CRC Brakleen BMW testing at Road Atlanta with Dan Rogers and Seth Thomas behind the wheel

The legendary Road Atlanta circuit in Braselton, Ga., holds a special place in BimmerWorld’s history. Prior to its rise as one of the leading teams in the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series, the BMW experts closed out its tenure in another professional touring car series by dominating the top 3 with its BMW 328is.

Now in its fourth season in GRAND-AM using the same base 328i platform in the Street Tuner class, BimmerWorld returns to race at Road Atlanta for the first time since finishing 1-2-3 in 2009. The Virginia-based aftermarket BMW sales and tuning pros have undergone a number of changes since 2009, but the core ownership, management, engineering and mechanical talent is still in place.

Continuity can also be found within some of its driving talent, but possibly the greatest change from 2009 to 2013 can be found with the 328i chassis. That BMW E90 shell looks familiar, but beneath the skin, the more restrictive Street Tuner rules call for cars that are much closer to the vehicles that rolled off the production line.

Compared to the relative technical freedom with the E90 in the other series, team owner/driver James Clay says BimmerWorld can’t rely on its previous setup information at Road Atlanta and has worked hard to tune the ST version of the E90 to the 2.5-mile, 12-turn course.

“BimmerWorld hasn’t raced the E90 ST cars at Road Atlanta, but the last pro race visit we had to the track in 2009 was a podium sweep,” he said. “We have tested the CTSCC BMWs there several times because it is a convenient track for us, so we aren’t unfamiliar with the track in our current trim either.  We feel confident that we are dialed in for the coming weekend.”

The team is coming off a pair of solid top 10 finishes at Barber Motorsports Park, a facility with many similarities to Road Atlanta. Both share major elevation changes and plenty of twists and turns, but unlike Barber’s narrow, compact nature, Road Atlanta is a bit more flowing and open. The tight confines of Barber suited the smaller cars in the ST class, but Clay is hoping the differences at Road Atlanta will balance the competition.

“We know we have consistent, durable cars that are good in sweepers and on flowing tracks, and Road Atlanta has some of that,” continued Clay.  “We also know the MX-5 and lighter 1 Series BMW will be helped by the elevation, and the Speed3 and Nissan will light the long back straight on fire.  This will be the first track that blends these elements fairly evenly for existing performance balance in the field.  Hopefully, good solid teamwork and cars will be the factor that pays off for us.”

Georgia native Seth Thomas, who shares the No. 82 CRC BRAKLEEN® BMW 328i with Dan Rogers, led the BimmerWorld team home in 2009, and hopes to repeat the feat at his home track this weekend.

“The last time I raced in a pro event at Road Atlanta I came away with the win having a couple of teammates protecting me as we crossed the line,” he said.  “That race was a fast paced 50-minute sprint from start to finish.  This weekend I feel will be a little bit different since we will be racing for 2.5 hours but I don’t think I am going to have to change much of how I drive going from a sprint race back then to GRAND-AM’s endurance races.

“The BimmerWorld E90 is a great car from start to finish especially at a smooth fast track like Road Atlanta.  So I feel like we can drive this car like we did in 2009 and come away with similar results as both drivers and a team!”

Tyler Cooke and Gregory Liefooghe partner in the No. 81 BimmerWorld BMW, and for Cooke, a second-year driver in the Street Tuner class, preparing to race at a new track on the CTSCC schedule has involved a fair amount of homework prior to the race.

“You watch as much in-car video as you can and my teammates have also given me a lot of feedback on what to expect,” he said. “You want to show up and feel like you’ve done all you can to prepare mentally before practice starts so once you’re on the racetrack, it feels like you’re just continuing from what you prepared for.”

Greg Strelzoff and Connor Bloum are new to the BimmerWorld team and the CTSCC series this year, and according to Strelzoff, the education he’s gained through the first few rounds in the No. 80 BimmerWorld BMW should pay off at Road Atlanta.

“I learned a lot at Barber, especially in the wet sessions and definitely feel that I am picking up momentum as I continue to learn the car,” he said. “As for Road Atlanta, I have raced there many times in other cars and series and it is one of my favorite tracks. The turn 1 to 6 series is a great sequence of corners and I think Connor and I will be ready to go after a top finish along with our teammates.”

