Rested-Up BimmerWorld Team ‘Digging In’ for 2015

BimmerWorld Racing team owner James Clay gave his troops a week off following the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge season finale at Road Atlanta. Now, it’s back to business for the Dublin, Va.-based operation.

“It was nice to allow everybody to forget about race cars for a while,” Clay said. “Now, we digging back into it.“While we haven’t announced our program for next season, it will include an ST program with two new BMW F30 cars – which are our new cars – and it will include two additional cars under a different banner. We also will have a new engine partner for 2015, which addresses what was our major deficiency in 2014.”

Last year, the team ran three (BMW 328i) E90s and one F30. Greg Liefooghe and Tyler Cooke finished fifth in the ST championship in the No. 81 Johnstone Supply/PowerFlex/Red Line Oil E90. The best finish for the pair was second in the season-opening BMW Performance 200 at Daytona, the first of eight top-10 finishes for the team. While Cooke started the No. 81 entry at every race, he was the finishing driver for the No. 80 Johnstone Supply/PowerFlex/Red Line Oil E90 for the final eight races. Series newcomer Eric Zimmermann qualified and started that car. Their best finish together was 10th at Virginia International Raceway.“Tyler did quite well (doing double duty),” Clay said. “Because of the way it was structured, he always pitted off-sequence and he was never exactly in the right spot to have a good finish, but he got a lot of good experience and he got to run with the closing drivers. He held his own and did quite well. He’ll be moving forward into next season. “Eric faced a tough deal entering the series mid-season – especially since he had never raced in a professional series before, so he had a tall order.He stumbled a little at first, but I believed in him and by the end of the year he was doing quite well. I think we will see him progress, especially now that he gets a chance to breath and then do some off-season testing. Then he can get the same start everyone else does next season at Daytona.”Seth Thomas and Dan Rogers co-drove the No. 82 CRC Brakleen/Johnstone Supply/Performance Friction E90. The car had five top-10 showings, with its best finish fifth at Lime Rock (where James Colborn filled in for Rogers).Clay and Jason Briedis co-drove the No. 84 Johnstone Supply/PowerFlex/Motion Control Suspension/Performance Friction BMW F30 version of the 328i, running its first full season. Their best finish was fifth at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, one of three top-10 finishes.“This was somewhat of a development year for the F30,” Clay said. “We had some wrinkles to iron out, but we have a really good handle on the car now, and it was a solid performer the last half of the season. We have work to do off season, but without question, with the improvements we will implement, this platform is ready for prime time.”BimmerWorld placed two cars in the top 10 in the finale, with Liefooghe and Cooke eighth, one position ahead of Clay and Briedis. “It was a bit of a frustrating season, and a couple of top-10 finishes are an acceptable end given the highs we’ve had elsewhere,” Clay said. “We certainly weren’t happy with our 2014 season. It’s not where we expect ourselves to perform. We felt fairly challenged with older cars, and I think across the board I don’t think any of the BMW teams were extremely happy with their results, to the point where some of them switched to different marques.“I think the most exciting thing is to be done with the 2014 season and to be out with the old cars and to be into something that we consider to be more competitive in the current field. The checkered flag (at Road Atlanta) was a sweet sight, as it signified the start of a better 2015 for us.”