Bully
Hill Vineyard 250 at Watkins Glen
The last race Autometrics Motorsports ran with Marcus Motorsports and
their E36 BMW M3 was the 6 hour race at Watkins Glen.
While the Porsche GT3R run by Autometrics and Front Porch Racing celebrated
an amazing 2nd place in the GTS category and nearly a class win, the BMW
retired after almost an hour of racing when a harmonic balancer failed
and with it took out some vital engine components. At the time it
was believed that the engine shut down before any severe engine damage
was done, but that was not the case. However, Marcus Motorsports
took the opportunity to replace the engine with a much newer and
stronger unit that rivals the Porsche in horsepower. This car was
not ready for the Paul Revere at Daytona on July 4th weekend, so this
would be the first outing for the car with its new engine.
The Marcus Motorsports BMW M3, built in 1993, was one of the first race
cars developed from the E36 chassis. It was campaigned with great
success by Prototype Technology Group in the late '90's. In fact,
this car won the 1996 Rolex 24 hours at Daytona in the GT3
category. PTG continues to prepare the car for competition in
between races, but at the track, Autometrics and Marcus Motorsports
campaign the car in the highly competitive Grand Am GT class.
Returning for this race was the same driver line-up of Autometrics
Motorsports' Cory Friedman and Marcus Motorsports' Bryan Dobyns and Bob
Chase. This race is set at a standard 250 miles, but the short
course at Watkins Glen is the fasted closed road racing circuit in North
America (even faster than the Rolex course at Daytona) so it was likely
that the race would end based on distance rather than its 3 hour time
limit. Due to the length of the race, only 2 drivers would be
needed for the event. Friedman and Dobyns were selected due to
their experience on the course.
This event was run in conjunction with the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, so
in addition to a very large, colorful fan base, the schedule for the
event was quite unique. We had a total of 3:45 of practice time on
Thursday along with 25 minutes of qualifying. Friday included only
the race beginning at 6:30 pm. While a short weekend with abundant
track time is a welcome change, it was also a bit frustrating as the car
was plagued with small problems. Throughout the day, we had loose
oil lines, multiple occasions of air in the brakes, a stripped engine
ground, a broken windshield and an overheating differential. Also
during practice, the left front wheel fell off the car at 140 mph going
into the right hander at the top of the esses. Cory did a phenomenal
job of keeping the car off the guard rail and undamaged. Most of
our problems were resolved by race day and the event went off with no
unscheduled stops.
Bryan qualified the car 4th in the GT class. Ahead of him were the
Ferrari 360 GT and Mosler who have been dominant over the season and the
Marcos Mantis who had displayed excellent speed and reliability
throughout the weekend. Qualifying speeds in the GT class were
over 121 mph. The race was definitely going to be short, so our
pit window was huge. We were going to pit under yellow even if we
had to run nearly the entire race to do so. Luckily a yellow came
out after 40 laps. During those 40 laps, Dobyns drove a great
race. He passed the Marcos at the start of the race to put the BMW
in 3rd in class. The lead would increase and decrease based on
traffic, but was never more than a few seconds. Further adding to
the pressure was the 5th place ACEMCO Porsche GT3RS only a few seconds
behind the Mantis. On open track, it was apparent that the Marcos
was capable of faster times than the M3 and Bryan certainly had his work
cut out for him. More than one of his laps was faster than the
qualifying time set the day before and the Marcos never got around
him. The ACEMCO Porsche managed to get around the Marcos before
the first caution and was putting pressure on us, but he lost nearly a
lap to the 3rd place BMW when the pit exit was closed. We made our
stop shortly after the Porsche, but before our stop was complete, the
pit exit was again opened giving us nearly a full minute lead over the
ACEMCO car, but the Marcos had a bit more luck than we did during their
stop and managed to pick up 3rd place in the process.
Cory Friedman was now in the car with the Marcos in his sights. He
drove some very quick laps and was able to catch, pass, and pull a lead
over the colorful Mantis. This lead opened up to about 20 seconds,
and at times was only a few, but the lead was never relinquished.
Knowing the lead Ferrari and Mosler were a solid few laps ahead with no
chance of catching them, Cory ran a solid pace and kept the car
clean. We are all too familiar with what can happen in the closing
few minutes of a race! Things nearly got interesting towards the
end of the race with the leaders. The Mosler, which had been
running up front after a failed rear tire put the 360 down a lap, had
engine troubles and ran the last few laps at a decreased pace which
allowed the Ferrari to take the lead despite a second tire
failure. At the conclusion, the Mosler and Ferrari were a mere 1
and 2 laps ahead of our BMW M3, respectively. More importantly, we
were 3rd place in the GT category and in the top 10 overall.
This is by far the best finish Marcus Motorsports has had, and it is
also the best finish Autometrics has had in the GT category in Grand
Am. We are all thrilled with the result and hope that we can
continue our string of podium finishes in the Grand American Road Racing
Series at the next event at VIR.
We'd like to thank Steve, Marjorie, Dan, Jim, Mark for their hard
work. It certainly paid off for all of us.
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