Follow the team’s progress throughout the weekend atwww.BimmerworldRacing.com.

ST-Rivals team up to race the 24 Hours of Daytona with Bullet Racing

(Vancouver, Canada) — Drivers from two of Grand-Am’s front-running Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge teams will put aside their rivalries at the upcoming Rolex 24 Hour race at Daytona, with the hopes that their combined efforts will result in a top-step-of-the-podium finish at the fabled event.

Vancouver-based Bullet Racing, a long-time competitor in the 24 Hour and noted Porsche racing experts, recently announced the driver line-up of their #22 Cayman GTR, which will contest the new GX-class against other Caymans and Mazda’s new diesel-powered Mazda6. Regular Bullet hot shoe and WTCC star Darryl O’Young will join BimmerWorld owner James Clay and team drivers Dan Rogers and Seth Thomas, with Compass360 Racing’s Karl Thomson rounding out the five-driver squad.

“When Grand-Am announced the GX class, we were pretty excited,” noted Bullet’s Steve Paquette. “We’ve built and run a number of these 3.8L GTR’s out on the west coast and feel like the platform can take a win at Daytona. I’m pretty thrilled with our driver roster, too, and know these guys can get the job done.”

Rogers, who shares the #82 BMW with Thomas in CTSCC’s Street Tuner class, was instrumental in getting the rival drivers together. “I’ve raced with both James’ and Karl’s teams, as well as for Bullet, and know that we all have the same philosophy for the coming weekend: to finish first, first you must finish.”

“For sure, we want to beat the Compass guys on Friday,” remarked Clay, referencing the two-and-a-half hour CTSCC race that will take place the day before the 24. “But as soon as we’re in the Rolex paddock, we’re all driving for Bullet.”

Thomson is equally enthusiastic. “I’m honoured to have the opportunity to race with this group of drivers, and especially with a Canadian team. Steve’s brought back the iconic Bullet maple leaf livery, which I love. With Darryl being from Vancouver and me from Toronto, we’ll hope to represent Canada well.”

October 3rd, 2012

Heady drive to sixth by James Clay and John Capestro-Dubets in the No. 80 BMW 328i secures the 2012 GRAND-AM Continental Tire Series Street Tuner Manufacturers’ Championship for BMW

The road racing veterans at Virginia-based BimmerWorld Racing closed out their 10-race GRAND-AM Continental Tire Series championship in style last weekend at Lime Rock, achieving a comprehensive set of goals established heading into the event.

With his trio of BMW 328is serving as some of the fastest and most consistent cars in GRAND-AM’s Street Tuner class, Clay’s team entered Lime Rock with all of his drivers and cars inside the top 10 in their respective championships—an impressive feat in the hotly contested category.

Moving BimmerWorld as a whole further up in the Drivers’ and Teams’ Championships was of great importance to everyone involved with the program, but the greatest challenge would come in the fight to earn the 2012 Manufacturers’ Championship for BMW.

Rival manufacturers Mazda and Honda flooded the ST class with cars at Lime Rock to improve their odds of wresting the title away from BMW, but even with the numbers tipped in favor of the Japanese marques, the sixth-place finish by Clay and teammate John Capestro-Dubets in the No. 80 BimmerWorld BMW earned enough points to deliver the Manufacturers’ crown to the BMW brand BimmerWorld also supports through aftermarket sales and tuning.

After landing on the podium in seven out of the first nine races, the only thing lacking from BimmerWorld’s run at the rainy season finale was an eighth podium visit, but looking back at the overall championship, Clay closed the books on 2012 with plenty to be happy about.

“Certainly I prefer to see the BimmerWorld cars on the podium, and after appearing there almost every race this year, I have started to expect it to a degree,” he said. “But even though we didn’t break into the top 3 in this wild weather race, we had a list of goals laid before the green flag dropped as to what we could do this race to wrap up our season accomplishments, and we hit every one of them. Clinching the Manufacturers’ Championship for BMW, having the top BMW in the Team and Driver Championships, and putting all three team cars in the top 10 for the season are massive accomplishments and I am proud of what we have done this year.”

The combination of pro driver Clay and sophomore understudy Capestro-Dubets flourished this season in ST, with the duo scoring three podiums and six consecutive top 6 finishes to round out the championship. And with Clay handing over the duties of finishing each race to Capestro-Dubets, the promising Californian more than proved his mettle under pressure.

