The Final Round… where I get by with lots of help from my friends!
Hard to believe we headed to Taupo for the 6th and final round of the Nexen Tyre NZ E46 Championship. The weather in Taupo was playing ball this time (although I’d hoped for a bit of rain) and the sun beamed down on us throughout the whole weekend.
Dad and I loaded up the Scholarship car, and drove down to Taupo in the early hours of Friday morning as we had new brake pads and discs to bed in. The rest of the Day Family Supports Club would join us by Friday night. We got down to business, and I had two 15-minute sessions to figure out how Taupo goes in the dry, as our previous weekend had been very wet. In the last session of the day, I locked myself onto the back of Joel Herbert, a fellow E46 competitor who helped me a lot on and off the track all weekend, and gave chase, getting down to a 1:47:7 – which is an “OK” lap time.
It was early rising for us this weekend, being second class on track so qualifying was on a very cold, but most importantly fast track. I qualified with at 1:47:3 which I was comfortable with, and that placed me 8th for race 1.
I started Race 1 on the outside of the grid looking to reuse some of my luck from the rainy Taupo meeting a couple of months ago, and hang it around the outside of Turn 1…unfortunately that didn’t end up working, so I settled into the seat. I had good pace and was able to stay with the front runners but eventually I pushed my luck and had to gather a tank slapper at T9, which meant I lost touch with the front group and had my hands full with Emily Robb battling for position. I had great pace from Turn 1 all the way to the back straight out of 11 and had traction to build a bit of a gap, but lost out a little in the horsepower department, making it up with some bravery pills and a lunge on the brakes at the other end of the straight (don’t look now, Mum!) holding the pack off almost all the way home to the flag eventually taking the checkered in 8th after a hard fought 10 laps. The early finish had it’s bonuses too – lunch at 2 Mile Sailing Club and a bit of retail therapy for the Supporters Club – WIN!
The Grid for Race 2 on Sunday morning is based on your finishing place in Race 1, so I started from 8th again. I knew I needed to get across to that inside line in the dry, and we got a good start, making up a place and quickly finding our groove. We weaved our way through an incident at Turn 7, gaining 3 spots (sorry, Riley!) and picked our way through the carnage. Head down, knowing there’d be some hella recovery drives from those spun – they were in front of me to start with for a reason – they’re fast – and it didn’t take them long to catch back up. I had the advantage of being the leader of the pack though, and had to drive smart, making sure I chose my line, and making the Nexen Scholarship Car as fast as I could where we had the pace. We roared into T1 to start lap 6, when one of the cars behind me had a brake issue, and in taking avoiding action, used me to stop. The impact was pretty big, lifting us up onto two wheels momentarily, and as I tried to gather it back up, I realised the car was pretty broken. The Taupo Motorsport Park team hit the red flag, and because 75% of the race had been completed, the race was declared.
I walked back to the pits, and the driver from the other car involved came to chat – that’s racing right? At the end of the day, we were both ok and cars can be fixed.
The Scholarship car put up a bit of a fight getting on the trailer, and before we got her back, we had people offering parts, help – anything we needed. Luke from Skunkworks got us access to the Prime Motorsport workshop, and the community set about working out what we needed, and sorting it. It was very humbling to see just how many people wanted to help – there’s a list at the end of this story to thank them all, but I have to say this is an amazing series and community to be part of – thank you!
While Dad, Uncle Matt and everyone were busy on the car, Mum and I talked to VJ, the accident investigator, and then I had to go and be checked out by Pammi and the medical team – standard procedure for a ‘shunt’ and they’re always lovely to see. Shiane was running laps around the pits for Dad, finding parts from people and swapping things out. The race programme had been delayed due to another couple of incidents on track, which effectively brought us more time. I have to say, having a crash creates a whole heap of work for the officials – and lots of reports. Bonus for me – with the race being declared, I kept my 5th place, even though we didn’t make the final line up!
We were close to getting back in the game, with just one part that needed some welding – a phone call from Matt at Prime to his friend Shane from Full Send Fabrications and Carter and I were off down the road to a tig welder, and back ASAP with the mended part in hand.
With the car nearly back together (I swear, it’s an absolute miracle), we found the scrutineers so they could check the repairs and sign my logbook off.
While all this was going on, the legendary Todd Leatham came up and offered for me to drive his E46 in the final race – I was so determined to finish the season in the Nexen Scholarship Car if I could, and Todd was so kind, he even let me take it up to the workshop for spare parts if needed! Thanks to everyone’s epic effort I was able to give him his car back in one piece.
Some tough love panel beating was required, and Dad made some bits good with some race tape. We found the CROs and the Clerk of Course allowed me to take the car out for one lap (Pit exit to Pit entry) in the lunchbreak to make sure we had no wobbly bits. (Thank you very much)!! The lap showed an issue with the ABS sensor which had snapped, and again thanks to the great people around us, the computer got plugged in, all faults cleared and I was good to go for Race 3, apart from my left hand wing mirror – that definitely didn’t survive!
Race 3’s goal was simple. To finish the last race of the season, in my (now patched up) Nexen Scholarship car and bring her home safely. But let’s be real – once that helmet went on and the door was shut, it was right back to square one to send it, and try and get the best result I possibly could. I started P10 in this one, with the grid based on your fastest lap of the weekend. I gave the car a good warm up on the formation lap, checking everything was good to go. All things considered, the car felt great, and I lined up on the grid, ready to give it another crack. I got a good start, moving up to P9, then P8 but lost touch with the top 7 as I once again found myself defending a battle with two cars, one getting the better of me down the back straight. I wasn’t about to give up though and I started chasing hard, filling his mirrors with the purple livery all the way to Turn 11 where I had a lunge under brakes to get alongside which made it a drag race down the back straight! Brendon Leitch’s words to me fly through my head, “Just have a dip, son” I absolutely sent it into the final corners and held onto the rear as it protested and onto the final lap, where I managed to pull away from Joe Wilson and Henry O’Leary finishing P8!!! Never has an 8th place felt so good!!!
I cannot express how grateful I am to everyone that helped in rebuilding the car to get me back out on track. This series is an amazing group to be part of, and this weekend showed just how much everyone is willing to go.
When I won the Scholarship back in August I was so surprised, but grateful for the opportunity and really wanted to do my absolute best for Nexen and the BMW Race Series committee to reward their faith in me. I’ve had so much fun, made so many friends, learned so much race craft and to be able to bring home a slightly patchwork quilt car put back together with everyone’s spare parts, time and commitment to getting me back out there was epic.
A massive thank you to all who helped me rebuild the car to get me back out on track, if I’ve missed you, I’m sorry – but still very grateful! It was an absolute blur of faces and helpers.
Prime Speed for letting us use their workshop,
Luke Hardie from Skunkworks and Matt from Prime Speed,
Matt Wallace,
Carter Rinkin,
Brent & Emily Robb
Peter Ball,
Graham Ball,
Riley Boswell,
John Boswell,
Zane Hills,
Joel Herbert,
Mackenzie Motorsport,
Shane from Full Send Fabrications,
Last but not least Todd Leatham for letting me borrow his car if all else had failed.
Taupo Car Club Officials and the Nems Medical team for their care and attention
And of course Mum and Dad for paying the bills! (not sorry for the heart attacks, Mum!)
With a little luck (and a part time job) I hope to be back next season ragging my own car and battling hard against everyone in the series!
For anyone reading this, and wondering about entering the Scholarship Day and competing for the Nexen E46 BMW get in there! I’ll be there on the day, to see who the next lucky driver will be.
Time to give 80 some love, before I hand her back.
Matt
Matt Smith
