BimmerWorld Racing Team for the Wheelchair Foundation

The following report was given by Seth Thomas, the driver of Bimmerworld Racing car #38:

Hey Everyone.  It has been a while since I last wrote a report on the racing season and all the events happening there.  There has been a lot of development in both happenings with the team and the cars.  We have both exciting news and bad news.  Most of you know the reason I haven’t been able to send out a report is because we have been gone out to the West Coast for a 3-race tour.  We had 2 races at Infineon Raceway and one race at Portland International Raceway during that time.  We had a lot of fun out there but we also tested the patience of the crew and James’ (the team owner/driver/CEO).  On that note lets get started with the news.

First let’s start with the good news though.  BimmerWorld Racing and the Wheelchair Foundation have agreed on a partnership to help further awareness and to provide monetary support to further the Wheelchair Foundation’s effort.  For those that aren’t familiar with the Wheelchair Foundation (www.wheelchairfoundation.org), they are a nonprofit organization leading an international effort to create awareness of the needs and abilities of people with physical disabilities, to promote the joy of giving, create global friendship, and to deliver a wheelchair to every child, teen and adult in the world who needs one, but cannot afford one. For these people, the Wheelchair Foundation delivers Hope, Mobility and Freedom.  The basics for most people are they match donations dollar for dollar to help provide people with a mobility problem a wheelchair.  A simple $75 donation to the organization will be matched by their $75 and a person in need will get a wheelchair.  All three drivers have agreed to donate a portion of their earnings from the season to the Wheelchair Foundation.  We have also donated sponsorship space on the cars to the Wheelchair Foundation.  This is going to be a very good partnership.  Since we are traveling to city’s all over the country we are able to hand out information trying to further the base of people that know about the Wheelchair Foundation and hopefully help to raise money to further their efforts. 

Okay let’s start-talking racing!  Our first stop put us in Sonoma, CA at Infineon Raceway.  Infineon, or Sears Point as it used to be called, is an amazing track.  It is a 12-trun, 2.7mile track that features the most elevation changes I have ever seen.  I thought Road Atlanta was hilly but it has nothing on Infineon.  The first 3 turns are blind turns where you point your car and hope you have it pointed in the right direction because you can’t see over the crest of the hill.  Turn 1 and 2 are the best examples.  Turn 1 is a fast left hand corner that is taken flat on the throttle while you are going up a mountain.  It is steep enough that you really don’t have to use the brakes to slow the car down to top the hill in turn 2, downshift to third and hope the car is headed in the right direction.  The next turn is the same way but the track drops away (downhill) as the car is drifting to the outside of the track.  The rest of the track has more gentle slopes to it but is still very high speed and changing in elevation every turn.  The first day there was a blast as we had testing and I finally got to see why this track was so much fun firsthand.  And we were pretty fast that day too.  The whole day we were in the top 15 fastest testing and our times were improving every session.  The team worked extra hard to get the cars up to speed as us drivers were working on how to drive the cars their fastest.  It was a lot of work for everyone but it was paying off.  Friday afternoon was qualifying for the race 1 that weekend, James qualified 8th, Matt 12th, and I qualified 14th.  This was our best qualifying results as a team all year and the race was looking to be very promising for us. 

On Saturday we started the morning out with qualifying for Sunday’s (race 2).  Once again we made a good showing and had good results again with Matt qualifying 9th, James 15th, and I 17th.  The weekend was all set and we were ready to race.  The cars were all fast and the drivers are all confident about how the next two races were going to go.  Race time comes for the first race Saturday afternoon.  As most of you know we do a standing start for our races and we go when a couple sets of lights go out.  So the lights are lit up, the motors rev, and every racer is ready to go.  The lights go out, I drop the clutch and go.  Right off the line I get a good start on the cars around me including my teammate, Matt Richmond, in front of me.  He pops out to the middle of the track and I follow so we can work together on the first lap to gain as many positions as possible.  Just as I get right up on his rear bumper he taps his brakes and that is where the trouble starts.  James’ car had somehow not made it off the line and was stalled there on the grid.  Matt couldn’t see that James was sitting still on the grid as the car in front of him blocked his view until the last minute and moves out of the way.  Matt is then coming up on the rear of James’ stalled car with me following right behind.  He clips James’ left rear and I hit Matt.  The initial collision with James caused the rear of Matt’s car to raise up in the air for a brief second.  That is the moment I my front end collides with Matt.  My car pushed under him and lifted him on my hood.  I was then hit in the rear by another car pushing Matt up and over my hood causing him his car to roll over on its top.  The Audi helped push me through the mayhem and I was going to try to make it a lap around into the pits.  I couldn’t though because right as I go through turn 1 coolant starts spewing on my windshield.  I am done for the day and pull it off to the side.  All three BimmerWorld cars are out of the race within a few seconds of the start.  It was shocking and thanks to Matt Richmond it was turned into a good situation.  As he is helped out of his overturned car, the crowd cheers he is okay and he takes it to the next level.  He jumps on top of the car, points his hands up in the air and then pumps his fist all the enjoyment of the crowd and the TV audience. 

