Spec E30

This past Memorial Day weekend was a great time to take in local racing events as many chapters of the BMWCCA and NASA held sanctioned racing events. When posed with the dilemma of attending the Grand AM race at Lime Rock Park or to take in the grassroots effort of the Spec E30 NASA series we opted for the later. While Grand Am is a fantastic series with tons of BMW involvement and an event well worth attending we felt that supporting our friends over at the Axis of Oversteer as they campaign two E30s to be more significant to all the would be racers and BMW fans out there.

The Spec E30 Series is a national racing series that is is a competitive, fun, safe, affordable racing series, focused on road racing with limited modifications and specified required components. This series really showcases the driver ‘s skills rather than just who can tune the best car. It is a great way for individuals to enter racing, more specifically BMW racing. Spec E30 is racing on a different level, it harkens back to a time when racers wrenched on their own cars, the last weeks pay was in a set of tires- all for the thrill of the race and for knowing that no one else was responsible for placing, not the mechanic, the tire compound or the crew chief. Much of today ‘s racing world is big money, big teams and big sponsors, grassroots racing like Spec E30 is a different feel, it is real with real people just doing something they love and we respect that a great deal.

For the most part E30 Spec racing is racing stock E30s with safety modifications- full cages, fire suppression and the like with other minor tweaks such as camber plates and Toyo RA-1, size 205/55/14 or 205/50/15 tires being used. For the full list of rules and regulations visit the official SpecE30 site.

The Axis of Oversteer boys showed the rest of the field how it is done at New Jersey Motorsports Park. On Saturday Pete Thibault took the checkered flag first and Matt Russell was just behind him in third place. On Sunday the driver ‘s rolls reversed a bit, Matt took home the checkered first though finishing with notable damage he acquired from some shrapnel (thanks to someone ‘s motor blowing), and Pete was in a not so distant second place. The team did a great job racing and enjoying themselves during the weekend- and that is what is all about, having a good time with BMWs. When it comes to racing looks don ‘t matter and by the end of the weekend these cars took some serious abuse.

Full gallery after the jump!

Congrats to all the grassroots racers out there doing what you love, we here at BimmerFile appreciate it. To all those that are not familiar with the series we recommend you checking it out, it is a great time and the racers will tell you a thing or two about E30s!