Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Barber 200 Race Report
During the last weekend of March, Grand-Am took the Rolex
and Continental Tire series to beautiful Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds,
Alabama, to race.
BimmerWorld Racing fielded their three car ST team for the
Barber 200. The team cars are based on
the BMW e90 platform, similar to that you would buy at the dealer – until the
BimmerWorld guys get ahold of them.
BimmerWorld (www.bimmerworld.com), a supplier of race-engineered street,
tuner, and race parts, tears the cars down to a shell, and then rebuilds them,
to the rules as allowed by Grand-Am.
Grand-Am has the thankless job of trying to equalize the performance of
cars across numerous brands, in each class.
Every team has their gripes – ours is the weight of the cars. At 2825 lbs, without the driver, the e90 is
the heaviest car in the ST field. The
BimmerWorld ST cars, while heavy for the class, exhibit the same neutral
handling, and consistent performance over the course of the race, to make them
a challenger at the end.
The Continental Tire Series runs a single, two-class race format
during the Grand-Am weekend. The class
is comprised of the larger, faster GS cars (Mustangs, M3s, Camaros, Aston-Martin
Vantages, Carreras, and Subaru’s) and the ST class is the smaller, lighter
cars, including Honda Civics, VW’s, Mini Coopers, Boxsters, Mazda MX5 Cups and
Speed 3’s, Ford Focus, and 1- and 3- series BMW’s.
Barber is a classic road racing track, unlike the rovals
(road courses combined with an oval) Grand-Am runs at Daytona and Miami in the
early season, and at Indy later in the year.
The Barber circuit has tight, twisty corners, long sweeping corners, and
a good bit of elevation change for the drivers and cars to contend with. Barber is a challenging course for the BMW’s,
as they carry the extra weight, and don’t have the blindingly fast speed of the
forced induction cars in the class. The
BMW, however, tends to be good on tires, due to the balance of the car and the
BimmerWorld setup, so it always has the chance to be there at the end of the
race.
Prior to qualifying, the BimmerWorld team cars #80 (Clay/Capestro-Dubets),
#81 (Levine/ Liefooghe) and #82 (Rogers/Thomas) decided to go out at the end of
the line for qualifying, in order to find a clear portion of track to get a
qualifying time on. The three team cars
went out nose-to-tail, and were on a good lap that would have put them solidly
in a top fifteen position, but a poorly timed black flag was thrown by Grand-Am
prior to start-finish, negating the speedy lap.
When the track was reopened, the #82 got separated from the team cars,
and missed the opportunity for a coordinated qualifying effort. The #82 BimmerWorld/Brakleen car, due to some
poor timing with a black flagged course, and started out the race in 27th
position out of 40 ST cars.
A Continental Tire Challenge race start is a split start,
with the GS cars taking the green flag first, followed shortly by the ST green
flag. At Barber, a few “overly enthusiastic”
GS drivers (other more colorful words were used to describe them in the paddock
and offices of the Grand-Am officials, but this is a family publication) balled
up the initial start of the race, leaving the remnants of six GS cars scattered
around in Turn 1. This caused an
immediate yellow flag, putting the field under the control of the pace
car. The ensuing clean up took close to
20 minutes, with the cars circulating behind the pace car in single file order.
After the carnage of the initial start was cleaned up and
the field thinned, the green flag was thrown again at start/finish. Unfortunately, a number of cars in the GS
field had not learned anything from the previous start, and by the time the ST
field came through start-finish, GS cars were strewn along the front straight,
and Turn 1, and the yellow flags were out.
At this point in the race, the BimmerWorld team chose to do
driver changes for all three cars, putting Capestro-Dubets, Liefooghe, and
Thomas in the cars, and fuel them for the finish of the race. Following the driver changes, the GS field
settled down a bit, and allowed some racing to occur. Liefooge took the lead in the #81 car, and
Thomas in the #82 Brakleen car worked his way up the field to eventually land
in the #2 spot, behind teammate LIefooge.
The cars raced together, until the final three laps, when two
competitors got by him, splitting the #81 and #82. On the final lap, Thomas was pushed off the
course by a competitor, losing the #4 spot.
