Race Recap: Positive Strides in WRL Road Atlanta for Million, Palomar Racing
Braselton, GA | July 28-30th, 2023
Palomar Racing’s fifth weekend of their 2023 World Racing League campaign saw mixed fortunes with an overall positive outcome.
Piloting the #14 BMW E36 in GP1 this weekend was team regulars Matt Million, Nik Romano, and Ryan Keeley. Also in the GP1 class, the #15 BMW E36 was piloted by team Chattanooga Tourenwagen with drivers Zach Mortimer, Justin Ford, Cory Simmons, and Justin Wingfield.
The #14 finished 7th of 15 in Saturday’s 9-hour. After missing the opening 2.5 hours due to an engine change, it charged for the remainder of the day. The #14 crew ultimately rebounded to finish 4th of 15 on Sunday after a fairly straightforward 7-hour race. The #15 would finish a respectable 5th on Saturday and 11th on Sunday.
Friday’s practice and qualifying set the pair up toward the rear of the field. #14 would start 10th with the #15 starting 9th from 15. Outright pace has been a struggle for the team’s E36’s this season. Once the engine change was completed two hours into the race, Matt Million contested the next 3 hours of Saturday’s race in the #14 as well as the final 2.5 hours of Sunday’s race.
“With such a quick turn-around between VIR and here, I’m proud of how we managed the month. I helped Ryan (Keeley) prepare and load the cars and equipment at AutoTechnic Racing in Connecticut after VIR. Very grateful to have Charlie, Rob, and the rest of that professional group provide us the shop space and resources to prepare.”
“After joining Ryan on a 15-hour journey south into Georgia, we unloaded and prepared new car developments with the team on Thursday at Road Atlanta. We worked our butts off to increase the tire size potential in our fender wells, which ultimately was successful. The official WRL weekend began Friday and after I set a baseline of our potential in qualifying, it was apparent something was amiss in the powertrain of #14. We probably could’ve lasted the weekend with it, but we made the decision to change it out in favor of a much better backup S52 engine. Combined with major issues we discovered in the front control arms, the crew had a very long afternoon, night, and morning ahead.”
“We nearly got on-track for the green flag Saturday morning at 8am but decided to not rush the transfer. I sat, eyes closed visualizing my upcoming stints, in the driver’s seat for an hour as the crew finalized the mechanical bits. After a quick alignment and test drive, I took it on circuit 2.5 hours into the race. I had no expectation, but very quickly it was apparent everything had been transferred correctly! The car felt stable, smooth, and engine vitals looked normal. The tune loaded onto the engine held back its true power potential, so we ultimately continued to lose a lot of time down straightaways and out of corners.”
“Still, I was ecstatic the #14 was on-track and I was giving it what it had! Road Atlanta is a top three favorite circuit for me. The blind, ultra fast crests with an unmatched rhythm and short lap time never leave you bored. The back-straight is long enough to help your mind ‘reset’ for another incredible lap of one of the country’s finest circuits.”
“I’m very proud of my double stint Saturday morning. Since GP1 was the top class for this event, a lot less traffic made it easier to be within millimeters of consistency lap-after-lap. At one point toward the end of my first hour, I was a leading car on a restart. I was able to pull away from the entire GP1 field and continue to set the 2nd or 3rd fastest laps of GP1 for the following hour. Not bad for a car I could only qualify 10th the previous day! I was hustling her as fast as she would let me though. Certainly not always an ‘endurance’ pace! It’s what Nik, Ryan, and myself had to do in #14 to even stay remotely competitive. Great fun nonetheless, but we have work still to do in the pace department.”
“Ryan and Nik took over for the remainder and we finished 7th of 15 that day which was a great result missing 1/4th of the race. We retooled, regrouped and set out for a better day Sunday. Nik got us off to a respectable start for two hours before the mandatory two hour church ‘quiet hours’. Ryan continued to keep us in a good spot before I finally took over for the last few hours. It was the hottest ambient and track temp we’d had all weekend and wow was it a handful! It took an extraordinary workload to even get closer to the times I was setting the day prior. Eventually, I got to better grips with the worsening conditions and chipped away at time and consistency. By the end, we finished a very strong 4th only missing the podium by about 2 laps. Considering our outright pace was 2-3 seconds per lap off the leading GP1 cars, it was a great result for us.”
“I want to shoutout all of our (small) Palomar Racing from the weekend for delivering a near flawless effort in the pits. A couple warnings, but zero penalties after 14+ hours of racing and pit stops. Also want to shoutout the Chattanooga Tourenwagen team for boosting our happiness and having a great time in the team’s #15 car. They were all a pleasure to work with and I’m stoked they had a good result on day one even after a potential race-ending moment! Race two was not so kind for them, but they took it in stride and grace and learned a lot regardless.”
Million will next compete for Palomar Racing at High Plains Raceway in Colorado for the WRL’s 8 + 8 Hour event. 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, Bullet Performance, FastSideways, Enphase, Panasonic Solar, Swift Springs, MCS, AGA Tools, Rugged Radios, SignArt Graphix, and others.
Visit ‘Photos’ to view more pictures from the event.
Photography by Scottie Elkins.