Kuni BMW Blog

Dan Zimmerman of Kuni BMW not only repairs cars, he races them. In December, he assisted the #161 Stammer Inc/Bavarian Performance/Yokohama E46 M3 racecar on its 3rd place victory in the 25 hours of Thunderhill – an endurance automobile race held at Thunderhill track in Willows, CA. Their M3 completed a total of 2,046 miles with a top speed of 93 mph in roughly 25 hours.

Dan’s Story -

The owner of the E46 M3 racecar needed crew members to help survive the ever so long 25 hours of the race, and that’s where I came in. Because of my excessive experience working at Kuni BMW over the past 5 years and taking my own car to race tracks, I had a good base to help the team out during the race.

The morning of the race we spent several hours double and triple checking everything on our car. Other teams were rushing to button up loose ends after a long night of work, but we were ready. As the race drew near, everyone pulled their cars onto the front straight and got into position. The two days before the race the track had a different feel to it, like it was just another test and tune day. People were smiling, sharing stories and just enjoying the weather, but as soon as the track was clear, the feeling changed 100%. We knew what was ahead of us but we didn’t know the outcome.

The race officials directed the cars to prepare for a rolling start. Our crew stood on the pit wall watching the 83 cars go by, waiting for the green to drop and the clock to start counting down. As the pack rounded the last corner before the start/finish line, we saw the green. Our crew chief was immediately on the radio telling our driver “Green, green, green, green” and he did not miss a beat. He started working his way up the pack right away.

An hour and a half passed and most of the field had pitted once or twice. The call finally came from our driver saying we got fuel cut out during a high G turn and so we prepared for our first pit stop. The next driver was already suited up and ready to go. Everyone was on stand-by waiting for the car to enter pit lane and hoping all the drilling Thursday was going to make this and every pit stop flawless. The car pulls in, the fueling crew jumps over the wall and dumps 20 gallons of fuel in under 25 seconds. At the same time the new driver up is helping the last driver out and vise versa. Fueling is finished and the second part of our pit stop begins. We change out the right side tires and clean the window. The car is set back onto its wheels and leaves the pits spinning the tires. The whole crew clears the pit and without blinking an eye prepares for the next stop even though it may not happen for another hour and a half. Our crew chief smiles knowing he’s working with a great team.

Surprisingly enough, the next 6 hours leading into the night were very “calm”. We started to see a few cars having mechanical issues needing to be towed into the cold pits but everyone else got into a groove. Same with our team, we knew the one or two jobs we each had and we did them without error. We were always ready for the next pit stop with or without a driver change.

The crew chief didn’t want to waste me changing tires all race long or manning the jack during pit stops, and so I got the vital but worst job of the crew being a spotter. I was up on a bridge on the other side of the track with a radio unit to the crew chief and driver scanning for anything that could cause problems for our car. That ranged from watching for vehicles off track, debris on track, slow moving vehicles, safety cars, or faster moving cars like the #75 GT3 Cup car. It may seem like an easy job but it’s important to not bombard the driver with things seen on the track that may be solved by the time he/she gets around to that part. I spent almost every second of the race standing on the bridge watching and waiting for anything to happen.

The sun finally made its way past the hills and we mounted our light bar to the front of the car and got set up for the long night ahead of us. The roar of the race that at first kept us awake became like the calming noise of waves crashing on the beach. Crew members and drivers started taking shifts sleeping. Race car drivers started to make mistakes on the track causing some teams to swap out a transmission, suspension parts or even an engine throughout the night. Our goal was simply to stay on track and not make contact with anything.

1 am rolled around and it became obvious that it was taking its toll on everyone. I was even falling asleep up on the bridge so the next driver change I got more food, a five hour energy drink and two bottles of water. The five hour energy did not agree with anything in my body. Cold sweats, shaking and some minor stomach pain followed, but I couldn’t leave my post and potentially cause our driver to crash so I stayed at my post and just dealt with the pain. But that’s when the wake up call happened. A Factory Five race car’s safety straps on their fuel tank broke coming down the front straight. Massive sparking lit up the track, and heading into turn 1, a large fire ball shot out of the car. The track was shut down and everything went quiet. All the cars were stopped on the front straight as the safety crew put out the fire and cleaned the track. (To be continued in Part 2)