and Bimmertools.com continues their support of the past 2 years. New for 2011, though, is an increase in support from Ireland Engineering and a new sponsor, IMGT3 Performance. IMGT3Performance.com is a national online supplier of racing and performance parts, created for customers who seek high quality parts, great customer service, parts delivered on-time, and at the right price. And, of course, for those of you who don’t know, Anthony Magagnoli Racing is “officially official”, providing professional driver coaching and race vehicle support! Visit www.DriveFasterNow.com for details!

On the weekend of April 1-3, I was coaching for the BMWCCA Club Race School at Mid-Ohio. While this is a great event for advanced drivers and to-be racers to attend, it was also a great opportunity for us to shake down the car. And shake it down, we did… On a cold weekend that had snow, sleet, hail, and rain at different times, we still had ample opportunity to sort out a suspension issue we were having. But, unfortunately, it also revealed another issue. The ignition coil mount broke its spot welds off the wheel well and it fell down while I was on track. It shorted against the exhaust manifold and fried my wire harness. Literally. After working on it all day in the freezing cold, I gave up and sent it to a shop a little over an hour north of the track, where it eventually received a new wire harness.

So, I got the car back on Friday night, as Denny, having just completed the NASA comp school, was nice enough to go pick it up for me while I drove up to the track. Michael Osborne conducted some late-night annual tech inspections and we just had a couple items to attend to in the morning. However, I found that the car wasn’t as ready as I thought. There were several issues related to the work done on the car that I wasn’t expecting.

We had 11 SpecE30’s at our season-opener, which is a new record for the Great Lakes region! I personally recruited a couple of the new guys, so I was happy to see them out there, enjoying the challenge of their first event. My car was sporting its return to the number 007, which had been my number in BMWCCA Club Racing, but it had been owned by another NASA racer until this year.



I managed to qualify the car on pole, but it needed some attention before the race. I worked on getting it ready, while Michael Osborne and company prepared a nice lunch for the group. SpecE30 was the second largest race group, only smaller than SpecMiata, so our starting order was changed so that we were in the first wave of cars, in front of the Miatas. This proved to work out great, as we didn’t have to deal with nearly as much Miata traffic.

When we started the race, I had the inside of the front row, with Michael Osborne to my left. On the start, he had picked the wrong gear, but Rob Gagliardo had gotten a good jump from one row back and we went side-by-side through 7 and 8. From there, though, I pulled ahead and started opening a lead on the field. Within a few laps, I lost sight of those behind me. But, at about mid-race, the engine missed once and I thought to myself that it didn’t sound like something random… And sure enough, it happened again on the next lap. And on the next, and then the engine was cutting out for longer and longer, coming out of every left-hander, as the fuel level went down.


(Tom Hitzeman photo)

The car was fading fast, so I tried to get off-line in the places where the engine would cut out so I didn’t get rear-ended by other cars. I tried to keep my speed up and get to the end. I took the white flag and, as I came around the keyhole and onto the back straight, I looked across to Turn 2 and counted off the SpecE30’s. I accounted for all but Simon Hunter. As I braked at the end of the straight, he appeared in my mirror, quickly making up ground. Each time the engine cut out, he made up several car-lengths. As we came through the carousel and onto the front straight, the car fell on it’s face again and I only tracked-out to mid-track. Simon came flying through the last turn, tracking-out all the way to the right. My engine picked back up, but he had huge closing speed on me as we approached the finish line. I made my one legitimate defensive move, moving to the right side of the track. This caused Simon to check up and dodge me to the left to pull past. We crossed the line side-by-side, but I had just enough to cross the line ONE FOOT ahead of him!

Race 1, from Rob Gagliardo:

NASA Great Lakes - Saturday race


(Tom Hitzeman photo)

A win is a win, but I was obviously having a fuel delivery issue. With the help of some of my competitors, I investigated after the race and found the in-tank pump not to be running. It seemed that the relay may have come loose, so we zip tied the relay down and called it a night. We went to KC’s Steakhouse for a group dinner, which was nice to all get together. A quick visit in to see my friend Loretta turned our 30+ minute wait into less than 5.

Sunday morning’s qualifying session was damp and we only got 4 laps. With that, however, I qualified on pole, 5 seconds faster than the next closest car! The 007 seemed to be running just fine, as well. We had a long break until the race, so I took the opportunity to do some work on the car and then have another lunch with the group, provided by the Osborne crew.


(Aaron Eberle photo)

At the start of the second race, I had Richard Bratton to my left, with Michael Osborne and Denny Barker behind us. Michael got a good launch, splitting Richard and I on the back straight and leading us through Turn 7 and over “Madness”. Giving chase, I resumed the lead with a pass going into Turn 14 (“the fast left”). With the 10 other SpecE30’s in my mirror, I focused on putting a gap between us. On the next lap around, though, the car made its first fateful stutter… I shook my head in frustration, as I knew that there would be no way that I could pull out enough of a lead over the next couple laps to make up for the loss in power that I would soon see. We had obviously not found the root cause of the issue.