When the checkered flag flew, BimmerWorld had a good showing
– a win for the #81 car, and a fifth place finish for Rogers/Thomas in the #82
BimmerWorld/Brakleen car. Clay and
Capestro-Dubets had some hard luck with contact with a competitor at Barber
that slid them back in the standings.
The cars, however, are showing decent speed, but better yet, showing the
consistency to win that BimmerWorld and BMW are known for.
Stay tuned for the action at the Kia 200 at Homestead-Miami
Speedway, April 28th. The
race will be televised on SPEED (or SPEEDHD) on 5/12, 12am ET and 5/13 2:30am ET.
Bring on Miami!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Win a VIP trip for 2 to the Super Weekend at Indy
Follow the CRC Brakleen Car on its way to Indy's Super Racing weekend: four races, three days, one track, July 27-29, 2012. Go to CRC Automotive's Facebook page to enter.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
#82 CRC BRAKLEEN 328i
Dan Rogers and Seth Thomas will be driving the CRC BRAKLEEN®-sponsored No. 82 328i
Engine: 255 hp, 7000 RPM, 2.5L Inline-6, Bosch Motorsport electronics, full Motec Data Acquisition
Driveline: Getrag 6-speed transmission, custom Diffsonline differential
Suspension: 2-Way adjustable dampers with BimmerWorld, BMW Motorsport, and Hyperco racing components
Wheels: 17 inch Volk Forged aluminum race wheels
Brakes: Custom Performance Friction stock-based system
Drivers: Seth Thomas and Dan Rogers
Driveline: Getrag 6-speed transmission, custom Diffsonline differential
Suspension: 2-Way adjustable dampers with BimmerWorld, BMW Motorsport, and Hyperco racing components
Wheels: 17 inch Volk Forged aluminum race wheels
Brakes: Custom Performance Friction stock-based system
Drivers: Seth Thomas and Dan Rogers
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Video: BMW Performance 200 Highlights
Highlights from the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge season opener at Daytona by GRAND-AM ROAD RACING
Friday, February 3, 2012
BimmerWorld Scores Podium, Two Top 10s At Daytona To Kick Off 2012 GRAND-AM Season
Back in 2010 when the Virginia-based BMW experts entered GRAND-AM’s Street Tuner class with a pair of BMW 328is, the team ran inside the top 10 and scored a podium on its Daytona debut. With the expansion to three ST cars for 2012, the same was true as the No. 81 BimmerWorld BMW of veteran Gregory Liefooghe and rookie David Levine placed third, and the No. 80 of team owner James Clay and star sophomore John Capestro-Dubets took eighth at the BMW Performance 200.
The third car in BimmerWorld’s fleet, the No. 82 CRC BRAKLEEN® BMW 328i driven by race winner Seth Thomas and the experienced Dan Rogers, was on pace to join the No. 80 and 81 in the top 10 until a hard hit by a competitor forced them to the pits for lengthy repairs.
Although the incident that befell the No. 82 CRC BRAKLEEN® entry left plenty of points on the table, Clay came away from the wet/dry Round 1 race feeling positive about what the team can achieve across the entire 10-race championship.
“Certainly we have very capable cars and we are seeing the results of a winter of hard work and development, but our competition is tough and has some highly impressive speed,” Clay said. “I had hoped to win the BMW Performance 200 for BMW and we certainly gave it our all. And while we didn’t win, we showed that we have the team to do it when the opportunity arises and it will be a good year for the BimmerWorld guys.”
As the top finishers for BimmerWorld, Liefooghe and Levine got a chance to lead the race and to engage in a thrilling drafting battle on the high-banked portion of the blended oval and road course circuit, with Liefooghe, who drove the final stint, settling for third in the No. 81 after leading with one lap to go.
“The race went well for us and we can never complain about being on the podium,” he said. “It's a great way to rack up points for the championship. Daytona has always been a drafting track and I was expecting to have a lot of action, but the numerous full course cautions and traffic did not play in our favor. On the last restart, I made sure to create a gap, and I managed to get out reach for the Kia and the Mazda to get in my draft, only to have a GS car slow me down and make me vulnerable. That's when my competitors passed me in a two-car draft like a NASCAR restrictor plate race.
