First Podium in Europe: NATC Oschersleben Race Recap
My race recap from NATC Endurance Round 3 at Oschersleben with team JAS Rennsport. This turned out to be the first podium of my season in Germany!
Oschersleben, DE - October 25th, 2020
After the cancellation of BMW 318ti Cup Round 4 at Nürburgring, an opportunity appeared on our race calendar the following weekend. The NATC series was holding their next event at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. With the BMW 318ti Cup season ending at the same circuit in 3 weeks, we jumped at the chance to race here! And so did many others, with a total of 16 BMW 318ti Cup teams entered. Love having good competition!
Of all the commutes to racing circuits, driving to Oschersleben is far and away my new favorite! Coming from Brunswick and picking up my teammate Luca near Börßum, it’s a one hour drive across gorgeous country roads, quaint villages, and the expansive landscape of central Germany.
We arrived on Saturday night ahead of another single day race meeting on Sunday. Luckily our pit garage mates had two electric scooters fit with headlights. How convenient right? Luca provided me all his circuit tips from his years of racing here as we sped around the dark track, laughing each time on of us would hit a kerb that wasn’t meant for a scooter!
We head back that night to get good rest at Luca’s house. Daylight saving time ends in Europe a week before America, so the extra hour of sleep was nice! Being a ‘home circuit’ for Luca and JAS Rennsport, we had a garage full of family and friends.
The practice was about as straightforward as it could’ve been. 30 minutes, 16 BMW 318ti Cup cars and 27 entries in the endurance race total. Traffic jam for the first two laps as everyone figured out how to drive again! I came in for a tire temperature check, did a mock standing start out of the pits (that was fun), and went out for a clean 3-4 laps before boxing and swapped to Luca for the final 10 minutes.
Though it was during the 20 minutes of qualifying that suspicions of an unhealthy car were realized. While I gained nearly a second from driving adjustments and doubling my seat time, I felt a lack of rear traction and power. Luca jumped in next hopeful for a fast time, but ended up falling short of my time by a number of tenths. Session ends, P7. Qualifying nearly two seconds slower than his time in March, Luca gave a rightfully displeased debrief and we searched for answers. Our 318ti Cup wasn’t healthy but realistically all we could do was sink our teeth into the race, drive clean and consistent, and learn along the way.
Race time! A unique feature of the NATC series is the use of standing starts, meaning my first standing start would come here at Oschersleben. My launch was timed well enough to pass two cars before T1, but a car behind timed it even better and we entered Hotel corner probably four wide. Been awhile since I’ve had an exciting start like that, with cars everywhere jostling for position and track real estate.
The opening 40 minutes was a relative blur for me, engaged in a battle with two competitors from Smyrlis Racing. I did my best to drive as if everything was perfect, only focused on going forward. And I achieved that, proud of a performance which was definitely the most ‘on form’ of my few European races so far. As with all these events for me in 2020, the race itself effectively doubled or tripled my seat time at each circuit. I became more in-touch with Oschersleben’s rhythm. Here’s some notes:
Utilize the slight ‘banking’ of each corner here! Don’t run too wide in the fast sweepers, let the curving ‘bowl’ of the track hook you.
Maximize the patches of runoff. Done correctly, you can extend the track width an additional half-to-full car length in most exits. That adds up during the lap!
Keep the speed up. Might seem like an obvious statement, but especially important around here. Each corner here has a similar maximum and minimum speed, so no major philosophy change to the different corners. Find the rhythm of Oschersleben, stay in it!
It was still frustrating though how much we lost corner exits. Putting down power normally isn’t an issue for a 140hp car, but with mandated open differentials instead of LSD’s it’s imperative to have the rear wheels planted. Our team chief believes it’s something with the rear axle and hopes to have a solution soon. Maintaining between 6th-8th position was all we could do, as I engaged myself in a mental flow around the fast and narrow Oschersleben.
I was called in for our first of two mandatory 4-minute pit stops just before entering the second hour of the race. Clean stop and right on time, but I noticed now how some sections of the circuit could be held flat out when they couldn’t before. A loss of power? Too hot? Reporting it on the radio, I took their recommendation of flipping on the fan. I was immediately back on the radio to say ‘it feels like we’ve gained 10 horsepower back’! We later discovered the reason for this; a broken thermostat failing to understand the engine temperature and pulling back power. My 1:52s turned back into 1:50s and the fastest few laps of our day came soon after. Take a look at my video to watch these laps from onboard. Fun laps around this circuit!
With about 50 minutes left, a Code 60 was called for a stranded 318ti Cup. For Americans unaware of what that is, imagine a full-course yellow but without a pace car. In theory it keeps the gaps between cars equal as everyone slows to 60kph until Code 60 flags are retracted. With NATC regulations permitting pit stops during these situations, Luca immediately called me to box and got his helmet on faster than ever before. Clean stop and Luca got settled behind the wheel as the Code 60 continued for a few laps. Luca wasn’t as fortunate with the broken thermostat issue, and the car pulled back power even with the fan on and he had to manage 1:51-1:52s for his 40 minutes to the checkered. I felt for him, but it’s races like this that make you truly appreciate the ones where all goes right. Have to believe it builds you into a better driver able to deal with difficult situations! Luca took us to P6 at the end, which honestly isn’t too bad given our circumstances. We completed the 2 hours, maintained position, had a few battles on circuit with competitors (and our own car), and brought it home continuing to build ourselves. Not a bad day in the overall context!
Little did we realize our result would flip 180 degrees arriving at the podium ceremony. “Matt and Luca, you guys got third!” Third? Are those results correct?
They were right. During the Code 60 when we driver swapped to Luca, a number of 318ti Cup’s ahead failed to meet the minimum lap time while traveling at 60kph. Basically, they were deemed to have gained an advantage under the slow laps and got penalized for it; a penalty of 1 or 2 laps deleted. With no penalty on us, we leaped to 3rd! No, we didn’t expect it. Weird podiums are still podiums, right? It’s definitely some consolation for what should have been a slightly better result for us. What solidified it for Luca and I was the walk into garage bay #28, holding our hardware up high and the hilarity of happy confusion from our team. We celebrated, and it felt awesome to see our group smiling again. Turns out that following the rules is sometimes the better choice in motorsport, and we reaped the rewards of that today.
To wrap up, with the announcement that BMW 318ti Cup Round 4 at Blister Berg is cancelled and the most recent news of Germany going into partial lockdown beginning November 2nd it’s doubtful that the season finale at Oschersleben will happen. We have decided to return to Oschersleben again this weekend for NATC Endurance Round 4, which will likely be our final race of the year given the lockdown. I look forward to sharing with you all again soon!
Special thank you to Luca, Lars, and JAS Rennsport as well as my family, Karen, and Deana.
Cheers, Matt Million