“John and I were both in roles new to us this year and it took a little time to work out all the dynamics, but as we settled in, the results started coming in rapid succession,” Clay explained. “We were challenged at some points through the year with the rules package, but even in the races that we didn’t have the strongest platform, our BMW was rock solid and that led to our consistently good results. John grew into his role as the closing driver for our car and pulled of several solid results with pure determination. We had a strong car and a strong BimmerWorld team behind us, and I am very happy with the last half of our season.”

For “JCD,” Lime Rock was a perfect bookend to his breakout season with BimmerWorld in the No. 80 where he and Clay took fifth in the final standings.

“This year was amazing,” he said. “I got the chance to drive with a great team with great equipment. At Lime Rock we had a really strong car in the rain, but when the two sister cars had some bad luck, I had to step back and look at the bigger picture. So to make sure we finished where we needed to secure the Manufacturers’ title, we played it a little safer than normal.”

The No. 81 duo of Round 2 race winners Gregory Liefooghe and David Levine had a race to forget, ending the season with a damaged car after taking a major hit by an entry that had several additional altercations in the challenging conditions. As one of the fastest driver pairings in ST, the tandem was extremely effective in 2012, but hoped for more from the final race.

“When taking a step back to look at the 2012 season I think we can be happy of all the achievements we have accomplished,” said the respected Liefooghe, who crossed the finish line in 15th.“A driver needs to be surrounded by a great team, have a fast car, put down strong drives, and have a good amount of luck to win a championship in a series as competitive as this. As far as I’m concerned, we have checked all boxes except for the one that we cannot control: luck.

“Lime Rock was a great representation of that, as we had a podium car once again, but got taken out early by a lapped car and went a lap down with car that was damaged enough to barely stay on track after the incident. It is hard to end a season on a note like that, and the start of the new season in January can’t come soon enough.”

Levine, who made his pro racing debut this year with BimmerWorld, echoed his teammates’ feelings on the race and the season. With their win at Barber Motorsports Park and two other podium trips, the Liefooghe and Levine partnership claimed sixth in the Drivers’ Championship.

“The result at Lime Rock stings especially because it was mostly avoidable,” he said. “It’s hard to sit in the pits for the rest of the race thinking about what could have been. Looking back at the season, though, it is hard to complain. Being able to look at three trophies sitting in my room is quite an awesome feeling; I can’t thank Greg enough for that! The season was much better than I had expected. The crew is one of the best crews out there. The car was consistently fast even and I can’t thank everyone at BimmerWorld enough for everything this season!”

The No. 82 CRC BRAKLEEN® BMW 328i piloted by Seth Thomas and Dan Rogers pulled off BimmerWorld’s greatest triumph of 2012, leading home a 1-2 finish in wet-dry conditions at the first-ever GRAND-AM race at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but the mojo didn’t carry over to Lime Rock.

An early spin dropped the car down a lap, and with poor visibility making a comeback drive even more challenging, Thomas and the team worked miracles to claw their way back to 14th at the finish.

“We were close to getting the lap back thanks to great strategy by Wayne Yawn and the fastest pit stop of the year by the crew,” said Thomas. “We were able to run with top 10 cars and were making a little bit of ground on them during the race, I think we nailed the rain setup on the No. 82 CRC BRAKLEEN® BMW as it was very easy to drive at the limit in the most severe conditions we have seen this season.

“Dan and I worked hard to keep the car competitive during his inaugural season in ST. This work will continue in the off season and hopefully we will have the chance to start next season on a better note than we finished this one.”

Despite the tough day at Lime Rock, Thomas and Rogers held onto 10th in the Drivers’ Championship.

Reviewing BimmerWorld’s accomplishments this season, Clay was encouraged by what his team of BMW experts achieved and has clear plans on how to take the next step forward with the premier ST program in 2013.

“Our 2012 season was excellent as a team in many ways,” he said. “Our approach of running all three of our cars as true Championship efforts with equal equipment and opportunities undoubtedly proved to be a solid strategy, placing all three cars and driver pairings in the top 10 for the Team and Driver Championships. And clinching the Manufacturers’ title for BMW with all three of our cars contributing to the points our BimmerWorld team scored in 9 of 10 races this year is a strong statement.

