Race Report: Two-Car Development at Sonoma NASA NorCal with Palomar Racing
Sonoma, CA | June 25-26th, 2022
The key word to describe the team’s first NASA NorCal event at Sonoma Raceway: learning!
Two weeks following their NASA WERC and NASA SoCal ST5 wins at Auto Club Speedway, Palomar Racing decided to enter this event as a data gathering exercise in multiple areas.
The first objective was completing the weekend with the freshly built #24 BMW E36 racing in Super Touring 4 (ST4). We succeeded by running the car in every session Friday through Sunday without issue. Chassis development was a key priority and we collectively made big strides toward a more consistent, stable, fast platform. Though, the car isn’t yet able to fight at the front in ST4 and will require more work.
The second objective was running the team’s established #25 BMW E36 in Super Touring 5 (ST5) in order to build the setup notebook and assess Northern California’s impressive competition. This was ultimately successful.
Million did the majority of driving and development in the #24 on Friday and raced it on Saturday in ST4. Outclassed by the strong ST4 cars in the region, Million was able to bring back a midpack result and plenty of notes on major changes. On Sunday, he and teammate Sonny Watanasirisuk swapped cars. Sunday saw Million set the weekend’s best ST5 lap and a qualifying race win while the main race resulted in a 3rd place.
Million’s next event with Palomar Racing will be Round 4 of the NASA Western Endurance Racing Championship at Utah Motorsports Campus from July 29th to August 1st. The team’s #25 will continue its hunt for an E2 class championship with the #24 contending for the E1 class win. The ‘NASA Utah 6 Hour’ will be the priority with both #24 ST4 and #25 ST5 E36’s expected for the sprint races as well.
The ‘Palomar Racing E2/ST5 Challenge’ would not be possible without the following partners; Palomar Solar, Swift Springs, Motion Control Suspension, Toyo Tires, BimmerWorld, ApexRaceParts.com, FastSideways, Hawk Performance, Frozen Rotors, Enphase, and others.
Look for Matt Million’s ‘June Update’ to be published soon. Visit ‘Photos’ to view more pictures from the event.