A Day at the Races with BimmerWorld

Through my association with BimmerWorld GS team driver Ken Wilden I got the chance to hang out with the BimmerWorld BMW team at Homestead Speedway and Watkins Glen for the Continental Tire Sport Car Challenge. BimmerWorld had a sterling debut in the series in 2010 when they nearly won the Street Tuner championship in their rookie year. 2011 saw them bring out two new M3s in the Grand Sport class, adding another challenge to the Virginia based BMW team who have succeeded in every category they have raced in. First of all I have to thank James Clay, the engineers, crews and the drivers for making me welcome and allowing me to be part of the weekend. And what a weekend; I have been involved in motorsport for over forty years and have never seen anything as intense as what the BimmerWorld team goes through on a race weekend. The trailer that doubles as the driver’s lounge is almost constantly full of people, all going over data and discussing this or that part of the teams and cars performance. Never have I seen so many laptops in such a small area, I even brought my own Saturday morning so as not to feel out of place! But all of the action is not in the lounge; with data provided by the engineers, the team is constantly fettling all four cars in an effort to get that little edge before the

next session. The cars are rolled on and off the scales / alignment rack and the numbers that were plugged into the chassis checked and double-checked. No stone is left unturned to make the cars the best choice for the job in hand; winning in one of the toughest sports car series on the planet. One of the first sights that turned my head was the BimmerWorld guys in fire suits draining the fuel AFTER the session. What is that all about? Further discussion enlightened me on how important it is to know your fuel loads accurately and when calculating mileage it can be the difference in making the finish or running out on the

last lap. This attention to detail proved its worth when GS engineer Wayne Yawn using his personally developed fuel mileage spreadsheet was able to coax Ken Wilden home in the Bizrate M3 without running dry, courtesy of some yellow flags and the green flag from Yawn’s spreadsheet. At Homestead Speedway the James Clay / Seth Thomas #79 car would carry the colors of CRC Brakleen for the first time. With people from CRC Industries on hand for the weekend Clay had to pull triple duty and wear driver, team owner and marketing manager hats. There is an article attached to this one where we talk to Clay about the trials and tribulations of running a competitive

Continental Tire program, so make sure you read it and get the inside scoop. As a photographer I have to say the new livery took a little getting used to, myself and Halston were sometimes caught unaware of the 79 car’s arrival but as you can see from the front cover of the magazine it certainly is photogenic enough. What impressed me about the team? I have to say the attention to detail, from the drivers on down, everything is about nothing being left to chance. I was privileged enough to sit in on all their meetings, there was nothing hidden from me. From after session to strategy meetings I was a more than interested bystander. Did I mention the laptops? As I said, I had never seen so many in a small space. Each driver had their own to go over the datalogging from and camera record from the last session. GS drivers Ken Wilden and Bob Michaelian split the duty, Wilden pouring over the car data whilst Michaelian ran through the video. At points along the way each would ask the other about one thing or another and both would zoom in on the point in time in question. Once satisfied, they would move on through the session only pausing to go over the next anomaly or potential time saving issue. Each pair of drivers has the opportunity to go over their classmate’s data to compare how the other class car is working. No doubt that is part of Clay’s team philosophy, working together as a team, getting all the cars to the front of the pack and then let them fight it out amongst

themselves. There seem to be no prima donnas in this team and if there ever was, I am sure Clay would deal with it swiftly. The engineering staff at BimmerWorld is constantly on the go; interfacing with drivers and car chiefs to make sure the car is properly set up for the next session. Wayne Yawn who looks after the GS program let me sit in on the Wilden/Michaelian strategy meeting and to say he covered everything off would be an understatement. I cannot say too much about the tactics but you can be assured Wayne left no stone unturned. He then relays the same information to the car chief and re-fuelers so everyone is on the same page and hopefully there should be no mistakes when everything is on the line. The video recording is not limited to in-car and what the drivers are doing. In an effort to gain even more data there is even a Go-Pro attached to the re-fueler’s helmet, this team makes sure it covers all the bases. Even the driver’s changeovers are analyzed and in an effort to make them quicker with less mistakes it is common place to see changeovers being practiced in the garage area in an effort to gain that extra second. So there you are, an insiders view to what makes a professional sports car team tick. BimmerWorld are one of the best, watch for them returning to the Winner’s Circle.

BimmerWorld team principal James Clay took some time out of his busy schedule to enlighten us on how BimmerWorld Racing team approaches a GRAND-AM event and provides us with an insight to how a professional level touring car team like his operates at a National Championship level. For those of you who did not know it, James was a proven team player before racing when after going to Virginia Tech he played semi-professional football as a 300 lb., plus offensive lineman. So don’t get him upset, I don’t think he is a guy to go head to head, toe to toe with.

MWM - How did your football team experience translate into the BimmerWorld Racing team? There you were a team member, here the team principal.

JC - It doesn’t matter what position you hold in a properly running team. I may hold the “glorified” position of team principal on the race team, but I perform a function that is just as integral to the operation as the guys moving equipment, torquing wheels, building engines, etc. Just like football, if there is a breach in any part of the line, the end result isn’t what it could have been.