“If I had one regret looking back on 2012, it is that with all of our good fortune, no one car stayed clear of bad luck to be at the front of the Driver and Team Championships. We have our 2013 season mapped out with a majority of blanks filled in, but a couple of openings still to be filled. I am very excited as to what next year will bring. I was happy with BimmerWorld’s showing in 2012, and 2013 will blow it away.”

Catch the Lime Rock race when it’s broadcast on October 13th at 2 p.m. ET on SPEED, and be sure to follow BimmerWorld’s progress during the off-season or to submit inquiries at www.BimmerWorldRacing.com

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	7/25/2012 Dublin, VA
	Veteran BMW road racing team set for GRAND-AM’s one-day event on the combined infield and oval course at the historic site of the Indy 500

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If racing on the high banks of the famous Daytona International Speedway wasn’t enough of a privilege for GRAND-AM teams and drivers, another milestone will be achieved this Friday when BimmerWorld and the rest of the Continental Tire Series entrants participate in their first race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Established in 1909, IMS recently celebrated the centennial event for its hallmark event, the Indy 500, which began in 1911. With the addition of the Brickyard 400 in 1994, the inaugural U.S. Grand Prix in 2000, and MotoGP in 2008, sports car racing was the final piece of the puzzle for the Speedway to incorporate.

And now, as part of its “Super Weekend at the Brickyard,” the sound emanating from BimmerWorld’s trio of wailing BMW inline-6s will be added to Indy’s lore.

“We’re in heat of a championship battle and still have a lot of work to do to this season, but the track is an impressive place and when you walk around the infield as a participant, you get it,” said BimmerWorld owner/driver James Clay about the historic track.

“Indy is a place that has defined racing in our country for decades and when you walk over that yard of bricks that extends right to Victory Lane, it leaves an impression.  We spent two days testing at Indy earlier this month and the track earns your respect, and it is clear, beyond geographical happenstance, why it has had such an impact on racing and I am proud to be there for this exciting event that will make road racing history.”

Despite everything BimmerWorld learned about the 13-turn, 2.5-mile road course during the aforementioned Indy test, plenty of challenges will remain as the team adapts to practicing, qualifying and racing on the rarely-used track layout within a matter of hours.

“During the course of the two-day test there, the infield, which is a much smoother aggregate than the diamond-cut banking, rubbered up nicely,” said Clay, who shares the No. 80 BimmerWorld BMW with rising star John Capestro-Dubets.

“The temperature at that point was over 100 and undoubtedly a factor and should be less of one on race weekend.  Still, we certainly don’t know the track as well as others we visit yearly or more, but with a one-day event for our cars, the BimmerWorld crew have been working tirelessly to perfect the equipment we are putting on track and give us the best chances to succeed.”

Compared to some of GRAND-AM’s more familiar circuit, the IMS road course features a much wider track and longer, more sweeping turns, which should hopefully keep contact to a minimum and allow for plenty of passes to be made by the BimmerWorld team.

“I feel once we get back to Indy and quickly get in the groove of the race, we will be fighting for a top spot,” said BimmerWorld veteran Seth Thomas, who will pilot the No. 82 CRC BRAKLEEN® BMW 328i with teammate Dan Rogers.

“It won’t be easy and it will take a lot of effort from the BimmerWorld crew and engineers to call the right shots so we spend the least amount of time on pit lane. With the big front straight and tight turn 1, our great Performance Friction brakes are going to be a key for making passes into one of the prime passing zones on the track.”

For Gregory Liefooghe, getting ready to lead the charge on the No. 81 BimmerWorld BMW with co-driver David Levine has involved plenty of physical training and exceptional amounts of pre-race preparation.

“The main components have been getting some simulator time to get the rhythm of the track to be able to be at 100 percent right from lap 1, and to get back to working on fitness after a brutal schedule that has seen us on the road for the last five weeks,” he said.

“At the test, we saw temperatures in the car approaching 140 degrees and even if it’s forecasted to be ‘only’ in the mid-90s instead of the mid-100′s, it will still be a hot race, making fitness an important part of going fast at the end.”

Liefooghe, who won Round 2 at Barber Motorsports Park this season with Levine, says finding success at Indy will be an even greater challenge due to the compressed schedule.