“On the last lap I still was set up nicely to get a run out of the bus stop and draft to the finish line, but another GS backmarker thought otherwise and came in the middle of the fight. It's hard to say if we would have won but it would have been a three-wide finish. It was frustrating, but I still feel good about our performance. It feels like we have a much more competitive car this year thanks to the hard work BimmerWorld put in the off-season and that we'll be fighting for wins all season long.”
For Levine, standing on the podium in his pro racing debut was just one of many highlights during the event.
“I am very pleased with our result at Daytona,” Levine said. “It would have been great to bring BMW a win in their title race, but I am still pleased with third. Overall, I was surprised by how clean the racing was. There were several times where there could have been contact but there wasn't any. I really enjoyed my fight with Mark Pombo and Andy Lally. The car was amazing in the rain which made racing for the lead very easy. It was a great weekend and I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of the BimmerWorld program.”
Capestro-Dubets was originally scheduled to switch to the role of closing driver this season, but a setback just before the Daytona race meant he will have to wait until Round 2 to take the reins from Clay. With Clay closing out the race in the No. 80, he and “JCD” got their championship aspirations off to a proper start by placing inside the top 10.
“Coming to Daytona this year was a heart break for me because of an injury that happened only days before leaving that would keep me from closing,” said JCD. “I have been preparing and waiting patiently for my chance to show my abilities as a closing driver, and with this injury keeping me from that, the drive from within to put the No. 80 on top grows and grows.
“Daytona was challenging enough last year, being my first time to the track, my first Continental race and being only my ninth race weekend ever! Then, only a year later, to be returning with a broken hand, and running in the top three during my stint, then bringing home a clean car for James was a major result. Overcoming the physical and mental challenge of this race was a victory in itself.”
Finishing 31st in class was hardly a just reward for Thomas and Rogers in the No. 82 CRC BRAKLEEN® BMW 328i, but the longstanding BimmerWorld driver felt the team as a whole gave him every reason to feel 2012 will be a good year for the entire program.
“Even with the lack of judgment by another driver that spoiled our race, I am pumped about what I saw with the BimmerWorld team this past weekend,” said Thomas. “Everyone performed at the top of their game – from the drivers to all the crew guys. This will help us as a team to be at the top in the points all season long fighting it out for team, manufacturer and driver Championships. Dan was solid in the CRC BRAKLEEN® BMW. He found speed when he needed it, keeping us in the fight from the start of the race. He was amazing on a wet track, having never driven the BMW E90 chassis platform on the Continental rain tires. With the speed he has shown so far, we will be fighting for wins and podiums this year.”
For Rogers, the sting of missing out on a top finish soured what should have been a strong debut with BimmerWorld.
“The weekend was good, however, the result was one of the most disappointing I've had,” he said frankly, showing his competitive fire. “Everyone in the BimmerWorld team expects success and in my short time with them, I do as well I guess. I just need to keep looking for a bit more speed to hang with our other drivers in the starting role, but with Seth as a teammate and Wayne Yawn handling our race strategy, we'll be in the game. We have every reason to feel encouraged about the first race, and now we just need to get to the finish at the second race to show what we can achieve.”
Watch the BMW Performance 200 this Saturday, February 4th, at 12 p.m. ET on SPEED, and follow the team’s progress at www.BimmerWorldRacing.com as they prepare for the next race on March 30th at Barber Motorsports Park.
###
Courtesy: BimmerWorld Media Services
mediaservices@bimmerworld.com
More information about the team, cars, and drivers can be found at www.bimmerworldracing.com
Information on BimmerWorld's Customer Car Services can be found at www.bimmerworldracing.com
Details on PowerFlex Suspension Bushings can be found at www.powerflexusa.com
BimmerWorld is proudly supported by: Johnstone Supply, CRC Industries, ESCORT, GearWrench, United BMW, Performance Friction, Diffsonline, Red Line Oil, BMW, Alpinestars, AST, Bassen Autobody, Bimmerforums, C&R Racing Radiators, Chin Motorsports, Electronspeed, Lamin-X, Miller Electric Mfg. Co., Powerflex, Prospeed, Racetech, Rays, Rogue Engineering.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Club Racing Photos
Check out the latest club racing pictures from various locations in the Pacific Northwest, including a 25-hour endurance race (Thunderhill) in northern California.
