Million, Palomar Racing Win NASA WERC Rd.2 at Auto Club Speedway
FONTANA, CA | 27 March 2022
Palomar Racing, with drivers Matt Million and Nik Romano, win the E2 category during the second round of 2022 NASA Western Endurance Racing Championship at Auto Club Speedway. The three hour race ran from 4:00PM to 7:00PM on Saturday, March 27th. The #25 Palomar Racing BMW E36 finished 1st of 6 in E2 and 13th of 39 overall. The team also won the NASA SoCal ST5 sprint race on Saturday with Million and finished second on Sunday with Romano.
Drivers Million and Romano delivered the second consecutive endurance win for the group’s #25 BMW E36 ST5/E2 car after winning the season opener at Willow Springs last month. Romano started the race from pole position in the E2 class and led for a majority of his fuel-stretching stint. Million took over past half distance during the only scheduled fuel stop and brought the car to the finish in 1st saving fuel during the stint to guarantee a one-stop strategy. The race ended 20 minutes early under full-course yellow conditions due to the event’s ambulance needing to deliver a spectator to a local hospital.
Palomar Racing completed 72 laps impressively only one lap behind the E1 class winner and ahead of the remaining nine E1 entries. The team faced E2 competition from HQ Autosport, Team SRC, and Technik Competition throughout the weekend. While many in E2 faced troubles, Palomar Racing ran mostly issue-free with no mechanical problems, no penalties, and a rapid pit stop under one minute.
“This was a team earned victory tonight! Nik carried out a beautiful first stint doing exactly what was needed to remain in P1 while not overly burning fuel and keeping the tires underneath him. We needed to push him as long as possible on fuel to make a one-stop strategy work. With the help of a couple early full-course yellows, we were easily able to hit our fuel targets and I took over with a little over one hour remaining. I decided to continue saving heaps of fuel, knowing we had a sizeable lead, to guarantee our strategy. In the end it worked! But I am left wanting more as my transition from fuel saving to maximum push at the end was cut short by the extended full-course yellow to finish.
But again, while Nik and I did our jobs, this was a Palomar Racing crew earned win. The car was running an entirely new suspension package with Motion Control Suspension dampers and Swift Springs to give us the mechanical grip we lacked. It made a tremendous drivability improvement combined the S52 powerplant and adjusted aerodynamics. We had no major mechanical hiccups the entire weekend, our strategy was top-notch in order to secure a win, and our pit stop was the cleanest and fastest ever performed at just under one minute for fuel and driver swap. Majors credits to Andy, Mike, Kevin, Blair, David, Dawson, and the rest of Palomar Racing whose practicality, positively, and work ethic to continue Palomar Racing’s competitive edge is absolutely awesome. We will be extremely well prepared for the rest of this season, the NASA Nationals, and NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill. I cannot wait. It is an honor to perform as a Palomar Racing core driver alongside Nik this year.
- Matt Million
Look for Matt Million’s ‘March Update’ to be published soon.