“The big challenges for this particular event is that there is very little time in between sessions and that the track will change massively between the first practice session and the race,” he explained. “It will put a lot of pressure on the engineers to make the right decisions on set up for the race. Fortunately we learned a lot during the test days and we have a good handle on most of the moving parts.

“For the less experienced drivers, the fact that the sessions are so close gives very little time to digest the data analysis and there will be a balance between making improvements and overloading them with too much information. My teammate David was fast at the test and I think he will deliver another strong performance, and I know the entire BimmerWorld team will come prepared and ready to adapt to whatever we face.”

Joining the BimmerWorld team for the race weekend will be the winners of the CRC Industries sweepstakes which also included passes and VIP hospitality for the entire weekend for the lucky pair.  “Having CRC and their guests with us this weekend is going to be an awesome addition” stated Clay.  “CRC is a fantastic sponsor, a company with racing heritage who gets what we are doing here, and a company that invests to bring additional excitement to our sport – in addition to core products like Brakleen that teams throughout the paddock use.  We are excited to have them with us for this historic Indy event!”

Follow the BimmerWorld team this weekend at www.BimmerWorldRacing.com, and tune into the broadcast when it airs August 5th at 12 p.m. ET on SPEED.

May 16th, 2012

It’s a familiar theme that never gets easier to deal with. Take away the contact at least one of BimmerWorld’s three GRAND-AM Continental Tire Series Street Tuner entries received, and the full team could have filled the top 10.

Fortunately, the Dublin, Virginia-based BMW experts had the No. 82 CRC BRAKLEEN® BMW 328i driven by Seth Thomas and Dan Rogers made it through the New Jersey Motorsports Park round unscathed, netting a season-best second-place result for the duo.

The No. 80 BimmerWorld BMW 328i driven by team owner James Clay and co-driver John Capestro-Dubets wasn’t quite as fortunate, and the sister No. 81 of Gregory Liefooghe and David Levine was also forced into the pits for cooling system repairs.

“I was pretty upset about the contact with my car two turns into the race that killed our chances for the strong result I feel we were headed towards this weekend,” said Clay as he gave an account of his team’s day.

“And even more disappointed when I saw the No. 81 in for repairs while we were trying to get the No. 80 back out.  At that point, the hope for the team rested on the No. 82 and I am very happy that they were able to produce a good result this weekend.”

After receiving a contentious stop-and-go penalty after stepping out of line on a restart to avoid a number of stalled competitors, Rogers marched forward in the field, picking up more than a dozen positions from the No. 82’s 24th-place qualifying position before handing over to Thomas.

“I don’t like to make mistakes on-track, and that made getting the penalty tough,” said Rogers. “On the restart, there were a number of cars off track on the left side of the front straight, so I went right to avoid the pending mess, with the throttle pinned to get out of the impact areas. Fortunately, as Seth later pointed out, the stop and go penalty didn’t impact our strategy or results.”

Once the No. 80 was repaired by BimmerWorld’s ace team of technicians, Rogers worked with Clay acting as a tail-gunner and used the BMW’s handling prowess and its class-leading Performance Friction brakes to reach the top 10.

“When I was in the car, the race was a lot of fun,” Rogers continued. “I didn’t qualify well, but my race pace was faster than a number of cars in front of me, so I was able to produce results. When James came back on track, he ended up behind me, and it was comforting having a team car in my mirrors. I was able to move right outside the top 10 when I turned the car over. The crew gave us the same great car they always do, and we got the podium finish that Seth and I have been planning on all year–it was a blast!”

Along with Clay and Liefooghe, as one of BimmerWorld’s veteran, race-winning pros, Thomas has worked diligently with Rogers to share his knowledge and expertise to help him extract the most from the No. 82 CRC BRAKLEEN® BMW 328i, and the results are clearly paying off.

“Dan is an easy person to be a teammate with as he fights to be the best opening driver in the CTSCC paddock,” he said. “Every time I talk to him between races it seems he is at a racetrack somewhere driving some form of BMW race car or at a function for one of his kids. This is an accomplishment since there aren’t any racetracks near his home in Alaska! Every weekend Dan gets faster and more comfortable racing the E90 chassis, which makes my job on track easy. He’s the type of teammate we all hope to have.”

