Race Recap: High Plains WRL Provides 2nd in GP1 for Million, Palomar Racing
Deer Trail, CO | September 1-3rd, 2023
After an electrical issue on Saturday, Palomar Racing’s sixth weekend of their 2023 World Racing League campaign saw a return to the GP1 podium for Matt and the #14 BMW E36 M3 on Sunday.
Team regulars Matt Million and Nik Romano were joined by Lucas Weisenberg in the #14. Weisenberg, current Toyota GR Cup driver, is a welcome addition with his past experience working with the group. The team’s second entry, the #15 BMW E36, was driven by team regular Ryan Keeley as well as Andrew Gardner and Alan Leukhardt.
The #14 finished 7th of 11 in Saturday’s 8-hour and 2nd of 11 in Sunday’s 8-hour.
Qualifying 3rd, Matt took the #14 to an early run in 2nd place for the opening stint. During the first pit stop, the car failed to refire. After an hour of diagnosis and repair, it was discovered part of the AIM PDU computer module failed and wouldn’t allow the car to restart. Weisenberg and Romano brought the car to the finish without trouble afterwards. For Sunday’s 8-hour, Weisenberg started in 4th and maintained position for his stints. Romano continued for his stints and handed off to Million to close the race. Through clean pit stops and stints, the #14 found itself firmly in 2nd with 219 laps complete, three laps behind the winning #147 Morehead Speed Works BMW E46.
The story of #15 was more unfortunate. An 8th place finish on Saturday and 7th place on Sunday after the car struggled to maintain proper voltage, amongst other issues. A gearbox failure took the car out of Sunday’s race past half-distance.
“It’s an awesome feeling to get the #14 back onto the podium! We got 3rd in our very first race of the season, way back in March at Barber Motorsports Park. Since then, this car has seen a lot of revisions to make it more competitive in GP1. Through development of springs, tires, engines, aero, and a lot of small things, it’s a been an exhausting season to find small bits of speed but suffer frequent mechanical and electrical gremlins. After our 4th of 15 at Road Atlanta, it was clear we’ve developed into a podium-contending package. Still with gains to be made in ultimate pace, but a lot more potential than early in the season. This 2nd helps confirm that when all goes well on our side, we are nearing closer to our ultimate goal in World Racing League.
“”I’m really proud of what I could extract in qualifying to put us 3rd in class. I’ve never been to High Plains Raceway before and only had a handful of laps before true ‘go time’. It was the best position we were going to start from, with the top two on a different level of speed than where we are in our development.”
“High Plains is a sneakily fun circuit! 15 corners, 2.5 miles. Only one real straightaway, lots of heavily cambered and off-camber corners with elevation. Besides the utterly tight hairpins, it’s a wonderful ‘flow’ circuit. There isn’t much in the way of sights though… a lot of dead grass!”
“I’m truly proud of my start and opening stint on Saturday. We remained within touching distance of the leader (15-30 seconds) for the entire hour and a half. I have to especially thank Ryan Lindsley and Pete Bush of BIMMERSPEED for their tireless hours of car preparation ahead of this event. The #14 felt like an entirely new race car, giving me the confidence to set some seriously quick laps time after time and keep us close.”
“It’s a shame about our relatively small issue on Saturday. We would’ve been on for a podium both days, which is what this group deserves after all the hard work this season. It did feel good though to bring the car across the finish on Sunday and secure the result. My job Sunday was a lot more tame; keep the car on the road and hold onto the position with no close threat in either direction. Definitely a team-earned podium all-around. Proud to be a part of their journey and chip away at the milestones, despite the difficulties we’ve faced on multiple levels in 2023. Thank you Andy and the rest of Palomar Solar for the continued hard work, belief in me, and backing for this program. Thank you Blair, Grant, Kaylyn, and the drivers for the long days to make sure we succeed.”
Million will next compete for Palomar Racing at Hallett Motor Racing Circuit in Oklahoma for the WRL’s 8 + 8 Hour event in mid-October. He is scheduled to drive the #14 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 support by Apex Race Parts, Red Line Synthetic Oil, Ferodo Racing, AP / Essex Part Services, Yokohama Tires, BimmerWorld, Strom Motorsports, BIMMERSPEED, FastSideways, Enphase, Panasonic Solar, Swift Springs, MCS, AGA Tools, Rugged Radios, SignArt Graphix, and others.
Visit ‘Photos’ to view more pictures from the event and other pages on mattmillionracing.com.
Photography by Sam of Low Tide Motorsports Photography.