(Tom Hitzeman photo)

The engine cut got worse sooner in the race than on Saturday and was the engine was running lean enough to compromise power on every straight-away. Since running lean can destroy an engine, I was short-shifting in an attempt to preserve it. It didn’t take too long for the guys to catch back up as the problem worsened. As each guy caught me, I put up the best fight I could, holding position - or even re-passing - through the turns. When we hit the straights, though, getting out of their way was the only sensible thing to do. I dropped back one or two spots at a time, struggling to get the car to the end. When I finally crossed the finish line, I found myself in a frustrating 7th place out of the 11 cars. It was the knowledge that I could pull away from the field, but being kept back by a mechanical issue, that really upset me. I have 2 more SpecE30 race weekends at Mid-Ohio (July and August) before the National Championships. I will be spending more time between now and then coaching there, too, so I plan to have lots of seat time and fully maximize my “home track advantage” in the Nationals.

Race 2, from Rob Gagliardo:

NASA Great Lakes - Sunday race.

A big thanks goes out to my 2011 sponsors: IMGT3 Performance, Ireland Engineering, MyTrackSchedule.com, DTR Performance, and Bimmertools.com!


(Aaron Eberle photo)

Putnam Park - NASA Spec E30

I came to Putnam Park a bit nervous. Not because I was feeling pressure to place well, but because I had pressure to just FINISH both races. The regional championship came down to this weekend. I was nervous because only part of this was in my control. I felt confident that I could keep the car on the track, but a mechanical issue or a rogue SpecPiñata could easily take the championship out of my hands.

Pre-race, I made sure the car had enough tire and brake and ensured that nothing weird was going on. But, the night before I was to head out, I heard a tick in the motor that I didn’t like, so I pulled the valve cover and reset the gaps on the rocker arms. Although I did find a few out of spec, it didn’t seem to have made much difference. However, I gave Nate a good scare when I sent him a picture of the exposed internals of my engine when I was supposed to be getting loaded up! As added precaution, during the races, Nate was stationed in the pit lane with spare tires, duct tape, and zip ties, as well as an assortment of tools; to get me back on track should something go very wrong. Both races would take place on Saturday.

I posted the best times for practice and qualifying, but the car wasn’t feeling particularly good. There was lots of oversteer, making it difficult to drive “flatout”. Yet, it was pushing notably in turns 9-to-10. It was more than a little hairy. We made a small camber adjustment, based on our tire temps, but we didn’t have much time to play with it and had to somewhat wing it.


Sean Louisin giving chase (Alyssa Nolan photo)

I started the race from the pole position, on the inside coming out of turn 10. With radios not working, it was up to me to look for the green flag to drop. I jumped at the same time as Sean Louisin, but he had a slightly higher starting speed, since he had come through the outside of the turn. He was pulling on me, but there was a slow 944 in the left lane and I wasn’t going to be so courteous as to move over and give him the room to complete his pass! So, I lead into turn 1 and stayed in front, despite a lot of lap traffic and a particularly annoying 944. He was fast enough to keep me behind him for several laps, but was also slowing me down enough to allow Louisin to keep me right in his gun sight. He made a couple moves, getting beside me, but I was able to emerge ahead each time. In his final attempt, coming out of turn 8, he pushed wide. He went over the rumble strips, over the access road and, when he hit the grass on the other side, he did his best Dukes of Hazzard impression, launching his car a couple feet into the air. After a hard landing, he was able to continue on at speed and cross the line. For me, I brought the car back cleanly in 1st place, save for a good coating of dust all over the back end. That was one race down; one more to go.


SpecE30 10/9/10 Race 1 - Putnam Park


Coming through the final turn (Alyssa Nolan photo)

It was great to have Alyssa, her parents, and my friend Luke all in attendance. Our future SpecE30 competitor, my buddy Denny, was giving rides in the HPDE sessions to Alyssa’s parents. The track was getting dustier and slicker after every session, as cars would put a wheel (or 4) off the track and kick up a cloud that would eventually settle back on the track. Alyssa’s mom wasn’t even fazed by her 4-off experience!


Nate and Anthony, getting ready to race

In the second race, we started in the same positions as in the first, but my start was no better. I had Louisin pulling me on my left and Richard Bratton III making a surprise attack on the right. We were 3-wide as we entered the braking zone for turn 1. I weighed my options… In the best case scenario, I could win this turn and stay in the lead. In the worst case, we could bang some fenders, get disqualified, and the whole championship is gone. I chose to brake early and let the other two duke it out. I got back by Louisin after turn 2, but Bratton went on to pull out a significant lead, while I had to deal with out-of-class traffic.