Looking at where the team stands after four rounds of the 10 Round championship, Clay is feeling confident about his team, cars and drivers as the pace of the championship is about to increase.

“After our first weekend on a real road course, I am happy with the cars and the efforts of our winter work are showing,” he said. “While I feel some teams put effort into what they should be gifted to make their cars fast, we put our heads down, do work, and this winter we came up with the speed we needed on our own.  I still don’t think our cars are the fastest in the field by any stretch, but our team is strong and we are consistent, and if we can run some green flag races, I think we usually have a chance for a good finish.”

As one of BimmerWorld’s most tenured drivers, Thomas also offered his appraisal of where the team’s three-car 2012 program ranks among a decade of professional teams fielded by the team.

“The team James has assembled this year is very similar to the team we had in our championship fight in 2010, but stronger,” he explained. “I can see the crew guys are gelling together well. They work hard every weekend to give us a great car to race. The engineers are constantly doing what they can to make our cars easier drive for a long fast stint. All the drivers get along great together and work to help improve each other throughout the weekend. Our sponsors are some of our biggest supporters helping to give us the tools and components to put our cars up front every weekend.

“Overall, this team is the best BimmerWorld team I have raced with. We are a championship team helping to put BMW at the top of the points every weekend, have scored the most points for BMW so far in ST this season, and our drivers are always in the hunt to win and lead the championship. There’s still a lot of racing to do this year, but we’re seeing the benefits of what James and all of our mechanics and engineers have put together within this program.”

Follow BimmerWorld’s progress at www.BimmerWorldRacing.com, and be sure to watch the New Jersey Motorsports Park race on 5/26 at 2 p.m. ET on SPEED.

So how did the race go for Dan Rogers and I? Overall it was awesome. Dan qualified the car 13^th 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 19^th 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 8^th 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 31^st. On the bright side though the #81 car led most of the race and finished 3^rd while the #80 came in 8^th.

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!

2012 starts off with several changes at BimmerWorld compared to the 2011 season. We have some new faces and some new cars. Last year we ran the season with 4 cars, (2) GS M3s and (2) ST 328i. This year there will be three ST 328i and no GS M3s. The decision to switch to a full team of ST cars was in the management department at BimmerWorld. I feel it is a great move so we can focus 100% on winning a championship at the end of this season.

That brings up the next part of change we have. As sad as it is to say we won’t be seeing a couple of our long time Grand Am friends around the paddock wearing BimmerWorld blue. Bill Heumann and David White aren’t back with the team this season. Both of them will be missed around our pits, as they were part of this program when we switched to run in the Continental Sports Car Challenge. You can still see them around the paddocks of racetracks across the US racing BMWs in NASA and BMWCCA events.

My new co-driver for this season is Dan Rogers from Anchorage, Alaska. Dan has a competitive nature as he competes in sports car racing, triathlons, martial arts, helps raise money for Team Seattle, works, and has a great family. As you can tell he likes to keep busy and compete. His history of racing is geared more towards BMWs even though he ran 5 races with Compass 360 last season. Dan is normally found racing his BMW E30 painted up in the TicTack color scheme in the Pro-3 Series found in the Pacific Northwest of the US. Check out some of his in-car footage from a Pro-3 race in 2009 (http://youtu.be/WWfaL-Sa5O0). Dan’s love for BMWs prevailed this year, which helped create the #82 BimmerWorld entry. Dan and I stared out conversations about running together immediately coming up with a plan to be in the fight for the championship right from the start. I think we have a great shot at it combining Dan and my competitive edge with BimmerWorld’s winning crew. We’re confident in a great 2012!

Some great news for our car this year is we will be in the #82 CRC Brakleen Bimmerworld 328i all season. CRC Brakleen is going to be the featured sponsor on the car. This week at Daytona they are unveiling the updated paint scheme of the car showcasing the Brakleen products. I did get a little glimpse of the car early on and I know it will be a car that is easy to pick out on the track. Hopefully that means it will strike fear in the eyes of our opponents.

This is the latest racing report from me. Tomorrow is our first official practice session with the CTSCC crowd at Daytona. Follow along with us as 81 cars are set to participate in the BMW 200. Live timing and scoring will be posted at www.grand-am.com. Also check my Facebook and Twitter accounts for updates throughout the weekend.

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