MWM - The logistics of getting the cars and equipment to the event has to be challenging, how much so?

JC – When we head out to a race there is one semi with three racecars and most of the crews’ personal equipment and fueling equipment – plus a couple of racks of wheels and tires, one engine and one transmission per class of car. In addition there is a forty-eight foot trailer with one racecar, two pit boxes, and most of the bodywork spares. At the track this turns into the engineering and driver lounge. Last of all is a twenty-four foot trailer with all the emergency spares for big damage (subframes, etc) and yet another rack of wheels and tires. It also carries the extra bodywork and drivelines – this is our “If all hell breaks loose” trailer.

MWM - You mention spares, exactly what can you repair if need be?

JC - Except for the main tub, we carry enough spares to almost fully build both classes of car, plus extras of the more frequently used parts, so really there is not much we cannot fix. Nobody on this team likes to give up and throw the towel in, we’ll fix it up and get back out and hopefully score some points.

MWM - The mundane part of racing has to be the setup at the track, what all is involved there?

JC – It really depends on the track. Daytona, Homestead, Watkins Glen all have garages and we don’t have to set up our awning and floor. We normally have a few hours to unload before we have to run cars. Other tracks add about one to two hours to set up the awning (or awnings if space allows – we have a 30 x 50’ primary and an additional 20 x 50’ for scales and hospitality). The pit

lane depends on what other series we are running with but generally it takes a couple of hours to set up all the equipment, plus another couple to set up the fuel rigs, tire guns, tape off the pit boxes, etc for race day.

MWM - From what I saw in Miami and Watkins Glen there are a lot of bodies around the BimmerWorld Racing pit during race weekend. Getting everyone to the track has to be a bit of a nightmare.

JC - On average we arrange flights and or travel for around twenty-two people, not including the other drivers. Past that, I have learned that if we don’t control the schedule like a dictator for guests and family, we are better off giving recommendations and letting them fend for themselves. With as many people as we have with us this year, we have to have all of our fish swimming the same direction or it starts to get difficult quickly.

MWM – Once you get everyone to the track then there is the job of feeding them on a schedule that works with the on track events, how do you manage that?

JC – We are really lucky that our transport driver Dave Taylor takes care of being the track chef. As a veteran and active fireman, he is accustomed to cooking for a crowd. We buy about forty cases of drinks before any given weekend and we have a season’s worth of spices and equipment. Dave starts off every morning with a trip to the store for the days’ food and we usually have at least lunch at the track and schedule-dependent, dinner as well.

MWM – I could see there were many meetings during the course of a weekend. Just how many are there?

JC - All drivers have an official GRAND-AM series meeting before practice and the race. The crew chief and engineers also start the weekend off with a GRAND-AM meeting. Internally, we have crew meetings to start and end every day and driver/engineer meetings after every session and as needed between sessions. Then there are the strategy meetings before the race where we talk about our tactics during the race regarding pitting and fueling etc. Then there is me having to find time to talk to the sponsors that are attending the event. Most of them realize I am busy but it is still something I have to find time for. Let’s face it; we would not be racing without them, we like to give value to our marketing partners and showing them how a team as professional as ours functions is part of that. We want to make them part of the team. involves people making calls on four cars in two different classes. How do you accomplish this? JC - My good friend Jason Marks has been with me forever and is our crew chief and team manager, Dave Wagener engineers the two ST cars with Wayne Yawn taking care of our new GS program. Ryan Kuhn is the ST Program Leader and David Simpkins is GS Program Leader. Eric Schieb handles all our data systems and electronics. Of course the drivers are involved when it comes to making changes to the setup; we talk things through and only make changes when everyone is on board with it. I am really lucky to have great guys who go above and beyond to accomplish what we need. It is tough but we manage to pull it off.

MWM – You had an amazing debut year in ST last year. How has the new GS program gone? Are you where you expected to be after three races into the year?

JC - The GS Car development is a difficult project that we took on this year. Beyond what happens at the track, so much time is taken up between events making parts, testing on track, testing on the dyno, etc to get those cars up to speed at an accelerated pace so that we catch up to the teams with over a year of development on us. The big positive is we are learning every time we go out, the results will come, just wait and see. As a team sport, racing is one of the most difficult, most rewarding, and sometimes least rewarding jobs I have ever seen. Results don’t always follow hard work and some times good results will just fall into your lap. It takes a special group of guys to dig in together as a team and work together through even the rough times to come out on the other end winning races. I am proud to be a part of a team of guys who are winners even when we are not on the podium! It isn’t all work. Certainly at the track we have a task to complete and the hours to do so are sometimes quite long. Usually there is some after-track activity where we can all get together and goof off to purely have fun – almost like being back in college again at times…

MWM - Well, there you go! Thanks to James for giving MWM readers a view into the unseen and sometimes less glamorous side of professional racing. We salute every one of your team members for the effort they put in, presenting a professional and competitive raceteam. MWM wishes the whole BimmerWorld team good luck for the future and will be eagerly watching for that breakthrough win in the Grand Sport M3 program as well as continued success in the Street Tuner class.