BMW Perfomance 200 at Daytona Race Report
One down and only 9 more CTSCC races to go! From a team perspective it was a great weekend at Daytona. Everyone was working at their best from the start. Yes there were a few small hiccups here and there but that is to be expected the first weekend of a race season. The BimmerWorld team showed the series our cars are going to be running up front every race this year and we will be in contention in the end.
So how did the race go for Dan Rogers and I? Overall it was awesome. Dan qualified the car 13th out of 41 cars on the grid. In qualifying alone he made huge strides in finding speed in the CRC Brakleen #82 BMW. Everyone in the paddock knew the race was going to be started under wet conditions but the track would dry out during the first 30 minutes or so. It was frantic along pit lane with everyone trying to decide on whether to start on rain tires or slicks. With the amount of water on the track we decided, as did most, to start with rain tires. The track was wet enough at the start it would have been dangerous to try to compete with slicks on the car. Dan was amazing in this stint. He held his own with all the cars around him during the wet conditions. He did lose a few spots as the track dried out but I believe this was because he wanted to make sure he brought a car into the pits that could be raced for the remainder of the race at top speed.
This is when he brought the car in for me to take over around the 30 minute mark. We were in about 19th spot during the pit exchange. There was a small miscommunication during the pit stop so I had to come back in before the caution ended to put on more tires. This moved me back in the field further than we would have liked but there was plenty of racing left. This is where the fun begins. I had a blast racing the #82 up through the field trying to catch up with my teammates who were running in the top-5. After about 30 minutes of racing we were in the fight for a top-10 spot. For 5-10 laps it was me battling it out with just about every make of car in our series. I had a couple of Kias, a Ford Focus STR, a Honda Civic Si, and a Volkswagon or two right there to track spots with for those laps. It was a nice clean battle for the most part. Leading this mix was the #80 BimmerWorld BMW of James Clay. I was doing my best to try to catch my fast teammate while holding my own with these great drivers. Our goal was to catch each other so we could make a move straight to the front. Unfortunately this was not to happen.
Going into turn 1 while running 8th or so I was fighting for position with the #74 Honda Civic Si. I could see my teammate a just ahead of me as we entered the brake zone. The Honda was on my inside as I made a move to the outside in the brake zone. We both went deep on the brakes trying to out maneuver each other. I believe he tried to go a little too deep and got into the back of the #80 BimmerWorld BMW. This turned James a sideways but James was easily able to pull out of it and keep going. The contact between these two was avoidable in the eyes of the Grand Am officials so they requested the #74 Civic to serve a stop and go penalty. This didn’t stop any of the battling going on for positions as he stayed right there in the mix. The very next lap heading into turn 1 again I am in front of the #74 car with another car on the outside of me. I got my car setup on the very inside of the track turning into the apex when all of a sudden something slams me in my left rear. I am then pushed into the Focus STR on my outside. The contact from the Civic caused the left rear shock to fail and the contact with the Focus pushed my right rear fender into the tire. Off to the pits we go if the car will make it around the track. Luckily I did make it back to the pits where the BimmerWorld Crew jumped into action. They quickly replaced the shock and put me back into the action while only losing 3 laps. It was awesome work by the crew but very disappointing as our race was pretty much finished. What was supposed to be a promising day with 3 of the BimmerWorld cars in the top-10 ended with the #82 CRC Brakleen fnishing 31st. On the bright side though the #81 car led most of the race and finished 3rd while the #80 came in 8th.
Overall Daytona was a great weekend. Yes, Dan and I were robbed of a good finish but we know we can compete for wins this season. The next race can’t come soon enough!
