We built our M3 race car in one month. We tested it at a National Auto Sport Association (NASA) sprint race event, then we towed it 9 hours to and from Buttonwillow; and finally, raced our first endurance race as a husband and wife team in the Western Endurance Racing Championship (WERC). As with many firsts, you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing, but it is exciting, and, one way or another it’s over way too fast.
There were many new rules to follow, pit stops, refueling, crew, and so on. Rules, those are simple enough. We gathered up all the proper equipment and that was that. Luckily, we had our awesome crew chief, AJ Mindel, who had worked with many race teams in the past and was up for the task! For the 25 Hours of Thunderhill we anticipated needing auxiliary lights; but with a three-hour endurance race that started in pure daylight, we did not anticipate it to get as dark and as fast as it did. In the time-lapse video, the footage goes from illuminated to pitch black in the time-frame of one lap!
Even with the high beams on, the 18 year-old factory lights barely illuminated 50 feet, we were literally driving by feel, apex rumble strip to apex rumble strip. All of the experienced teams had hundreds of watts of blinding LED lighting, so the trick was to tail a faster car for as long as possible and have them illuminate the track.
Next step, order LIGHTS!
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