MATT REVIEWS HIS WEEKEND AT THE 2020 UTAH 6 HOUR
August 5th, 2020
The NASA Utah 6 Hour is an annual event put on by NASA Utah and is a championship round of the NASA Western Endurance Racing Championship. This year, it was the third round following Willow Springs and Buttonwillow in February and June, respectively. As this championship has seemed to be my home in the recent year or so, the one race I was yet to drive or visit was this one. With my plans to compete in Germany’s BMW 318ti Cup on an indefinite hold due to travel restrictions, the opportunity was presented to race the Utah enduro for the first time. Always eager to test myself at unfamiliar places or environments, I had to compete in it this year. With two weeks to spare, I confirmed my entry. The story of that and our race is below!
I came into the weekend with goals of growth. Similar to other race weekends, but because it would be an all new circuit, car, and team this time, my expectations were tailored to match that. Get what new experiences, new information, and newly found areas of improvement that I could out of my 3 days in Utah! To quickly recap what I’ve written about in the preview, I would race this weekend with local San Diego based team Racing Ruined My Life / Oceanside Motorsports in their E2 class BMW E30. A team and car that I raced against in June I’d know be racing for! It was a shame the Technik Competition team couldn’t make it, but it gave me an opportunity to expand out to new people within the paddock. And the chance to race with team owner Neil Daly, who is arguably the most unconditionally nice and happy man in the paddock, sounded like a great time to me!
Friday was testing day, and it was uncomfortably warm. I was able to get a little over a half-hour behind the wheel, enough to familiarize with the controls of this new car and understand the basic characteristics of the long, fast Utah Motorsports Campus circuit. We discovered a bit of a fuel issue, where because of the 4,200ft altitude (and our car wasn’t adjusted for it), our car was spewing out a small trail of fuel and affecting fuel mileage. We fixed what we could, and the rest we simply had to keep an eye on.
Saturday. Race day! I was elected to be the qualifying and starting driver, tasked with putting us in a good position early! Qualifying looked to be promising as soon as I rolled out, being first to the first-come-first-serve grid positions. I was able to run 2-3 clean laps after allowing the faster class cars by, but I felt my lack of overall seat time in the car and track affected my lap time potential. Starting P4 of 7 in the class wasn’t optimal, but didn’t bother me much. Racing for 6 hours has many more variables in play than just your starting spot!
The race got underway at 6:00 PM local time and ran relatively clean and straightforward for awhile. I noticed my car cutting power about a half-hour in, feeling a lot like fuel starvation but was happening way earlier than expected. Within a couple laps, it subtly went away but my concerns of it did not. In the meantime, I was up one position in class and hitting lap-times that were many tenths up on my qualifying time. My comfort in the car/track combo was rising and I had more to gain!
Before the end of hour 1, the fuel issues returned and I decided to give the crew an extra lap of time to prepare the pit stop. It was nearly a fatal flaw, and the engine gave up as I entered the lane! Luckily I made it to the box, refueled without issue, and returned to the circuit. Data for the next time to not extend our fuel range that additional lap!
My second stint embedded my mind deeper into the race. I came out of the pits a few seconds ahead of the class leader, and gradually watched him fade out of my mirrors and pulled away in the following laps. Good encouragement for our pace! I began to feel the limits of our BMW E30 better, taking more entry speed and applying the throttle earlier and smoother. I was averaging a second faster than my qualifying time! You truly know you’ve entered the endurance flow state when you’re giving faster class cars behind a no-loss opportunity to pass you without losing any time yourself. The race giveth, and the race taketh away!
The car was soon struggling for fuel again, quicker this time. Better radio communications made this stop feel more planned, and I made it in losing less time than the previous stop. I was handed my drinks bottle this time, which funny enough, literally flipped my mental strength to full power again. It’s incredible how much water is lost by racing and focusing for upwards of two hours, and when I got back out on circuit it felt like a new race! This time I exited the lane directly behind our class leader, the BMW E46 of Wake Ballast SRC. By start-finish next lap, I made the pass and set sail once more. If we kept this up, we were in for a shot! My third and final stint was easily the most fluid, engaging, and rewarding. Our in-car data system had run out of battery, so I had no idea what times I was running. The RPM needle in the gauge cluster was broken, so I was running on nothing but direct tactile input and noise from our M52-powered machine! I’ve always prided myself on my lap consistency over anything else, and the data showed. By this point, I dropped two seconds below my qualifying time and was hitting that number regularly. I was comfortable, confident with the platform, and erking little by little more ability out of our tires through quicker mid-corner speeds and giving better precise inputs to smooth out the weight transfers. Not to mention aiding the aero load our wing was feeling entering T1!
Another 40 or so minutes gone by, fuel sputters, and I’m into the pit lane with nearly no time lost this stint. I wrongly assumed my time in the car wasn’t up yet and didn’t plan on jumping out. We should’ve cleared that on the radio communications, but I saw my co-driver hopping over the wall and I snapped into action to unbuckle, loosen, and set up the belts. It was actually a quite clean stop once again. I watched Andre set off from the pit wall. Apparently two and a half hours had gone by, felt more like a couple laps! Here is a 2-lap onboard from me during a couple of those magic laps!
After an hour and half of driving, Andre unfortunately caught a bit too much kerb and was sent off into a wall and our radiator was damaged. He made it into the pits, but a quick assessment determined it could go no further. Errors are a part of racing. Without them, there is no learning or improving. Sometimes they come at more opportune times, and others they come when you least expect. We still gathered plenty of good, usable data over the 4 hours run and had a good experience for all of it!
I am not returning home with any new ‘hardware’, but I do return with a healthy respect and a clear picture on the challenges that the NASA Utah 6 Hour gives, and better data on how to achieve top step for next time! The race attracts an impressive amount of quality teams and I was able to take in what worked for some of them. The Utah Motorsports Campus is a lovely facility, a differentiated circuit design, and a perfect place for a NASA WERC 6-hour. It was a great challenge and I feel grew my adaption skills. “You never know the next time you get to drive a race car”, and each time is a blessing that I’m grateful to have the opportunity to work at time and time again.
Thank you to Neil and team Oceanside Motorsports / Racing Ruined My Life for the opportunity to race this event for the first time. I hope to see you again soon!
My next weekend at a race track will come in three weeks at Sonoma Raceway. I won’t be racing, but I will be helping a good friend as I take on a driver development role to aid his weekend. Beyond that, there is a chance I will be competing in the Lucky Dog Racing League at Chuckwalla next month. Stay tuned! In October, I will be racing in the NASA WERC series finale at Buttonwillow. Looking for to being at a race track more again!
Cheers, Matt