Autometrics Motorsports: Results

Virginia International Raceway 500

Marcus Motorsports brought 2 E36 M3s to the VIR 500. The 2 door #9 that sits 8th in the standings and finished on the podium last race at Watkins Glen and the new entry, a 4 door M3 #69 were looking to expand on recent accomplishments. This was the first race in a long while for the 4 door, so we gave it a good shakedown during the Thursday test day, and the car did fine except for clutch and gearing problems that were easily fixed with a new drop-gear ratio and slave cylinder.

The entire weekend was plagued with torrential rain, making off-course excursions incredibly hazardous. Cory and Bryan, again in #9, managed to keep the car safe up until raceday. The #69 car, driven by Bob Chase, Chris Mitchum, and Chris Cobetto, was not so lucky. Contact with a tire wall during practice was repaired without too much difficulty. The damage was primarily superficial. The second incident during qualifying, however, was fatal and the car did not race. Just as the 20 minute qualifying session started, so did the rain. Both BMW's suffered from badly fogging windshields. Cory proceeded at a reduced pace, but the 4 door was brought in on a flat-bed after the left rear corner contacted with a guardrail. The impact damaged not only the bodywork, but also the suspension, and collapsed the exhaust.

There was hard rain the entire evening before the race, but by Sunday morning the rain had stopped and by race time on Sunday afternoon, the track was primarily dry. Off-track instances continued to be a problem, because cars slid very far on the wet grass and pulled a great deal of mud and red clay back on the track with them. The race was scheduled for 500 miles, but in the wet conditions and the inevitable yellows, we planned our strategy around the 5 hour time limit. Cory began the race, and his first stint was uneventful, we were running in 6th place behind the Mosler, Ferrari, Zip GT3RS, The Racer's Group's #66 GT3RS and the ACEMCO GT3RS. A yellow just before the one hour mark proved to be a convenient time to make our first stop and driver change. When the yellow ended, Dobyns was still 6th in class, but the standings were a bit different. The Mosler had made an early stop and lost many laps, but the Marcos, who started the race from pit lane was running the same pace as the class leaders and managed to get around us. Buckler's #66 also lost time due to problems, so we moved to 5th in the GT category, where we stayed for most of the race.

A second full-course yellow came out about a half-hour into Bryan's stint, so we used that opportunity to do a quick re-fuelling and let Bryan double-stint. Our first unscheduled stop came when a SRP inexplicably checked-up in front of Bryan, causing contact to the left side of the car as well as trip through the grass which damaged the splitter. The damage to the left rear caused the bodywork to scrub badly on the left rear tire, so we lost about a lap replacing the tire and "adjusting" the broken fender flare. About half-way through the race, another trip off-track finished off the splitter. The remaining pieces of carbon were removed and the bumper was taped on. Because of the front end repairs, only the right front tire was changed, and Cory went out on 2 good and 2 very old tires. Once acclimated to the newly induced aerodynamic understeer, Cory began to turn some very quick laps and we were catching the Marcos by a few seconds per lap. Even at this rate, we would not be able to catch the brightly colored Mantis, but attrition is a significant factor in a 5 hour race, so we were still optimistic.

With about one half-hour left in the race, an announcement came from Grand-Am that the Marcos had lost a wheel, and a few minutes later, the Marcos came onto pit lane sparking from the brake disc dragging on the ground. The Marcos team got the car back on course, but not before losing its position to our M3. At the conclusion, the BMW narrowly missed the podium with 4th in class, and 9th overall for our second straight top 10. Though the podium eluded us this time, we realize that our reliability allowed us to beat some very fast cars and are happy with a 4th place finish.

Most photos courtesy of elams.org