Million’s First Race in Germany: Sachsenring Weekend Report

Million’s First Race in Germany: Sachsenring Weekend Report

OBERLUNGWITZ, DE - Sept. 26th 2020

One-hundred minutes of rain battles at the Sachsenring in BMW 318ti Cup’s third round saw JAS Rennsport drivers Matt Million and Luca Alpert finish 7th in a competitive 28 car field.

In my European debut, I couldn’t have asked for much more. Given our circumstances, we’re incredibly proud of the result and potential we showed from 14th on the grid. Here’s my report on a completed first weekend in the BMW 318ti Cup!

The fun of the weekend started 5 days prior to arriving in Oberlungwitz! I had driven three hours across the autobahns from JAS Rennsport’s Fürstenwalde headquarters to my new temporary home in centrally-located Brunswick. For the next 9 weeks, I’m living here to be close to my teammate Luca. It’s a lovely area and I’ve had a joy accustoming myself to Germany here and exploring its many parks and sights!

So, last Thursday myself and Luca took off down autobahn’s A2, A14, and A72 southeast to Sachsenring. My loaned Peugeot 206 chugged along well! I wasn’t so keen taking it over 130kph (80mph) so we sat in the right lane most of the drive. We arrived just ahead of dusk and met up with our team boss Lars to get unloading and move the 318ti Cup into our garage on the main pit lane. Luca and I then got to complete a track walk in the last glimpse of daylight (and in the dry, thankfully!) and it gave us a close look at the elevation, grip levels, and curves of the circuit that was new to both of us. At 3.7km (2.3 miles) in length it’s roughly equal to Laguna Seca, with the elevation changes not far off either! Grip seemed low, and we jotted down mental notes of a potential rain line.

The rain definitely came early Friday morning however. It was a soggy mess walking from the hauler’s sleep room to our garage. This was the weather we expected! It wasn’t an early dash for us getting on circuit, with BMW 318ti Cup practice from 11:30 to 12:00pm. Ample time for a coffee and the standard breakfast of bread, cheese, and meat that I’ve come to enjoy. Though, we had plenty to watch for on track. A private testing session at daybreak and our sister sprint series, the DMV BMW Challenge, were on track before us. A healthy number of competitor teams took the chance to add in the additional practice, and it was frankly frustrating to sit and watch them get the laps we desperately needed ourselves. It wasn’t in our budget this round and we missed the deadline. Sometimes it’s hard to quantify the value of track time until you don’t have it!

The rain had subsided but official practice got underway on a damp surface. Luca took the opening half and provided me with his baseline feedback on how the car handled along with his thoughts on the improvements made since August. I took to the circuit for only 3 laps before a red flag was thrown for a stranded car, and with oil on the track it was the end of the session. Here’s some bullet points I extracted from the short introduction to this car and Sachsenring.

  • Rock-solid stability with this chassis! More predictable and balanced than the one I drove at Hockenheimring back in February. With much better brake cooling than I experience back then as well. Also a more comfortable seating arrangement, visibility, and dash layout. The JAS Rennsport guys went to work perfecting the car during the lockdown!

  • The BMW 318ti model that the series runs is about 8 inches shorter than a regular 3 Series. In the wet, you really feel the lack of weight over the rear! Get ready to have quick hands and control slides with instinct while using the throttle as a tool for that.

  • Sachsenring is rad! The topography changes are sharp, the race surface is smooth but lacks any built-up grip, the kerbs are surprisingly friendly in the wet, and has fantastic variety of corners for touring car racing.

Conditions swiftly shifted and we realized our 40 minute evening qualifier was to be bone dry; no water on track or the sky! Knowing the race would be full wet, the game plan changed to Luca setting 3-4 quick laps early and hand off to me for the remaining time to maximize my learning. All things considered, it went quite well! I was reminded just how much I love hustling a car continuously closer to its limit, piecing together each bit of information absorbed. Though, it simply wasn’t enough time and interference with faster class cars meant our quick lap was taken from early in the session. Checkered flag; P14 of 28. Initially, it was disappointing. Once we sat down to communicate and view some data, our spirits gradually lifted. The reality was that we had a number of small factors going against us that we’d have to overcome with time, patience, and adaptability. We changed potential excuses into accountability for our growth and looked forward to learning.