Out-of-class competitor (Alyssa Nolan photo)

Once I got through the bulk of the traffic, I set my sights on the fish tank in the distance, 9 seconds ahead of me (Bratton’s car has a vinyl wrap to look like a fish tank). There was an E36 M3, running in PTB, that was making my quest difficult, though. He would rocket down the straight, but held me up through the rest of the course. He got the picture when he passed me late on the front straight, only to have me re-pass him in turn 2, with my inside tires in the grass. He backed off and only passed me in the following laps if he could get by early down the straight. We eventually made our way up to Bratton and I regained the lead by taking him on the inside of turn 8. He remained close behind as the M3 more or less tried not to interfere. Bratton made his last ditch effort going into turn 7, but pushed 4-off into the dirt. The funny thing is that he didn’t seem to lose any speed at all and I’m sure he never came off full-throttle. I came across the finish line to win the second race and secure the Great Lakes SpecE30 Regional Championship!


SpecE30 10/9/10 Race 2 - Putnam Park (Championship Race)


Great Lakes Region’s 2010 SpecE30 Champion (Alyssa Nolan photo)

After having suffered heart-breaks and learning-the-hard-way in the last 3 seasons of running BMWCCA K-Prepared, then SpecE30, I am thrilled to have finally put a championship together. These things rarely happen by accident, though, and I had great support from Nate Thulin throughout the season to make it a reality. He has pushed me to continue to develop the car and not to let it sit idle, just because it’s a “spec” class. We’ve learned a lot about it and made improvements. These resulted in 9 1st place finishes, 1 2nd place finish, 8 pole-positions, and 0 DNF’s this year. I’m really looking forward to next season, when we can do some real testing and tuning to get the car, and myself, ready for the NASA National Championships, which will return to Mid-Ohio in 2011!





Thank you to Alyssa and Nate for all the support AND all the pictures!

A big thanks goes out to my 2010 sponsors: MyTrackSchedule.com, Ireland Engineering, DTR Performance, Bimmertools.com, Enthusiast Auto, and FASTtech Limited!

Mid Ohio NASA Spec E30

It’s been a few months since I’ve issued a SpecE30 write-up, as I had to miss a race at Putnam due to a wedding and BeaveRun due to work getting crazy. I attended the July race at Mid-Ohio, but didn’t get the chance to write it up. The car was handling poorly, as it didn’t have nearly enough camber in the left-front wheel. The max that I could adjust to was -2.7 and I really needed as close to -3.5 as possible. I felt like I was parking the car in the right-hand turns. Regardless, I was still able to win both races. In the first, I made my way through traffic to pull a lead and was able to stay in front. In the second, there was much more excitement, as I had Michael Osborne on my tail the whole time. We repeatedly went through Turns 7 and 8 side-by-side, but I was able to pull back in front by Turn 9 each time. Unfortunately, the memory card that the video was on was left on top of the car as we pulled away and lost…


Part 1: SE30 Mid Ohio Magagnoli Qualified & Finished P1


Spec E30 Saturday Part 2 of 2


Fighting off Michael Osborne through Turn 7

There were only 3 weeks before I’d return to Mid-Ohio for the August race and it was shaping up to be a big race. Last year’s regional champion, Simon Hunter, has taken the year off due to his wife having twins, but he would be in attendance. The total number of SpecE30 racers was going to be the largest that our growing region has seen, at 9 starters. So, I knew I had some work to do to get more negative camber in the left-front, as well as address a significant oil leak that was rapidly getting worse. It came down to the week before the race and I had my good friends step up to get the car done. Kevin Kreisa, of DTR Performance, swapped in a new head gasket and Dwayne Beatty, at Joseph Cadillac (of all places) got the camber I needed to compete (I’m not going into detail on that). The car was finally loaded up at 3am Friday morning and I set out after work with my girlfriend Alyssa riding shotgun.

We setup our paddock area near the other SpecE30’s on Friday night, so we were ready to go in the morning. Saturday’s morning practice session went well, with the car feeling much better. Alyssa and my new friend/co-worker DJ were gathering tire temperature and pressure data to get a read on how the new suspension setup was doing. I posted the fastest practice time, but that didn’t mean much. We went into qualifying and I dropped about 0.6 seconds off, which I felt good about. However, Simon edged me out by a couple tenths, and Sean Louisin came from behind to qualify on pole, a half second ahead of me! I was hoping I’d be able to find the speed I needed in the race.

