After my questionable performance at Mid-Ohio (I fell off the track 5 times), I elected to tear the car down and redo a bunch of stuff. The new wide body was done just in time for Mid-Ohio but nothing was sorted.

Since then we finished the project by installing the new Moton 3-way suspension. We also rewired the car - deleting a substantial amount of wiring from past motors. The engine was new last fall but never really ran to my liking. After rewiring, it pulls like a freight train. The car also got a new bigger exhaust system and carbon airbox. These were always on the list but we never had the time.

The first practice session at Calabogie was an eye opener. I had new suspension, new tires, new brakes, etc. I took it easy just scrubbing tires and bedding brakes. I figured I would need to learn to drive the car all over again. The car ran very well and was a pleasure to drive. After pulling off, the competition steward ran over waving timing sheets in the air. Apparently I had done a 2:10.4 and broken last year's lap record. Last year Allan Lewis had done a 2:11.2 in Practice4.

Clearly the car was working. In fact I have never driven a car this well behaved. There was no compensation or correction involved. You simply tell  it where you want to go and hold on. 

Sorry if the video looks a bit strange. I am experimenting with a new video logger and have not got everything sorted yet...

Fun Race 1

For the Fun Race I took my new scrubs off and put and older set of slicks. Even with older tires, I qualified on pole with a 2:11.2. I over cooked the first corner which allowed Jean Luc Bergeron to pass me in the second corner. I tried pushing him around for 3 laps and eventually got the lean back in the same place. He doesn't make a lot of mistatkes... This included a very interesting side by side trip through Temptation Nascar style... I then opened up a bit of a gap and won by a margin of 1.8 seconds.

Sprint 2

For Saturday's sprint race I put the new scrubbed tires back on and did a 2:08.497. This blew my mind. Not only did I break the lap record for BMW. But it seems I brooke the lap record for Touring and GT cars. At least I was trying this time. Fastest time I could find on mylaps.com was Michael Boekdrukker doing a 2:10.3 in a very modified E30 M3 in a Regional Race. Though I still have some work to catch Mike Kenny's 2:01 in his Stohr prototype... If I missed quoted the lap record somewhere, someone please let me know.

Starting from poll I botched the start and Jean Luc got me in corner one this time. I chased him around the first lap until he locked up in The Beak. I opened up a sizable lead until we got a full course yellow mid way in the race. Sorry, I forgot to edit out the full course yellow. Please feel free to fast forward... One the restart I held onto the lead for a change. I opened up a nice gap and won by a margin of 5.7 seconds.

Sprint 3

Starting of race 3 was determined by the results of race 2. I started on poll again but decided to try the other side this time. Once again Jean Luc got me on the start and sailed past me in corner 1. This time I got him back in corner 2. I then opened up a substantial gap with nobody in my mirrors by the end of the first lap. The race was pretty uneventful other than some lapped traffic and I won by a margin of 42.6 seconds. Jean Luc had retired early, Mark Marquis was having engine problems, and John Dimoff failed to start with a header issue.

Conclusion...

This is one hell of a race car. I raced it as it arrived. I did not fiddle with suspension setup, alignment, or even tire pressures. I just ran the baseline. I figure I need to spend some time getting to know it again before I mess things up. But the base line so far feels pretty good. Some of the faster cars I would have encountered were having mechanical issue and were probably off the pace. I look forward to seeing how it goes when they are working again. Mont-Tremblant is next. But the real test will be Oktoberfest at Road America. I can't wait.