Race Report: E2 Podium After Surviving 2022 25 Hours of Thunderhill
Willows, CA | December 1-4th, 2022
It was a cold and rainy first weekend in December for the 19th annual NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill.
While Million was entering his 5th time racing the endurance classic, it was the first time for Palomar Racing.
Leading up to the event, Million and Palomar Racing put on a mighty season performance. Winning 5 of 6 races in the NASA WERC series to capture the E2 class title (and winning the E1 class in the one ‘losing’ race), a team effort between Million and Nik Romano to collect the NASA SoCal ST5 title honors, and Million winning the 2022 NASA ST5 National Championship at WeatherTech Raceway in September.
But this event was an entirely new challenge. It took more crew, more drivers, more resource, and more planning than anything faced so far. Million and team entered as prepared as they could to field the #24 and #25 BMW E36’s in the E2 class.
Arriving Wednesday for setup to be on-track Thursday, the team executed their plans. By the end of Thursday, the drivers all felt comfortable in the cars and crew working together well. The eight drivers making up the two lineups were Matt Million, Nik Romano, Ryan Keeley, Sonny Watanasirisuk, Ryan Bittner, Lucas Weisenberg, Elliott Skeer, and Andrew Gardner.
On Friday, the team executed a ‘mock race’ with very short driver stints to help train the pit stops, pit crew procedures like refueling and tire changes, and driver changes. The ‘competitive’ part of the event began at 4:00 PM on Friday evening for qualifying in the dusk light. The #25 with Nik Romano set a time strong enough for 4th in E2 before handing the car over to Andrew Gardner for futher night practice.
The #24 with Matt Million onboard suffered a connector rod failure between the gearbox and shifter on the first flying lap. Luckily, Million had the failure in T14 which allowed him to coast into the paddock and have BIMMERSPEED repair the car. The fix remarkably took less than 10 minutes and Million rejoined the session. With a second flying lap of 1:57.1, Million took pole position in class away from the Magic Developed #72 BMW E46 by two tenths. The third flying lap sealed the position with a 1:56.9.
The race would get underway at 11:00 AM on Saturday morning. The rain had returned and would soak the circuit with constant droplets from early morning until the evening.
Million started the #24 and jumped to a healthy lead in E2. Romano started the #25 and fought off the challenges of both #72 and #73 Magic Developed entries. At the end of his two stints (3 hours and 30 minutes), Million handed the car to Skeer with a three lap lead in class and running 2nd overall. Afterwards, Million stated “it was some of the most fun and ‘in the zone’ racing hours of my life! Once I figured out the proper rain line, I was going from track edge to edge finding every advantage possible. It was a video game type of feeling to put slingshot around our competition. A testament to the stability and predictability that Palomar Racing has found with this incredible #24 car!” Unfortunately, an issue that was noticed and seemingly repaired in the #24 came back in a big way. The car refused to be put into gear and thus had to be taken behind-the-wall. A full transmission and slave cylinder swap wasn’t enough to solve the issue and eventually the clutch was replaced. It was discovered that the clutch wasn’t able to engage all the way and thus the ‘stopper’ was taken out. Along with a fresh clutch, the #24 was back on track after an hour of repairs. All competitive hopes now rested with the #25 car.
The #24 would continue to turn laps into the night with the #25 running 2nd a few laps behind the the leading #72 Magic Developed entry throughout the night. The rain began subsiding by 7 to 8:00 PM and a dry racing line formed with lap times falling once again. Million was due in the #25 next at 11:00 PM as the conditions almost entirely dried.
The task was to claw back at a now 5 lap deficit to the leading car. With his double stint ending near 2:00 AM, Million’s mission was a success and now cut the lead down to 3 laps. A combination of pace, traffic management, and a couple assertive restarts after full-course yellows helped the cause. Unfortunately his second fuel stint was cut 15 minutes short. The left front tire failed at the apex of turn one as Million was hot on the heels of passing the leader once again. He limped the car back to the pits safely, swapped to Elliott Skeer, and debriefed with the team. With the mixed conditions, the team had gotten nearly 14 hours from the tire that finally let go. With that tire due to be changed in the stop regardless, the margins were thin! Meanwhile, the #24 continued to remain strong throughout the night and cycle through drivers uneventfully and consistenly. The team was pleased with the repairs.
Skeer took over the #25 right as the rain returned. Million had reported a moderate loss in power through the night (losing 3-4 seconds per lap) and Skeer reported similar, however the rain became an equalizer. After his two and a half stints before a 4-hour red flag for fog in early morning, Skeer closed the gap to now sit on the lead lap. The fog came in at 5:30 AM and cars didn’t return to racing until 9:30 AM, meaning the race was extended to 3 PM instead of usually finishing at noon.
Once back green, it was obvious the #25 was not healthy. Watanasirisuk reported his shift points dropped dramatically. Weisenberg, the next driver in the car, reported the car to be very slow. The team lost 3-4 laps on the leader again. At 11:00 AM, Million was called upon for a triple stint to help diagnose the car and take it safely to the finish… hopefully! It was immediately apparent how hurt the engine felt. The 1:57 pace from qualifying and 2:04 pace from his night stint were entirely impossible. At full push, a 2:15 was the fastest it would go and quickly got worse. By 1:00 PM, the car was struggling to hold 2:22’s.
When the red flag lifted, the trailing #73 Magic Developed entry was about ten laps behind. At the current rate of driving, they would catch and pass #25 in the final hour. By 2:00 PM, a solution was needed. Million struggled to keep the engine running during the final fuel stop but succeeded. The solution came in the form of the #24 car pushing her sister car along! First, Keeley trialed the idea and it seemed to work. Then in the last hour, Romano was told to commit to pushing #25 to the finish. A spectacular sight to the onlookers as the #24 pushed the #25 down every straightaway for the better part of 30 straight minutes. It brought the lap times down from 2:30’s to 2:22’s once again.
In the end, the pace of #25 became just too slow to hold on. The #73 passed for 2nd in the final 15 minutes of the race. It wasn’t for a lack of trying! From the flaggers, to the race control tower, to all the teams spectating on pit wall, Palomar Racing received a massive applause for the effort they put in to see the #25 finish 3rd place in E2. Without the push, it’s likely the car wouldn’t have made it.
As the final race of 2022, Million’s next race is unconfirmed. He is expecting to be announced as a primary driver in Palomar Racing’s 2023 plans which should be revealed by the end of December.
Matt Million wants to thank all the volunteers and corporate partners who supported Palomar Racing this season. The primary support of Palomar Solar and Roofing made this season possible. Additional support by Apex Race Parts, BimmerWorld, BIMMERSPEED, FastSideways, Enphase Energy, Panasonic Solar, Red Line Synthetic Oil, PFC Brakes, Race Magic, Swift Springs, Motion Control Suspension, AGA Tools, Rugged Radios, SignArt Graphix, TrackDayTire.com, Toyo Tires, and others.
Look for Matt Million’s ‘December Update’ to be published by the end of this month. Visit ‘Photos’ to view more pictures from the event.
