RRT Racing Debuts with Success at New Jersey Motorsports Park
Sterling, Virginia (May 4, 2009) – On May 2nd, RRT Racing completed its debut Grand-Am Koni Challenge race. At the end of the two and one-half hour race, the RRT E90 stood as the top finishing BMW in the ST class.
The weekend served as a strong learning experience being it was the first Grand-Am race for the RRT team. The team arrived and rolled the car out Thursday morning for the promoter’s test day in order to finalize some testing on the new chassis before the official practices on Friday. The car performed without any issues and the first day was in the books with Barry Battle clocking a 1:35 lap according to the car’s data acquisition. Battle noted that the car was performing well, but there were still a couple adjustments that would be made in order to best prepare the car for this track.
Friday’s schedule called for two practices and qualifying at the end of the day. Battle and co-driver Michael Dayton split the practices and worked on their knowledge of the track along with additional fine tuning for the car. With the mixed weather, the pit crew was able to practice tire changes on pit lane. Crew Chief Bruce Norton remarked, “The crew has been practicing hard so it is nice to see our efforts pay off here at the track.” At the end of the day, Dayton went out and qualified the car for the 19th position in ST. “We were hoping to qualify a little higher, but I was confident the race and the car would allow us plenty of opportunities to make up some positions,” said Dayton.
Saturday, raceday, started with an early practice session and then plenty of time to prep for the 3:10 pm race start time. Since he qualified, Dayton would start the race from the 20th row of the combined field. The GS cars were started first and then the ST cars took the green. Dayton piloted the RRT Racing E90 through a couple dramatic turns off the start and quickly gained a couple positions. During this scramble there was some contact to the rear drivers side that caused the bead on the Hoosier to be pushed in over ½ inch on the outer edge of the tire and bend a control arm. The tire would hold until the driver’s change, but the toe-in from the bent control arm would slow the car down for the remainder of the race.
The second double yellow of the race flew at just past the one hour mark, and the call was made to bring the car in for the drivers change. Battle took over and was quickly back on track before the green flag flew again. He ran most of the balance of the race without much traffic, clicking off some laps in the low 1:35’s. As the race was drawing to a close Battle would be passed by one of the Chevy Colbalt entries, which dropped him to 12th in class where the RRT Racing entry would take the checker. After the race, Battle would note, “The car felt great and never gave us an issue all weekend. Finishing as the top BMW in ST was exciting given all the strong competition in ST, and proves that RRT can set up a winner right out-of-the-box.”
RRT Racing’s next race will be at Watkins Glen in early June. Soon after the race in New York, the team will compete at Mid-Ohio and then Virginia International Raceway (VIR) later in the fall.
RRT Racing would like to thank its 2009 sponsors: Tischer BMW’s GetBMWParts.com, OG Racing, DiffsOnline.com, Vorshlag Motorsports, Schroth Safety Equipment, and BrakeSwap.com.
RRT is the leading BMW Performance and Service center in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area. Founded in 2002, RRT offers a full-range of BMW repairs, maintenance, and performance services completed by highly experienced technicians at reasonable prices. RRT also offers state-of-the-art suspension services and development, including an on-line suspension catalog.
Last edited by RRT; 05-09-2009 at 11:46 AM.
Strong work guys. Glad to see so many people from this community doing what they love.
Can't wait to see build thread of the E92
I miss her, back in a BMW for the time being
Nice job Barry and Michael. Car looks great.
Best of luck for a successful and safe season.
Tucker
Darn it, that's what I get for not keeping updated on Bimmerforums. We were pitted right next to you guys in the Blue # 18 Porsche 997. If I was better up to date I would have came by and said hi!
I didn't catch the name, but one of your crew guys sat next to me for a while at the beginning of the race watching timing and scoring as well as the live TV feed.
Congrats on the great result! Hopefully you won't get any flack from angry forum members for not having "Spoiler" in your title...
Good job guys. I guess you've earned your racing stripes.
Congrats on the good debut.
David
1988 Zinnoberot E30 M3
On Saturday during the World Challenge race (can't remember if it was TC or GT) I was on top of the tower chatting with a couple guys from RRT about BMW's. I didn't catch their names. Seemed like cool guys. I was there with ChaseCam, doing my best to hide my BMW bias.
'94 325is #94 IP/GTS3 Mauritius Blue Metallic
"And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high." - Ayrton Senna
Congrats guys.
Might as well say it here too. Congrats! Hell of a job for the first shot at pro racing.
Congrats on a successful first race! Too bad about the tire.
Nice! Now you need to have a certain "theme song" blasting from the E90 as you roll through the pits!
Some people are just so mean and don't put "spoiler" in their title. Some guy did that a while back and he better hope I never meet him in person. Cause if I do, he'll be performing some stunts to get away from me.Congrats on the great result! Hopefully you won't get any flack from angry forum members for not having "Spoiler" in your title...
People may not realize it, but Barry Battle is a pretty badass driver. He taught me a thing or two once.
I like small engines, so what!
Thanks everyone! It was a huge blast at NJMP. We met so many great people. Can't wait to go again!
Now prepping the car for our next event at Watkins Glen.
Billy, that was me leeching off your better equiped pit cart. We were watching a Turner car very closely as well. Had a great time watching your stint while talking with Peter. What I tell you about your chance to be a hero!? Great drive and thanks again for letting me hang out with you and the crew; learned quite a bit.
-Matt
Matt Olson
RRT Racing
DC Metro's premier BMW service and racing facility
Hey Matt, It's nice to put a name with a face.
Thanks! Fortunately we got to use Rolex Team Stevenson Motorsport's pit equipment that race with the awesome big-screen TV showing the live feed from SPEED. Feel free to come by anytime, its always good to hang out with fellow bimmerforum members.
Billy
just got done watching the race on Speed, was it me or was the RRT classed in GS according to Speed Chanel???? I assume this was just a timing and scoring hickup?
eitherway, great job.
Matt Williams -
Current - 01 LSB M3
Past - #21 GTS-3 -
95 Alpine White/Yellow M3 - Stock, except for the stuff that isn't
Yep, during the race the car was listed in GS on the scrolling stats bar. At the end of the race we were properly listed in the final results.
yea, the live timing at the track had it right, but SPEED got it wrong inn their coverage. but we were up to 16 or 17 in GS, not bad for a ST car!
james
RRT jackman
James
'88 M3 (track and weekends) | '01 540i/6 (daily) | '95 4Runner (lifted and armored)
Thanks everyone! We are more than pleased with the results. Goes to show RRT can build a competitive car right out of the box! We are looking forward to Watkins Glen in a few weeks.
Check out our website (still a work in progress)
http://www.rrtracing.com/
direct link to video/media
http://www.rrtracing.com/media.php
also a forum if you want to post some comments or ask questions...
http://www.rrtracing.com/forum/
Michael Dayton
Way to go guys! Its been a long time comming
The Original GoldMember!!
^3. Way to go RRT! Congrats Barry. Great first effort
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