Burton Racing Road America Pre-Race Report

INDIANAPOLIS (5 August 2015) – Burton Racing will once again return to a two-car effort this weekend in IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge competition at Road America. Full-season drivers Mike LaMarra and Terry Borcheller will be back in action, while the team welcomes a fresh young face in Josh Bilicki in the No. 21 Trim-Tex Burton Racing BMW, who will make his IMSA debut this weekend.

LaMarra and Borcheller, who combined for a run to victory at the track last year, will team in the No. 23 303 Products/STA-BIL/Gold Eagle Burton Racing BMW 128i. The team is thrilled to host several Gold Eagle guests over the weekend who will be in attendance to support the No. 23 BMW machine.In the past three Road America races, Burton Racing has finished among the top-five twice with LaMarra and Borcheller at the wheel, with a fourth place finish in 2012 prior to the 2014 victory. “We’re really excited about the weekend,” said Team Manager Keith Burton. “Road America is a track that the drivers really enjoy and it’s been a good place for us in the past. And of course, fielding two cars again this weekend is another exciting part of this for us. It's always good to have both cars running in order to bounce ideas off of one another. We’re thrilled to have Josh (Bilicki) joining the team with Joe Koenig and to continue our relationship with Trim-Tex.” The No. 21 Trim-Tex Drywall Products BMW 128i will again be in action at Road America. Josh Bilicki, who resides in nearby Richfield, Wisconsin, will make his IMSA debut when he teams in the Trim-Tex Burton Racing machine with Joe Koenig.Bilicki began racing karts at the age of four and transitioned to sports cars when he was 15 years old. In fact, he drove his first-ever racecar – a Spec Miata – at the Road America circuit. Living just 40 minutes from the track, Bilicki has vast amounts of experience at the legendary 4-mile road course including having competed in the SCCA Runoffs.The 20-year-old IMSA newcomer has driven nearly 20 different makes of cars in his young career. He spent last Sunday testing a car similar to that of the No. 21 BMW in preparation for the Road America event.Bilicki has a longstanding relationship with Trim-Tex and CEO Koenig.“My dad is in the dry wall business and we buy the dry wall products that Trim-Tex makes,” said Bilicki, who finished third at the SCCA CAT Nationals two weeks ago at Road America. “We have a good relationship with Joe (Koenig) and he’s been a great friend to our family for over 10 years. As soon as I transitioned into cars, he saw we needed help financially so he came on board. I’ve carried the Trim-Tex livery on my Spec Miata and it’s great to now carry that relationship into pro racing.”The Wisconsin native lists winning last year’s 12 Hours of Autobahn and the 2008 Road America SuperNationals in an 80cc shifter kart as his greatest racing accomplishments. He looks to add to that list with a positive performance in his IMSA debut.“I’m really excited to be racing with Trim-Tex and Burton Racing,” added Bilicki. “My dad and I met with Keith (Burton) late last year. I knew as soon as I saw their shop that this was a well-run team. They are extremely professional and I was very impressed. We’re going to have a strong line-up in the car and the car is very strong at Road America and I think we can do well. We’ll have a lot of our drywall customers and a lot of family and friends there too so it’ll be a great weekend.”The Road America event opens with a promoter test day on Thursday followed by official practice and qualifying on Friday. The 2.5-hour race is set to go green at 12:20 PM Central Time (1:20 PM ET) and will be streamed LIVE on IMSA.com.FOX Sports 1 will televise the event on Tuesday, August 18 at 8:00 PM ET.