More photo albums:
More photo albums:
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Demsey Racing Powers No. 40 Visit Florida/Share a Little Sunshine Mazda RX-8 GT to Top-10 Finish at 50th Rolex 24
Republished from Dempsey Racing
Using the same determination, drive and total teamwork that produced last year’s third-place podium result, Dempsey Racing’s No. 40 VISIT FLORIDA/Share a Little Sunshine Mazda RX-8 GT was driven to its third consecutive top-10 finish in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, January 28 – 29. Team drivers Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster, Charles Espenlaub, Tom Long and Charlie Putman all made a contribution in the weekend’s 10th place result that follows last year’s third place showing and a sixth-place result in 2010.
“I’m so proud of the team, I can’t get over it,” Dempsey said. “They just worked so hard all week, all through the testing. We had a lot of adversity, they overcame it, and just the consistency with the 40 car was great. Charles, Joe, Tom, Charlie, everybody did a great job. Really, really consistent, solid performance and as a team I couldn’t be happier. To say coming into this weekend, we’d be coming out of here with a top-10 finish I would have been thrilled, completely. We stayed out of trouble, drove within ourselves, didn’t take too many risks and it paid off in the end.”
Dempsey Racing’s sister No. 41 FishingCapital.com/Bass2Billfish with Team Seattle Mazda RX-8 GT also celebrated a determined finish of its own Sunday, albeit under different circumstances. The No. 41 was heavily damaged Saturday night after a blatant bump-and-run hit from another GT competitor, but the Dempsey Racing crew never thought for a minute about giving up. After lengthy repairs, the No. 41 returned to the race Saturday evening and team drivers Don Kitch Jr., Rick Johnson, Dan Rogers, Ian James and Scott Maxwell did their part to get the stricken car to the finish line in 27th place.
“It was a successful outing for Team Seattle, especially related to the kids,” said Kitch, who both drives for and created the Team Seattle program. It was a bit of a war out there last night. We kind of lost a couple battles and that put us back a ways, but at the end of the day we raised $150,000. The kids are the ones that win in this deal. I’ve run here with a lot of teams, but Dempsey Racing, Joe, Patrick and Mazda, VISIT FLORIDA, they made up their mind they were going to take good care of us. It doesn’t get much more professional than this.”
As both a team driver and Dempsey’s motorsports business partner, Foster is already looking ahead to the coming weeks.
“We’re hopefully going testing to improve the package that we have,” Foster said. “We’re going to do a little testing at Barber Motorsports Park, if we can, and just work on every aspect of the process. Considering the state of competition in GT right now, to finish 10th in our car was outstanding. Obviously we had a different kind of race this year than we had last year. We had to really come back from some adversity this year. We had some people say the 41 car was a write-off but it was on the track less than three hours after it got hit.”
Maxwell was part of the driver lineup in the No. 40 that finished sixth two years ago, but this weekend he was in the No. 41.
“My time in the car was actually pretty uneventful,” Maxwell said. “The car really handled well the whole race. We were just a little down on power and therefore we didn’t have the speed we needed. The car ran like a train. It’s too bad we had a couple of little incidents but that’s all it takes in this race, it’s so competitive. I’m glad we finished the race but disappointed that we got caught up in an accident. This was great for Team Seattle. We were pounding in the laps and bringing it home, that was objective number one, and we’re going to get that done.”
Putman will drive the No. 41 all season with Espenlaub, but both drivers were in the No. 40 at the 50th Rolex 24.
“It was a learning experience for me,” Putman said. “This was my first experience in this car. Outside of testing and some practice, I didn’t have much time in the car to speak of, I had two laps. My first stint was at night. Daytona at night is pretty intimidating but we got through it and it got better each stint. My third stint was very comfortable, very good. I’m very happy with the car, with the team. I think we have good things for the future. I’m looking forward to the rest of this year. It’s going to be a fun one. It’s going to be intense.”
Long was in the No. 40 for the second straight year and will also substitute for Dempsey whenever the popular actor’s “day job” schedule keeps him from races this year.
