Milwaukee’s Gino Carini drove the second M235iR for Classic BMW Motorsports during the 2016 PWC season. When asked, “How did you get involved with the Classic BMW team?” he replied, “I have known Toby for years and raced against him as a club racer. We’ve always had a good competitive racer/friendship relationship. In 2015 I raced against him in Pirelli World Challenge in the TCA class at Road America where I was driving a TechSport Mazda RX8. Toby and I had battled all weekend long, door to door and just had a super clean race. He beat me for the last podium spot by 1/1000 of a second with a last corner pass. Not what I was looking for but something to be proud of looking back.” He went on, “After the season was over I was attending the PRI Show in Indy, we ran into each other, talked about plans for the 2016 season. At that time, I had some options, but nothing contracted as of yet. He explained to me that he had something “confidential” that he was looking to talk to me specifically about…….it turned out to be this Classic BMW program with the new BMW M235iR.” “I took a chance and I passed on a couple of other offers with other manufacturers just hoping that the BMW deal would come through. Because if it didn’t I would be scrambling in the 25th hour to find a ride. So, I waited penitently with updates from Toby and BMW MotorSports in Germany as to the status of the cars. The crazy part was, I had nothing from Classic BMW in writing until two weeks before COTA because at that point we still didn’t even have cars. All we knew was that the cars had been shipped from Germany and were waiting release at customs. Then eleven days before the season opener at COTA, we got the news that the cars were being released from Customs in New Jersey and would be at Classic BMW within days. So I immediately booked a flight to Dallas for a day of testing with both of our half stickered, half livery’ed (I made this word up) cars. And it turned out to be amazing!!! Waiting till the last moment made me anxious but after that first test it was big smiles all ruound.” When asked for his thoughts on the M235iR racecar and what do you think its strengths and weaknesses are? Calmly he said, “First let me say that with all the support we have received from BMW, my transition into this racecar has been pretty simple. The strengths of the M235iR is that it’s a real easy car to learn to drive. 48 - MotorWerks Magazine
DREAMS
Come True Words by Gino Carini, Classic BMW Motorsport Photos by Ian Rae
Mostly because it reacts exactly how you want it too, it’s the kind of car anyone can race.” Additionally he said, “The car is solid well built car and has this amazing ability to deliver grip and power when you need it most. The 8 speed transmission is just “insane”. I have raced automatic paddle shift cars before, but this trans is like no other. It’s almost fool proof. To have the confidence that you can’t over-rev on the downshifts just takes one more thing to worry about during a race. The only weakness I can think of how the Pirelli World Challenge BOP Rules have made the car so heavy. We are 100’s of pounds heavier than the heaviest race car out there. But with that being said, both Toby and I still managed to run only two sets of brakes and pads for an entire season of testing and racing!! Look at that, another strength!! It is inexpensive to maintain.” When asked about the differences between this car and something similar that still has a clutch rather than a
