LOS ANGELES—Mick Blue stepped up in racing class this year, challenging himself in a newer car against different competition.
The result was the same.
This past Sunday, Blue drove his Bad Dragon BMW to Victory Lane, winning the National Auto Sport Association championship in the Spec E46 class at Ozarks International Raceway in Gravois Mills, Missouri.
The triumph marked Blue’s second NASA national championship in as many years—he won the title in 2024 in the Spec E30 class.
The three-time AVN Male Performer of the Year and Brazzers contract star from Austria, who launched his Mick Blue Racing team in 2017, tells AVN the 3.7 mile Ozarks Raceway—with 1200 feet of elevation changes in one lap—was the most difficult track he’s ever raced on.
“Driving it first of all feels like a roller coaster, it’s really up and down the whole time,” says Blue, who started the 45-minute championship race from pole position on Sunday, reaching top speeds of 125 mph in his black 2001 BMW 330i.
“What makes this track even more difficult is that right off the pavement there’s grass, and then shortly after the grass are guardrails that are like walls all around the whole track. So therefore if you make a mistake or if you lose control of your car the chances are very high your weekend is over.
“Taking those kinds of things into consideration, it’s quite a journey to trust and believe in your own abilities inside the car in order to push to the maximum or close to the maximum without being too much in danger of crashing. I think it was the hardest track I ever raced on just because it’s unforgiving for any mistake in 80 percent of the cases.
"But in the same time I have to say after being there it’s one of my top three favorite tracks I’ve ever raced on,” he adds. “Once you get confident with it, it’s such a rewarding track. It’s like this love-hate relationship.”
Mick entered the four-day race weekend having already clinched the regional Southern California Championship for this season in the Spec E46 class with 11 wins and four second-place finishes.
He was the sole entrant from NASA’s Southern California region in Missouri, taking on the top drivers from regions across the U.S. for the first time.
Blue’s command of the car showed in his lap times—his fastest lap on Sunday of 2 minutes, 41.2 seconds was more than four seconds quicker than his 2:45.7 during Thursday’s second practice session—and his margin of victory.
He won comfortably with a 10-second gap to Jeremy Evans in second and almost 20 seconds faster than Jason Rikke in third. Blue even set a new track record for the Spec E46 class with a 2:43.55 lap during the race.
“I basically controlled the race from the beginning,” Mick tells AVN. “There was one yellow [caution flag] for two laps, and before and after that I was in the zone and and focused and clocked very fast, consistent times.
“Unless I made a mistake or the car breaks down it would’ve been very difficult to beat me on Sunday. But I kept it together and the car lasted. I didn’t make a mistake and in the end we won.”
But things were not looking too promising on Thursday, when the shaft on the driver’s side rear axle of his car broke at the beginning of the third practice session.
“The connector between the axle and the differential completely broke, so we had to find a new axle for the car,” Blue explains. “And it’s not like this is a 2024 or 2025 BMW, it’s a 2001 BMW. So we called everywhere.”
They found a manual axle in Long Beach, Calif., and had it shipped to Missouri via UPS, getting it at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 5—the same day as qualifying.
“So I had to do the first qualifying session cold turkey,” Mick says. “But then after that everything was good and the car was running great. Every day we picked up more and more time and we finished the qualifiers on Saturday in Spec E46 in first, and Super Touring 5 in third.”
Blue explains that at nationals, drivers get two sessions on Friday to qualify their car with the fastest individual lap in order to set up their position for the 35-minute qualifying race on Saturday. Then the results of that qualifying race determine the starting grid for Sunday’s title race.
“Nationals is a journey,” Mick says. “You want to be fast and take some risks but you also want to be worried about whether you actually make it to Sunday. If you break your car before, crash or make mistakes and you don’t make it to Sunday, then you won’t even have a chance to drive for a championship.
“Throughout the whole weekend there were maybe 10 cars from the whole field that basically went out because of driver errors. The track definitely left its trail on many cars and the majority of those cars were not able to continue and had to pack up and go home.
“But we were fortunate and lucky in a way that we made it to Sunday and once Sunday morning came around, the confidence was 100 percent there in the car. I was confident in my abilities and we went racing.”
Blue also finished third in the Super Touring 5 race on Sunday morning and third in the Time Trial 5.
He thanked his longtime sponsor Bad Dragon for their continued support and his crew chief, fellow racer Tom Paule of Long Beach, for his hard work throughout the weekend.
“Without him it would’ve been way harder,” Blue says. “He was a big reason why we finished where we did. He put the new wheel bearing in and the axle, so big thanks to him. He’s a racer since 15 years himself. I raced against him in E30 and he became a friend of mine.”
He and Paule developed a strategy for the weekend and executed.
“And I want to point out that the main reason why I’m here and why I’m able to do this is because of the title sponsorship from Bad Dragon. At the end of the day, they are just great people and great supporters in many ways and without them it would’ve never been possible," Mick continues. "Also a huge thanks to JMP Autowerx, the race shop in Canoga Park that maintains my race car and took care of it to make sure everything runs smooth. They were a huge reason why my car was running so good over the whole season.”
Blue also expressed his gratitude to Empire Dom, which sponsored him for nationals.