The rain started coming while the other race group was out, about an hour before our race. It was light at first, but then quickly intensified. I strapped down my new canopy to a trailer and the wheels on my car, and jumped back into the truck. It was pouring like I hadn’t seen before, with strong winds sending the rain sideways. I parked the truck in front of my car, waiting for things to die down. 5 minutes after the rain had started, there was a pool forming around my car, and I suddenly realized that the low, flat area I paddocked in may not have been such a good idea. 2 minutes later, my other set of wheels and tires were floating away, now going under the truck, as the water level rose above my car’s lower valence. Another 2 minutes and it was at the door sill. This is when I took off my shoes and socks and, with the other SpecE30 racers rallying to help, dove in to rescue the car. We got the now-bent-in-half canopy stripped away and attached a tow strap to the truck’s hitch and the car’s tow strap. I pulled it out while someone steered it toward higher ground. I pulled the drain plugs out of the floor and let the 5” of water drain out. My helmet had been on the floor, so it was completely drenched. As the rain subsided, we found that the track had lost power and the front straight had been struck by lightning! My friend Denny (soon-to-be SpecE30 racer) was even zapped by it in the pits! The race was postponed until the following morning, set to replace our Sunday practice session at 8am.






It got a little wet...

I ran a hair drier inside of my helmet for a few hours overnight to dry it out and wished the best for my car. Fortunately, it started right up in the morning. It spat some water out the tailpipe, but all was ok, aside from a layer of silt all over the floor pan. The track was still damp, but we all ran our dry tires since there was no standing water and the rain had passed. On the 2 pace laps, I tried to feel out the track the best I could. Each turn was different, with some having plenty of grip on the dry line (Keyhole, 7, 8, 9, Carousel), while others were still like ice on the sealant (1, 10a, 11, 13). I basically laid out where I needed to leave some extra safety margin and where I could really push it.

DJ and Alyssa were on the radio, watching the starter on the back straight for me. I heard the “Green! Green! Green! Green! Green!” while we were still in the Keyhole. Sean got the same jump as me, while Simon was taking a snooze (no radio). We drove into the mist cloud from the SpecMiatas and GTS cars ahead of us as I followed Sean down the straight. I went to the inside through the kink and we were side-by-side through 7. As we went over Madness, I pulled ahead and started focused on getting through traffic. The race only lasted 7 laps, but I saw more than that many cars go off, spin, or hit each other (or a wall) during that time. In fact, our own SpecE30 racer, Kevin Sweeney, spun over T11 (into Thunder Valley) and broad-sided the tires on the inside wall. I lost sight of the SpecE30’s, aside from when I was headed down the back straight and could see a couple between T1 and the Keyhole, and just kept pushing my way through traffic, keeping enough in reserve so as to stay clean.

While negotiating the excitement around me, I had managed to pull out a 38 second lead by the time I crossed the finish line and my fastest lap was 9 seconds faster than the next closest SpecE30. Sean Louisin came in 2nd and congratulations to rookie Cameron Bullard for posting his first podium finish by taking the 3rd spot!


SpecE30 8/15/10 Race 1 - Mid-Ohio Pro Course


Sean Louisin, “Trophy Girl”, Anthony Magagnoli, Cameron

Later in the morning, we held our qualifying session for the 2nd race. I came in only 0.13 sec ahead of Simon, but it was enough to earn the pole position. As it warmed up in the afternoon, we started the guessing game as to how much pressure to drop out of the tires. I made my judgment based on the data I had and went to grid. I had bottles of ice water packed in my driving suit, trying to keep my core temperature down while sitting on grid. A cool-shirt system might be on the list of winter projects.



Starting to the inside of Simon on the back straight, I dragged the brake while holding the throttle wide-open, waiting for the green. We jumped at the same time, but he pulled completely ahead of me by the time we reached the end of the straight. I thought that my brakes must have been dragging, or something, as this was the first time I had started that way. It wasn’t until I watched Simon’s in-car video that I realized how he found so much power on the start. While the rest of us started in 3rd gear, he had started in 2nd. Despite having to up-shift very quickly, he had gained more acceleration in 2nd gear than he lost during the time he spent shifting.

As we hit traffic, I gained back my position and did my best to put a car or two between us. Our cars are similarly matched to some of the GTS1 cars and there are always SpecMiatas around to annoy us, so we both had our work cut out for us. I had managed to put the GTS1 E30 of Kevin Gibson behind me and was working through traffic. Simon became irritated with an overly-defensive SpecMiata and made an overly-aggressive move on the back straight. As he pulled ahead of the Miata, he cut back to the inside, trying to solidify his pass, but braked far later than the car could manage. He braked down to the apex, but found Gibson right there in his path, and hit him hard, sending them both off the outside of T7.


Hunter and Gibson, coming to a rest

A lap later, there was a spin in Thunder Valley, which sent cars scattering, and Kevin Sweeney did all he could to dodge the carnage. While he missed the other cars, he was collected by the same tire wall that he hit in the morning, but this time the impact sent the car up on its roof, as he rolled over the tops of the a-pillars, and landed back on his wheels. This stopped the race and brought all the cars back into the pits. Once they got Kevin checked out and his car off the track, we resumed for a NASCAR-style Green, White, Checker. With Michael Osborne being the next SpecE30 behind me, I set to work when the green flag flew and got by another couple cars. While he did so, as well, I was able to hold onto the lead and cross the line in 1st.