The rain would bring a degree of neutralization, and the longer race distance played into our styles well. We had total confidence in each other’s tendencies, especially in the wet. If our many iRacing endurance races over the lockdown taught us anything, it was to adapt quickly and make zero mistakes. If we did that, we’d be darn happy in our first weekend together!

The pitter-patter of rain on the hauler all night switched me into race mode. The first of these race days for me in the faraway European nation. Still difficult to comprehend at times, but not this morning. Sharp and eager to get going. Luca would take the opening stint and I’d take the second. His experience in the series and knowledge of procedures made it an easy choice, and give me good data to work from next time.

And it turned out to be a fantastic decision. He made quick work of a couple cars ahead on the start and maintained position and pace with the top 10. Watching his progress from the paddock timing monitors did little justice to what he was doing! Sliding and passing around the outside of the fastest corners, epic stuff! He then faced two full-course yellows, with the second coming right at the driver change time window. The green flew, and Luca dove to the pits with 45 minutes remaining. The series mandated 3m40s minimum pit lane time gives plenty of time for fuel and swap. Once belted in, Luca gave me his mental notes. A masterfully timed stop and I was on circuit after 3m41s. Can’t beat that! So good that we even leapfrogged a few frontrunners ahead.

Though, it was ‘baptism by fire’ for me in the cockpit to learn everything I could in full wet conditions! Within 3-4 laps, I was chopping seconds off my lap times and edging closer to the leading pace. My driving style is always a conservative one initially. I much prefer building my pace gradually and establish a stronger foundation than overcook my limits early and make mistakes! After settling nicely into the top 10 and mimicking rain tactics from cars ahead, another full-course yellow bunched us up for a 20 minutes sprint to the end.

Multiple cars made mistakes at or around the restart, and I continued climbing. My consistency was improving as well, as I found the optimal rain tricks and my driving went from ‘avoid the unknown’ to ‘take advantage of the known’. It was an epic flow! I had cut the gap in half to 5th and 6th by the end, but time was out. Checkered flag as I reached their tails. “First race, P7! Great job, you were closing!” over the radio from Luca.

Handshakes, elbow bumps, and photos all around. I got an obligatory hug from team boss Lars stepping out of the car. It was a risk and an unknown variable for him to accept me into his team this (delayed) season. Of course, he had known about my past racing experience and we became fast friends, but it’s an entirely different pressure to perform in front of the person giving you the opportunity of your young career. It wasn’t a win, or a podium, but it was absolutely the most myself and Luca could extract that day. And he recognized that.

Our competitors have a lot of depth and experience in their programs, and it showed. But internally, my performance showed me that I can reach that level and quickly. The same goes for the JAS Rennsport team and Luca. It’s early days still, but we are energized to have had this difficult yet positive weekend. Great momentum heading to the next round!

The BMW 318ti Cup heads next to the famed Eifel circuit of the Nürburgring GP on October 17-18th. I’ll be sending a small preview a couple days ahead of the event for you to follow along with. I’d be one ecstatic child if you told me years ago that I’d be about to turn laps on my dream German circuit, I can’t wait!

But before that, I’ll be racing solo in the NATC series at Lausitzring on October 11th with the JAS Rennsport car and team. It will be a valuable weekend and 110-minute race experience to get additional race kilometers under my belt at a new venue. Grateful once more for the opportunity, and I look forward to sharing it with you all soon.

If you enjoy these reflections, please don’t hesitate to reach out with any comments or questions! I love connecting with those who find my motorsport journey interesting or influential to them. So again, say hi!

A massive, understated thank you to my family and close supporters who’ve believed in my motorsport journey and helped me to this point. Definitely wouldn’t be doing this without your support! A special shout-out to Karen and Deana whom I’ve had the pleasure of sharing this piece of my career with, and lastly a warm thank you to JAS Rennsport for accepting me into your passionate, caring motorsport family. We have awesome days ahead of us!

In the meantime, you can keep in touch with myself, the team, and series at the links below:

FOLLOW JAS RENNSPORT

FOLLOW THE BMW 318TI CUP

FOLLOW MATT

Cheers, (Prost),

Matt Million

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