“The VISIT FLORIDA Mazda was just really reliable,” Long said. “Dempsey Racing did an awesome job this whole event. I really couldn’t ask for any more. We did all we could and had all we could ask for with this team. I feel like my performance in the car was always there, it was just a matter of getting the balance of the car there so it was comfortable for everybody to drive.”
Next up for Dempsey Racing and the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series is the Porsche 250 at Barber Motorsports Park, in Birmingham, Alabama, March 30 – 31.
Noteworthy
Dempsey was very happy with the effort around the No. 41 Mazda. “Getting the 41 car back out there and raising $150,000 for the Team Seattle Guild is fantastic,” Dempsey said. “I think that’s great.”… Dempsey is also hoping for some testing before the next race, which is nearly two months away. “It’s really hard to be out of the car that long, I need to get some testing in,” Dempsey said. “This weekend I got a lot of seat time, which I really, really needed. I thought throughout the whole 24 hours, I kept getting better. I was more consistent and smoother. Lap times were consistent but I was really trying hard to concentrate on being smooth and consistent.”… Kitch was able to pull a driving shift in the morning, his favorite time of day in a Rolex 24. “For me, the morning is my favorite part of the race,” Kitch said. “I think most drivers here would say that. Sunday morning is a very, very special time. With the sun just coming up and the cars no longer looking the way they did when they started the race. They have their own beauty because they made it through the night. That’s a very emotional time to drive here at Daytona.”
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Dempsey Racing News
DEMPSEY RACING NO. 40 VISIT FLORIDA/SHARE A LITTLE SUNSHINE MAZDA RX-8 GT SETTING TEAM'S PACE AT 50TH ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA
Dempsey Racing’s No. 40 VISIT FLORIDA/Share a Little Sunshine Mazda RX-8 GT is setting the team’s pace at the 50th Anniversary Rolex 24 At Daytona for the second straight year as team drivers Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster, Charles Espenlaub, Tom Long and Charlie Putman have put together a relatively trouble-free run through Sunday morning January 29th.
Read more ...
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Dempsey Racing News
DEMPSEY RACING SHIFTS FOCUS TO RACE PREPARATION FOLLOWING 50TH ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA QUALIFYING
Dempsey Racing has shifted its focus to pre-race preparation and planning following Rolex 24 At Daytona qualifying, Thursday, January 26th, at Daytona International Speedway (DIS) where both the No. 40 VISIT FLORIDA/Share a Little Sunshine Mazda RX-8 GT and No. 41 FishingCapital.com/Bass2Billfish with Team Seattle Mazda RX-8 GT both secured spots in the Golden Anniversary event.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
BimmerWorld News
BimmerWorld Poised and Ready For GRAND-AM Season Opener at Daytona
After months of behind-the-scenes work, countless hours of mechanical devotion, and an endless pursuit of superior engineering, BimmerWorld is ready to go racing.
Rounding out the BimmerWorld line-up is Seth Thomas and Dan Rogers in the No. 82 CRC BRAKLEEN® BMW 328i. With the two touring car veterans already forming a fast tandem effort, Thomas says there’s every reason to feel positive about what they can achieve together.
“The Thomas/Rogers duo is in this season for the long run and we have our eyes on the prize at the end,” he said. “We both know that to be able to contend for the championship, we have to be there at the end with a fast car. My crystal ball says you will see us, along with our other teammates, being contenders for every race win as well as the end of the season fight for the Championship.”
Paired with Thomas, who achieved a statistical tie for the 2010 ST championship with BimmerWorld, Rogers believes that with a bit more circuit knowledge under his belt, he and Thomas can bring 2010’s success—and more—into their efforts this year.
Read more ...
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
BimmerWorld News
BimmerWorld Unveils 3-Car GRAND-AM Street Tuner Lineup
After recently announcing its expansion to a three-car GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Street Tuner program for 2012, Dublin, VA-based BimmerWorld has finalized the three pairs of drivers who will pilot the team’s trio of BMW 328is.
Seth Thomas, BimmerWorld’s most tenured driver, will spearhead the CRC BRAKLEEN®-sponsored No. 82 328i with Dan Rogers as his teammate.
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