SpecE30 8/15/10 Race 2 - Mid-Ohio Pro Course



The win was somewhat overshadowed by the carnage that one of our fellow SpecE30 racers incurred. Thankfully, he was physically, and even emotionally, fine, but the car will take some extensive work to repair.


Need to look closely to see that it rolled

Having won 5 of the 6 races I’ve run this year, I will be in the running for the Regional Championship, contingent on a couple things… I am currently the only one signed up for Autobahn in September and I must finish both those races. Then, at the season finale at Putnam Park in October, I need to finish both races, and average 5th place or better. So, at this point, I’ll be focusing on staying out of trouble and being there at the end.

Thank you to Alyssa (for the support AND all the pictures!), DJ, Denny, and Kohler for all your help this weekend!

A big thanks goes out to my sponsors: DTRPerformance.com, MyTrackSchedule.com, Bimmertools.com, and EnthusiastAuto.com!

Survival of the Fastest

Anthony Magagnoli and Kevin Kreisa's DTR / Street Survival One Lap of America effort was highlighted in a 9-page spread in the July 2010 issue of Roundel! Roundel is the official magazine of the BMWCCA and reaches over 72,000 members each month. Click here to see the article.

One Lap of America Round 10 - Tire Rack Dry(ish) Skid Pad

Coming into the last event, we were sitting in 5th overall, with the 997 Turbo in front of us and the GT3 RS behind us. We were not expecting a very good skidpad performance, if using our wet skidpad result (53rd) as any indication. We got to the Tire Rack early and got the car emptied out before taking it to a parking lot to test the balance. It was cold and cloudy, but dry. While it was oversteering at first, if I could manage to get the rear tires just a bit warmed, it was neutral to just a slight push. I decided that we couldn’t improve on this balance and I would just need to try to get some heat in the rear tires before the run, so I headed back. No sooner did I shut off the car than it began to downpour. Kevin and I threw everything in the trunk that we didn’t want to get wet and jumped in the car, soaked.

With the wet conditions, we figured we were screwed. Before the skidpad event, though, we had to line up for our group photo. They lined up the top 6 in front, which was an amusing sight: Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Porsche 911 Turbo, Corvette C6 Z06, Nissan GT-R, Porsche 911 GT2, and a 1990 BMW 325is.


It had stopped raining, but was still wet. This was when we started to hear grumblings of some very good news. It seemed that they were going to grid the cars in reverse order. This meant that, instead of running 7th, we would run 7th from last, so all the previous cars would surely dry out the track!

When it came show time, I gave it all I had in the skidpad, lighting up the rear tires before the run and scrubbing back and forth on my way in. I stayed tight and held the car on the limit, never letting it waver more than 3' from the cones, but trying to keep it within 1'. I was so focused on such a fine edge that I wouldn’t even take a full breath, for fear that it would upset my hand inputs! I did my 2 laps, turned around, did 2 more in the same way, and pulled off. It was good for .995 AVERAGE G, in sub-40 degree weather. It was also good for 7th overall. It sounded like we wouldn't lose a position after all!



When it was all over, we had the opportunity to be turned loose on the skidpad for some exhibition. Kevin had the car half-packed, but we emptied it back out so I could go put on a smoke show. Despite forgetting to engage the high-boost power mode, I had no trouble lighting up those big Michelins and putting on a pretty good drift show!



We headed inside for the reception and I was excited to see that Brock Yates Sr. was in attendance. I managed to get a few autographs from him before we sat down for lunch. When it came time for awards, we did better than we could have fathomed...

4th Place OVERALL
1st in Class - SS GT2 Small Bore
BMW Marque Award - Highest Finishing BMW
Rookies of the Year


We were just simply astounded! By the time we got to the Rookies of the Year award, Kevin and I welled up a little. We just couldn’t believe it. I dedicated that award, as well as our tactically acquired traffic cone, to Glenn Dodd and all the other One Lap veterans who had come before us.


We headed back home to real life, but it may never be the same. This may very likely become an annual event for us! I’m glad to have these recaps and plenty of pictures and video to reflect on, but I’m also writing the article for Roundel (the magazine of the BMWCCA). Look for it in the July issue!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED US AND STREET SURVIVAL IN THE 2010 ONE LAP OF AMERICA!!

A special Thank You to our sponsors: Michelin Tires, Ireland Engineering, MyTrackSchedule.com, Extrudabody, Clutch Masters, 034 Motorsport, BimmerTools.com, APR Performance, Forgeline Wheels, DTM Fiberwerkz, Cometic Gaskets, FastTech Limited, Lamin-X, MyTrackCam.com.

