Race Report: Million Sweeps USTCC at Monterey in SP-class
Monterey, CA | September 9-11th, 2022
For the second weekend of the month, Million made the trip north to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for US Touring Car Championship action. After sweeping the event in class, a weekend recap is below.
He would be competing in the US Touring Car Championship for his primary team Palomar Racing in the #07 BMW E36 M3 (renumbered from the #24 for this weekend). The team entered this event as a ‘warm-up’ for NASA Championships at the same circuit the following week. Thus, Million was entered into USTCC’s Sportsman class as this ruleset matched the closest to NASA Super Touring 5 (ST5), the class Million will compete for the championship in. Nik Romano, Million’s season-long teammate, would be racing the #25 BMW E36 in the ST class as this ruleset most closely resembled the ST4 regulations that he would compete in for NASA Championships.
On Friday, the Palomar Racing team worked through the early parts of testing with setup changes and ensuring rules compliance. Overall, both Million and Romano had a mostly straightforward practice day slowing building up pace. The end-of-day qualifying session was cut to only a couple laps after a competitor oiled the surface with Million and Romano ending up 2nd in each of their classes.
On Saturday, it was one early warmup and an end-of-day 35-minute race. It was a unique event to pair alongside INDYCAR, especially seeing the cars pass by the pit stalls during INDYCAR’s season finale. Unique to USTCC, the races would include standing starts. Million started on the outside of row one behind the TC class. The first standing start would be GT and ST while the second start was TC and SP. Million got a great jump off the line, entered 1st in class, and passed three of the six TC class entries into turn two. At around the third lap, both Million and SP competitor Weisenberg had passed all of TC and ran away from both classes. Ultimately, Million would continue to strengthen his lead and take Palomar Racing’s first USTCC victory.
On Sunday, Million had his choice of starting position after setting the fastest race lap in-class from the prior day. He choice the outside once again but failed to have the same strong start. He fell back to 2nd behind Weisenberg as they both steadily made their way past the TC field once again. Million made a respective move on Weisenberg, a fellow Palomar Racing endurance driver, and steadily built a lead yet again. A late full-course yellow bunched the entire 35-car field together but with numerous out-of-class cars seperating the two SP leaders, Million once again took the checkered flag.
As for Romano’s weekend in the ST class, it was a tough fight. The car was easily too low on horsepower for the class and he came away with a 4th and 3rd doing everything he could. He remained clean and upbeat throughout, ultimately happy with the data collection for next weekend.
During the celebrations, Palomar Racing had collectively won the ‘Best Team’ award between their two entries. It was a unique, long celebration atop the INDYCAR podium stand as numerous awards and prizes were handed out. Overall, it was an event that Million and the team had never experienced before. Romano and Million signed autographs for fans on Sunday afternoon and conducted various formal interviews throughout the weekend.
Million’s next event will be September 15-19th at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for the NASA Championships. Million will compete for the ST5 class championship in the #24 BMW E36 M3. Monday, September 19th will be the fifth round of NASA WERC as the team will again enter #24 in E2 and #25 in E1.
Look for Matt Million’s ‘September Update’ to be published by the end of this month. Visit ‘Photos’ to view more pictures from the event.