ERDA, Utah — Veteran performer and race car driver Mick Blue took first place in the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) SE30 class over the weekend at the Utah International Motorsports Campus, becoming the 2024 National Champion.
Blue also competed in the TT6 and ST6 classes, obtaining third and fifth place respectively.
The SE30 class is for BMW 325 E30 cars built between 1987-1990. All cars have the same specs and have to have a minimum weight from 2700 lbs including driver after the race and a maximum of 160.90 HP/TQ output on the rear wheels.
Blue spoke exclusively with XBIZ, sharing that his SE30 victory was especially meaningful to him because all the cars are on equal footing.
“Everyone races with the same equipment to make it more fair,” he explained. “So the race determines who’s the better driver instead of who has the better car.”
The NASA Championships are a one-of-a-kind opportunity for a driver of Blue’s standing, he added because “it only happens once a year, and all racers throughout the nation and from all 50 states come together and race each other to see who is the best in the country in each category.
“You have the whole weekend to compete,” Blue added. “For each class, you do a qualifying race on Friday to determine the starting position for the race on Saturday, and then on Saturday , you have the 30-minute race and whatever is your finishing position determines who starts first on Sunday for the actual championship race.”
As XBIZ reported, Blue became the Southern California champion in Nov. 2023, when his Bad Dragon-sponsored BMW won the 2023 NASA SoCal SE30 Championship at the Track or Treat event held at the Chuckwalla Valley Raceway.
Blue already had a NASA National Championship under his belt, having won the timed TT6 category in 2022, the same year he was crowned Male Performer of the Year at the XMA Awards (formerly known as XBIZ Awards).
“That one was about who sets the fastest time, but we don’t really race each other. It’s a different strategy,” he noted. “This weekend’s race has a lot more stress, and a lot of strategy plays into that. If the car breaks down on Saturday, you’re not gonna race on Sunday. You are racing humans, who can be predictable or unpredictable. You don’t know how fast they are on the day of the event.”
Blue also wanted to thank his sponsor Bad Dragon “for making everything possible,” JMP Autowerkz in Canoga Park, who help him gets his cars ready for all his races, and refrigeration company Cool Boxx.
“Cool Boxx has a system that pumps water into my shirt as I’m racing to keep me cool,” he explained. “Otherwise, you lose focus, as the Utah track is at 4,500 feet of altitude and the temperature there was over 90 degrees.”
For more details about the event, follow Mick Blue on Instagram, and visit DriveNASA.com.