-Anthony Magagnoli
-Kevin Kreisa

One Lap of America Round 9 - Nelson Ledges

I warned Kevin that Nelson Ledges would not be as nice as the other tracks we had been to. Especially in comparison to the country club-esque NJMP! He complained about not having asphalt to jack the car up on, but he got over it. Nelson Ledges is a dilapidated old track with a rough, bumpy surface and no more amenities than your average camp site. But, man is it fun!


In my first run, I quickly noted that our car did NOT like all the bumps. They were causing the rear tires to rub the inner fenders quite hard and it was difficult to put the power down. The rear end was jittery and it was hard to gauge braking points since the bumps would sometimes cause the ABS to engage more and affect braking distance. My other difficulty was the Carousel. I would claim this turn to be one of the most difficult turns that I’ve ever encountered. Within this one turn, you have to transition from full throttle, to braking, to full throttle again, all while also altering the line to hit the late apex. Having never gone into the Carousel with anywhere near the speed at which I could with this E30 and no room to straight-line brake, I was conservative. I put together a clean, albeit bouncy run, with a best lap of a 1:13.2. It was good enough for 4th overall!



When I got back to the paddock, I was cooling off while Kevin checked over the car. I turned around to see something unexpected, but not necessarily surprising… My parents were walking my way! They had driven 4 hours down from Rochester, NY to see us run! They knew how important this event was to me, but I didn’t expect for them to make the trip. It really meant a lot to me that they came. I showed them the car and we walked the paddock, talking with other One Lappers and looking at the cars. It was nice to have them, as well as my friends Denny and Tim, on hand with Kevin to cheer us on!


Later in the morning session, there was a bit of unexpected excitement, as one of the Mustangs caught fire. It had blown its engine and then had a small oil fire underneath it. Fortunately, the driver was fine and the car is salvageable.


I geared up for my afternoon run and headed out. On my first lap, I carried good speed out of Turn 2 and the bumps in the braking zone sent the ABS into hold-mode, which almost sent me off the track. I managed to make the banked Oak Tree turn, but only just. While I didn’t have any other mishaps, I wasn’t pushing quite as hard through the 120mph kink because the huge bumps were causing the tires to rub so hard. I was actually a little slower in that session, coming in at 7th overall. We were 5th overall in points heading into the last event… the dry skidpad at the Tire Rack.



My parents headed out while we were packing up. When we were done, we met up with a bunch of people at a bar on the south side of the Cleveland, on our way to the Tire Rack. We did the same that night in South Bend, as the sessions at the big tracks were over and people were cutting loose. In between, though, Kevin and I had extensive discussions about our setup for the dry skidpad. If we didn’t do well, we would drop out of the Top 5. We ultimately decided to try our dry race setup, which had been fine-tuned earlier in the week. I would try it in a parking lot and determine if we needed any further adjustment or not.

2010 One Lap of America is under way!

We got into the Tire Rack on Friday morning and got registered. Kevin has been doing a great job on the transit driving throughout, keeping a safe and steady pace. Our first competition event yesterday was the wet skidpad. Our result was not good, as our car didn't really agree with that particular event and I had never run a skidpad before, let alone driven our car in the wet. We were 8th out of 9 in class and 53rd out of 68 overall. We weren't too concerned, as it was the first event of many, so we packed up and headed up to Elkhart Lake, WI.


Today went much differently. Road America has the longest straight-away of any track in the country (I think) and I was both nervous and excited to get out there. I'd spent an hour or so each night for the past few nights watching in-car video and playing Road America on X-Box. It sounds silly, but it paid off in a big way. In this morning's session, amid brakes that weren't really up to the task of slowing us from 150+ MPH, I managed to keep the car clean and cause people to suddenly take notice of us. We were 7th overall, among Porsche turbos, Nissan GT-R's, and Z06 and ZR-1 Corvettes! We are absolutely thrilled with our finish!


However, the extremely high speeds caused us to wear out our front brake pads more than I ever fathomed. We were suddenly in a crunch because it would be Tuesday before we went back through Cincinnati and no one could ship pads on Saturday. In typical fashion, one of our in-class competitors (Joe from Tire Rack) tried desperately to find us pads. We pursued several possibilities, but one of his suggestions was to contact Pegasus Racing, who was in Wisconsin. In a massive stroke of luck, they had the Hawk pads we needed for our Brembo brakes! They left them outside so we could pick them up later.



In the afternoon, we ran the short course at Road America, which eliminated the 2 longest straights. We started on a connecting road, where everyone stood to watch, and it had cones set up to lead the cars onto and off of the main track. The penalty for hitting a cone was 10 SECONDS! Brock Yates Jr. (event organizer and son of the creator of the original Cannonball Run) told me just before my run to not let a cone determine the results. In other words, "Don't be stupid and throw away your result by hitting a cone!"