Now we are looking at each other and wondering what in the world just happened.  At that point though we really could care less, as we have 3 cars we have to get back together for the next days race.  James did an awesome job of rounding up the parts and accessing what was needed to fix all three cars.  The dark cloud of the day was still hanging over us though as the inspection of Matt’s car revealed that the rollcage in his car was compromised a tiny bit in the rollover.  The main hoop had been crinkled about .5” deep along a 5” area.  This meant his car was the new BimmerWorld parts car.  This was somewhat lucky for us as his car had taken little damage in the front and the parts off it could be used to fix my car or James’.  My car needed almost the whole front end off Matt’s car.  We used his hood, radiator support, radiator, oil cooler, intake, and headlights.  So the crew got busy so we would be able to race the next day.  All I can say from here is the crew members of BimmerWorld are the most amazing guys I know.  All this happened about 5 o’clock on Saturday afternoon.  When we get back to the track Sunday morning both cars are ready to go racing!!!!  They needed a few little tweaks to be done that morning but they looked like new cars.  No more body damage.  I honestly can’t thank them enough for the hard work they put in prior to this happening, stepping up a notch even though they were tired, and doing all they can to get the cars ready.  Thanks again guys.  And thanks to James Clay, being the best team leader/owner/CEO/driver in World Challenge, for making the decision to put Matt in his car and let Matt race Sunday instead of himself. 

Matt and I get ready for the race Sunday doing our best to get Saturday’s incident out of our minds.  No problem either.  Matt has to start the race in the back of the field in 32nd position due to him using James’ car and not the car he originally qualified in.  The pressure is off him at the start too as he doesn’t have to worry about me hitting him again since he is at the back of the field.  Once again we get ready to go.  The lights are on, the motors rev, the lights are off and we go!  Clean start this time and I pick up a couple spots at the start.  The race goes on a couple laps when disaster almost strikes us again.  Matt goes into turn 10 and finds there is oil on the track.  His car spins out of control and into a tire wall right beside another car.  He backs out, looks in his rearview to see another car spinning in the same oil heading straight for him.  He does his best attempt to launch the car out of the dirt onto the track.  The car spins right behind him missing him by inches as he gets his car moving and on the track.  This off course brings out a full course caution.  We go a few laps under caution and it is go time again.  The green flag drops and we are racing again.  Coming out of turn 2 I find 3 time Touring Car champion, Pierre Kleinubing on the outside of me.  We head into turn 3 touching mirrors and he has the inside line for the first part and I have it for the second.  No way I am backing down now and we head into the second part side by side.  As I go to turn in I see him doing the same except right into me.  We collide and I spin out.  I get the car going and go to join back up with the back of the field.  No big deal on the spin except I learned a valuable rookie mistake.  Never give anybody any racing room or they are going to take advantage of it and he did.  I work my way back up to 17th position and Matt did the same up to 14th position.  Great finish for us especially considering the shape the cars were in the day before.  We didn’t win the race but this was a win in our eyes and for the crew. 

Now we are off to Portland for our next race.  None of the guys have ever been to Portland and driven the track so we didn’t know what to expect until we get there.  We get there, get setup, and walk to the track scope things out.  The track has a nice layout with two long straights and some long right hand turns.  From the first look, it appears like it is going to be a fun track with lots of speed to stretch the legs of the BMWs.  Oh but that won’t happen just yet.  The SCCA Pro Racing Ltd. Decided the BMWs where too fast and wanted to even the field up a little.  The strapped on us 100 extra pounds of weight, lowered our engines RPM limit 500 RPMs to 7700, and decided they needed a minimum weight distribution of 52% to the front.  We made these adjustments to our car and got ready to see how it and the track would be.  Matt and I go out the first session and are pretty fast our first time out but we left a lot on the table as we were just learning the track.  Throughout the test day we got a lot faster and were working on getting the cars in the top 10.  Matt did manage to the fastest time in practice for one of the sessions but had to admit to everyone he didn’t earn it honestly.  He straight-shotted one of the turns and made it into a short cut.  That cut a couple of seconds off his time.  We qualified Saturday morning and had another set of good results.  Matt qualified 13th and I qualified 14th.  Next we had to get ready for the race.  This proved quite difficult as Portland was experiencing a heat wave that weekend.  We were there the weekend mother nature decided to grace Portland with a heat wave, an all-time record setting heat wave.  Air temps were in the neighborhood of 100 degrees and pavement temps were around 150 degrees.  This proved to be a test on the drivers and crew at staying hydrated.  All in all that weekend we drank 10 cases of water and 5 cases of Gatorade.  That is between about 12 people. 

Race time comes around Saturday afternoon, the hottest day of the weekend.  Matt and I get in the cars and head to the grid.  At this point the interiors of the cars are so hot that you can’t touch the rollcage without your hand burning a little.  Guess it is a good thing we don’t touch it while we are racing.  We line up in our spots, the lights go on, the motors rev, and they are out.  We both get good launches at the start and we are off.  To make sure we don’t collide with one another once again we both went opposite directions at the start, Matt to the right and I to the left.  We both gain a some positions at the start and set in to conserve out cars and ourselves for the race. 

We both had planned that from the start to make sure we would have good finishes and if in contention for passes at the end we would have the tires to do it.  This didn’t present itself to us though as we finished the race 12th and 13th with me in 13th.  This once again was a good race and thanks again to the crew for putting in another amazing effort that weekend.  They had to change the motor on Matt’s car Friday night so he could qualify Saturday morning.  And once again come Saturday morning the car is ready to go. 

This West Coast tour proved to be a good test of how strong of a team we are.  We had some very good moments and some very bad moments.  The crew did their job without a complaint and did it without a glitch.  Matt and I wouldn’t have had the successful races we had if it weren’t for the crew that we have.  We definitely owe it all to them.  Out next race will have us traveling up north to Bowmanville, Ontario for round 7 of the Speed World Challenge Touring Car series.  WE are all looking forward this race and to having James back as a driver in the new replacement car BimmerWorld will have ready in about a weeks time.  Be sure to tune into the Portland race on the Speed Channel this Sunday, August 1st as it will feature Matt with an in-car and roof camera.  We have been promised to get some good TV coverage.  Also if you have some time surfing the web we have a new website up with in car videos from our last three races including the crash at www.bimmerworldracing.com. 

Thanks for reading,

Seth Thomas, Driver
Bimmerworld Racing #38