Race Report: Million, Palomar Racing Complete Team’s First WRL Event at Barber 9 + 7 Hour
Birmingham, AL | March 3-5th, 2023
Palomar Racing’s debut in the 2023 World Racing League season was a success. The team saw the checkered flag in both the 9 and 7 hour races run on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
A 3rd place finish on Saturday and 6th place on Sunday out of 16+ entries in a deep GP1 field was ‘mission accomplished’ for the team based in Escondido, California.
Matt Million contested the final three hours of Saturday’s race in the #14 BMW E36 as well as the opening three hours of Sunday’s race. His teammates were Nik Romano and Ryan Keeley who completed the rest of the ten hours.
“Overall, it was a very helpful and informative WRL debut for our team. It went about as good as it realistically could have! We qualified 9th for both days which was representative of the car’s ultimate pace. We are certainly not a GP1 front-runner yet, with a lot of planned car updates to get us to the sharp end as soon as next month. But what we did prove is that we are a super competitive organization and belong here. To reach 3rd place is a huge testament to the team’s clean pit stops, zero penalties, and long run consistency/pace/skill of our driver team. The 6th on Sunday was also indicative of this but the front-runners had a few less mishaps.”
“I’m super happy with how the Palomar guys came together this weekend. We had 12+ crew members (mostly) flying in from California and a semi that had a 2,000 mile haul. Already on the back foot when we arrived, a lengthy tech inspection and poor weather meant we only had a single hour of Friday practice. Most of the team hadn’t been to a WRL event before and they all did fantastic on the stops and preparation. Proud of this team as the single West Coast ‘long-haul’ group at the weekend!”
“In terms of my on-track performance, I’m quite happy. I didn’t miss more than a handful of apexes through over six hours of racing and led the car in pace and consistency. I truly felt like there wasn’t much more to maximize on my end beside small nit-picking items. Ran a fast pace while being extremely heads-up and capitalizing on traffic all while avoiding unnecessary risk. Barber Motorsports Park is an absolutely phenomenal venue, what a fun circuit! The elevation changes are so sharp with long, fast, ribboning, unique corners. A top three circuit on my list now definitely. Can’t wait to come back!”
“I’m excited to get started next month at Mid-Ohio. We have a lot of planned updates to the car which can hopefully cut the pace deficit down to the class leaders. We didn’t have much for them this event but through our determination and consistency, we out-performed most people’s expecations. Looking forward to my first trip to Ohio!”
Million will next compete for Palomar Racing at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course from April 7-9th in the World Racing League 8 + 8 Hour event. He is scheduled to drive the #14 Palomar Solar BMW E36 M3 in GP1 for the rest of the season.
Matt Million wants to thank all the volunteers and corporate partners who support Palomar Racing. The primary support of Palomar Solar and Roofing along with additional support by Apex Race Parts, AP Racing Brakes, Ferodo Racing, Essex Part Services, Continental Tires, BimmerWorld, BIMMERSPEED, FastSideways, Enphase Energy, Panasonic Solar, Red Line Synthetic Oil, Swift Springs, MCS, AGA Tools, Rugged Radios, SignArt Graphix, TrackDayTire.com, and others.
Look for Matt’s ‘March Update’ to be published by the end of this month. Visit ‘Photos’ to view more pictures from the event.
Photography by Chance Hales.