With this advice fresh in my mind, I set out for my reconnaissance lap. I was running at about "full" speed, just because that one lap reflected 20% of my total experience at Road America, so I was learning a lot with each subsequent lap! So, I came up to a fast, blind, uphill left-hander, which I actually quite enjoyed in the video game and in the morning session. I came out of it flying and, when I could see the road ahead of me, several expletives and a healthy dose of embarrassment ran through my mind, because I just saw a sea of cones in front of me! I stood on the brakes and held the wheel straight, trying to slow as much as I could. I just BARELY made the turn and, as I went by everyone watching, I shook my hand out the window as to say "Aei, yei yei! That was close!" I could clearly hear everyone erupt into laughter as I headed up to the starting line!


Fortunately, the actual run went smoothly and we placed 7th overall AGAIN! So I guess that means it wasn’t a fluke! The Road America events have launched us up to 2nd place in-class, but we still have a bunch of points to make up on the GTI with the Stage 4 turbo, so we just need to keep doing what we’re doing! We are now running in the second run group (cars 6-10) for the rest of the events, so we will be with some fast company. We stopped at Pegasus and got our brake pads, possibly adding 1-2 hours to our trip. We've crossed into Iowa, though, on our way towards Mid-America Motorplex for tomorrow's event.


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Mid-Ohio - Memorial Day Weekend

Saturday and Sunday were host to a Northern Ohio Chapter BMWCCA Driving School and Club Race and Monday and Tuesday were a Chin Motorsports Driving School. I brought up my Z4 3.0si Coupe to use while instructing, but had also scored myself a co-drive for the club race enduro on Sunday.

Saturday and Sunday, I was instructing my friend Eric Keller, of Enthusiast Auto. He and his brother had brought down a pair of E36 M3’s, Eric’s having a Vortec supercharger on it. Nice car, but it only lasted 1 session before the head gasket let go. He drove his customer’s E46 M3, which had about $30k worth of performance-enhancing work done to it. This car was nasty in the best way possible. The owner, Kirk, had me take him out for a session in it. It was fast, but very well balanced and very easy to drive quickly. We had a blast, but the video camera he was running didn’t take… Aw, nuts. He made me do it again on Sunday ; ) That time I took Eric’s brother Evan for a ride. At the end of the day on Saturday, Eric took my friend Scott’s truck and trailer back down to his shop and exchanged his M3 for an S54 2001 Z3 M Coupe, which he would use on Sunday. Its really tough instructing students with such crappy cars ; )


Video of my session in Kirk’s M3.

I ended up switching co-drives for the enduro from my former nemesis / current friend, John Negus’s K-Prepared E30 (the class I used to race), to my friend Mario Meise’s I-Prepared E36 M3. Mario had never been to Mid-Ohio before and there were more cars in class, so it stood to reason that there was more benefit to both of us for me to run with him. I took out his car in the instructor session on Saturday so I could get a feel for it. Traffic was heavy and my closing speeds on other cars were often scary. Despite that, I ran a 1:40.6, whereas the fastest I’d run in my car was a 1:44.5. Nice = )


Video of my practice session in Mario's IP M3.

Saturday night was a hoot, as a bunch of the racers and some others went out for dinner, then hit up the go-karts at Bucks. We paid off the kids working there to just let us run as we wished, and they even joined in at times. They showed us how to reach back and pull the governor to increase our speed, and I have many bruises on my arm from doing that! There were about 15 of us and 2 12 year old girls out there, and were generally drove like we wanted to kill each other. Spinning each other out whenever possible, etc. The highlight, though, was when John Negus was spun around and proceeded to drive FULL SPEED IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION! The look on the kid’s face who was running it was priceless! We all survived to race another day, though…

On Sunday, Mario qualified the car and started the race. We weighed the car before qualifying and found that, with me in the car, we would be about 60 lbs under weight (there’s 75 lbs between Mario and I!). So, we ensured that we would run with a full tank of gas and threw a spare tire in the trunk.



Mario ran the first half of the race, hanging with Jeff Negus’ pace (John’s son, who races IP), 10 seconds behind him on the track. My friend Scott and I awaited Mario to come in for the mandatory 5-minute pit stop. I started the stopwatch on my wrist watch, thinking that it was only as a back-up. Well, it turned out that it was our only source of timing. I looked at my watch and noticed that my minute hand had not started on 0, and I didn’t know how many minutes we were into the stop. I tried to count the minutes, but was off, because I went out on the 4-minute mark instead of the 5-minute mark. D’oh!

