It happens in today’s modern world. A phone bricks during an update, or your computer gets the dreaded “blue screen of death.” If that went down in the final two days of prep for Time Trials Nationals, it would warrant a post to the r/mildlyinfuriating sub-reddit.
But if you truly wanted to go big, like Brian Flanagan apparently did, it wouldn’t be a malfunctioning phone or laptop. That would be simple. He saw it happen to his actual car.
“I have a reputation for deciding to prep cars at the last minute,” Flanagan said. "I’ve only had this car for a month or so. I was going to run in Sport 2, and we’d done some suspension work that was working horribly. So we swapped to coilovers and decided to move up to Tuner. At that point, I thought I needed more power. So I decided to do a tune.”
That makes sense for a BMW M3 and can only make it more fun. He ordered the tune from a reputable company that we won’t name, following the instructions at the front of the booklet to the letter. It offered an option to flash the ECU with either a wifi dongle or a cable.
“I had a cable that met specs,” Flanagan said. “I decided to plug in and load it. The first step is it erases all of the factory data off the ECU. That went swimmingly.”
We call that foreshadowing. The second and most important step – add the new tune back to the BMW – provided a “Can Not Authenticate” message. Considering it was two nights before leaving, the company is in Germany, and they only communicate by email… well, things were getting a little close for comfort.
“I kept waking up and checking my email all night long,” Flanagan said.
That email came the next morning, and the news wasn’t great. Essentially, the cable can work, but they don’t support it and recommend the wifi. The instruction? Find a wifi dongle, and good luck!
At this point, the BMW has been in the driveway blocking every other vehicle the Flanagans own. Remember, it was only supposed to be there for about 10 minutes. He found a wifi dongle available and ordered it for overnight shipping. Problem solved, right? Ha!
At 8 pm that night, the FedEx Tracking number said “label created.” It was going overnight… the next day. Set to arrive one day after he needed to be on the road. And the BMW was still in the driveway, unable to move, unable to shift into neutral, unable to be pushed out of the way.
This is where the Time Trials and SCCA family come into play. This had played out in real time on social media, with various suggestions coming at various times. Now in crunch time, Randall Prince stopped by on his way to the event with a wifi dongle. It plugged, played and uploaded, and the car could start and move.
“Randall Prince stopped by at 7 am, connected, and uploaded the tune. Mark Kilgore had the proper one, and we were able to do some fine tuning. It takes a village. If it weren’t for those two, I’d still be angry in Tennessee.”
Instead, with the help of fellow competitors and friends, Flanagan is at Time Trials Nationals. He’s not leading, the car isn’t perfect, but its here and he’s having fun. He’s only a half second off of his all-time personal best at NCM Motorsports Park, with one day to go.
He compared it to the 1999 song by Lit, who sings “It’s no surprise to me, I am my own worst enemy.” We prefer a different song in the pop/punk world, Green Day’s 1997 hit Good Riddance.
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right. I hope you had the time of your life.
