The Coachella Valley was the perfect location for the 2025 NASA SoCal Spec E46 season opener, which was a crossover event with the NASA Arizona Region. Chuckwalla Valley Raceway offered one of those rare race weekends with ideal track conditions combined with perfect weather, a combination that yielded nothing short of a great weekend of racing.
The Spec E46 racers were all out on the new Hoosier RCES spec tires and it was clear from the opening warm-up that the previous Spec E46 track record was not just going fall, but actually would be more like decimated.
This was evident when veteran racer, Michael Mihld, on his third lap of the first warmup session, laid down a time that was, by comparison, more than a second faster than the Spec E46 lap record of 1:59.609, and Mihld’s personal best of 1:59.682. In fact, in the warmup session, the entire Spec E46 field was within .2 seconds of the lap record. All indicators pointed to an epic weekend.
To start things off, Ed Fardos took the pole for the initial race with Mihld capturing P2. Newcomer to Spec E46, but not a stranger to racing, Team Mick Blue slid into P3, with the remaining grid spots going to Michael Donick, Eirik Holm and Team Track Weapons, respectively. After their traditional standing start, the field remained in order and got through the opening lap without incident. Within 2-3 laps, Mihild and Team Mick Blue were able to open the lead and battled in P1 and P2 for the remainder of the race. Blue behind Mihld for a majority of the race. Finally, just as they came to the white flag, a rare misstep by Mihld gave Blue a window of opportunity by going slightly wide at the exit of Turn 16. Team Mick Blue was able to capitalize on the error, and drove past Mihld, holding P1 to the checkers. Mihld finished in P2 with Fardos rounding out the top three.
To make things a bit more interesting, the entire field was inverted for Sunday’s qualifying, race giving Team Track Weapon’s Kartik Chandar his first P1 start. Erik Holm took the outside pole position and Michael Donick filled in the P3 spot. The shorter seven-lap race forced people to make quick work of traffic. Team Mick Blue announced his presence with authority showing he came to play by moving up to P3 by the end of the first lap. As the race went on, Team MB picked off every car with Mihld in tow. As they came around the final corner, the field finished in the same order as Saturday’s race with Team Mick Blue setting a new track record laying down a 1:57.800!
In Sunday’s main race, Team Mick Blue showed why he won the SoCal Spec E30 championship, as well the 2024 NASA Championship in both the Spec E30 and ST6 classes. That being said, Michael Mihld showed his race craft and was able to run out in front. In classic Mihld form, he drove a defensive line and kept Team Mick Blue and Fardos at bay for a few laps and as they approached lapped traffic. However, Team Mick Blue was on a mission and it was obvious he wanted the sweep the weekend. Once Team Mick Blue got around Mihld, he never looked back. That being said, had Mick looked back, his mirror would have been empty because he finished the race with an unbelievable 16-second gap to Mihld in P2. Again, Fardos captured the final podium spot finishing in P3.