I launched out of the pits, thinking I was in hot pursuit of Jeff Negus (when I was actually a minute ahead of him on the track by mistake). It was a major mental load to go from chilling out in the pits to immediately driving flat out with no warm up. I ran the remaining 30 minutes and caught and passed 2 I-Prepared cars in the process. Mario’s car was lots of fun and much less frustrating than my car, as it has about 50% more power. During the race, I had pulled off a 1:39.14, which was the second fastest of the ~10 in class. The fastest guy has a big-money build, though, and is, himself, going Grand Am Cup racing this month. I didn’t feel too bad about that at all for my first time in the car = ) A huge thanks to Mario for giving me the opportunity. I can’t wait to do it again, next time with more than 30 minutes of preparation!



The remainder of the Duct Tape Motorsports folks rolled in on Sunday. I instructed our friend Dan, in a very pretty white 911. We had a great time and I got to drive a plethora of fun stuff. I took out Scott’s ’84 911 and had fun tossing that car around, took a few laps in Dan’s car, took Scott’s student out in his own brand new E92 M3 (and scared him), and took another guy, John, out in his S50-powered E30 (that’s a 3.0L E36 M3 motor in an E30).


Scott Barton's '84 911


Dan Schultz' '93 911


James' E92 M3


John's S50-powered E30

Toyota friends Tom Duesing (Cayman S) and Chase Nelson (G35 Coupe) showed up for Monday and we had a good time tearing it up. Tom brought his father with him, driving a 350Z.Tom and I had a great battle in our last session. With our cars similarly prepared (he on Nitto NT-01-R’s and me on 5-yr old RA-1s, both with Hawk HP+ pads), Tom was already on track with his father riding shotgun. In an effort to reduce any differences, I grabbed my student, Dan, to ride with me and we waited in the pits until Tom came around before heading out after him. I basically held my distance, as we had a car between us, but then a car slowed him down, bringing us together. I had already told Dan, “Make no mistake, we ARE racing right now!” We went nose-to-tail, with me literally a foot off his bumper at 100+mph. I could see him overdriving the car on corner entries and I got a run on him coming onto the front straight. He gave me a point-by, but I waved it off. It was too much fun! We went another 2 laps with the draft keeping me right on his bumper down the back straight, while I was lifting in other sections to keep my position behind him. I finally got such a strong run onto the front straight that I had to go by. I just wish the memory card on the camera hadn’t filled only a lap into it! Tom was a good sport to accept some of the smack-talking in return, but I have to say that having been driving the track for the previous two days certainly helped to warm me up. I’m sure there will be a rematch in the future ; )


A couple minutes of video






The weather prediction for Tuesday was bleak. It suggested rain all day. The track was, in fact, wet in the first 2 sessions, but it dried up and the sun even peeked out from time to time! It was perfect! The benefit to us was that many people didn’t return for Tuesday, and the event was lightly attended to begin with, so there was TONS of open track on Tuesday!

I rode with Chase, Scott, and Ed at other points and I’m simply amazed at how fast all the DTM’ers have gotten! By the end of the event, Scott, Than, Ed, Mike, and myself were all running very close with each other, making for some great times!

I had given John a ride in my race car at this event last year and apparently made enough of an impression that he sold his Mini and went out and bought himself an E30! The fixed-position seat was too far back for me, so I put my racing suit behind me to get pushed forward. That kindof worked, but I lost the lateral support of the seats. It wasn’t easy to drive that way. In any case, we went out to run some hot laps. His big Wilwood brake kit felt great the first time we hit them at the end of the back straight. The second time though, though, they began to smell like they were overheating. I proceeded to ask him what pads they were and he confirmed that they were a race compound… Weird. So, I continued around the next lap and hit them at exactly the same spot as before. Only 100 feet into the braking zone, I knew we weren’t going to be slowed down in time and I told John that we were going off. He responded with a chuckle… I repeated, “No, REALLY, we’re going off.” He replied that it was ok, he had gone off here yesterday. As I questioned why he hadn’t mentioned that to me before, I was trying to pull the car around the turn and had to give up about ¾ of the way through to ensure that I drove straight off and didn’t slide off sideways, which could easily result in rolling the car there. We and the car were fine and we drove back onto the track. I told John that it felt like there was a lot of air in the lines, as the pressure was there (I even tapped the brake on the straight to make sure before I hit them), but the car just wouldn’t slow. Inspection of the brakes revealed heavy scoring of the rotors, pointing to the same thing. John later bled the brakes and confirmed my suspicion. We live and learn, I guess. We’re lucky nothing worse happened and I will definitely be asking more questions about the critical things like tires and brakes before I take someone’s car out again.


John's E30, with Scott in the background

All-in-all, it was a great way to spend 4 days. I wish Katy could have joined us! But, work schedule wouldn’t allow = ( I hope her and all of the DTM’ers who didn’t make it will realize what a great event this is and be sure to join next year!