How Bill Auberlen was almost an IndyCar racer – twice – before building his legend in sports cars

Successful racers aren't like the rest of us. Take veteran road racer Bill Auberlen, for example, who faces the challenge of what to do with all the trophies from a career that so far includes 91 wins, 224 podiums and 56 poles. Racers Unchained host Paul Tracy, who has plenty of trophies of his own from his legendary IndyCar career, asks "Where do you put them all?"

"I've been with a lot of teammates, a lot of European guys. We get off the podium, they take their trophy and they give it away right?" Auberlen relates. "Since my motorcycle racing started when I was seven, eight years old, I've kept every single trophy in my entire career. So I finally built a big 10,000 square foot shop. And now finally, I get to have the trophy display that that I've always wanted."

Auberlen explains how he went from motorcycle racing in his native Southern California to become one of the all-time success stories in road racing.

"When I turned 17, I got a chance to go motocross," he says. "I was good at motocross. I was never the best. But in cars, almost on day one, I felt more comfortable in a race car than I ever was on a motorcycle. So I transitioned from that at 17. My first big race was the Daytona 24 Hours in a GT car at 17 years old. You just get thrown in the deep end and you either sink or swim and, yeah, I'm still here a million years later."

Although he's known as a sports car racer, Auberlen notes that he started off looking more towards open-wheel and IndyCar racing, ultimately passing up on a part-time IndyCar opportunity with Hogan Racing that went instead to Dario Franchitti for a long-term deal with BMW.

"I got the opportunity to go from [Formula] Atlantic – I got a three-race opportunity in IndyCar. And then at the same time, I got a three-year deal with BMW. So that was my choice. And I took the BMW way," he says. "You never know – Is that the right way or the wrong way? After that I got my BMW thing and now it's been 30 years with the same factory, racing nonstop.

"I don't really know how I've been the guy who stayed on so long – and I even have another two years on my contract after this to race. When I run that out, we'll have to maybe figure out something slightly different. I want to be around the races. I love being there all the time and I love being a part of developing new talent, which is kind of what I do now. My job is we find the talent, we try to bring them up, we try to turn them into BMW guys and see if they're the next best thing to bring BMW the wins and the championships – and you know, there was a Joey Hand in that."

Sports car racing covers a lot of ground, of course, and Tracy notes that Auberlen has jumped back and forth over the years between GTs and prototypes – sometimes on the same weekend – which presents its own challenges.

"Not only did I have to transition from one car in one year to the other, there were weekends I drove the LMR, which is the fastest thing BMW basically ever made in prototype cars, and I would have to run a GT4, a GT3 at the time with GT2 on the same weekends," he notes.

"You watch the on-boards and you watch the techniques – it's not like you're driving a space shuttle versus a boat. I mean, they do the same things and they do them within certain parameters. The moment a good driver leaves a pit lane, he knows what he's got under him. You can kind of feel it – you turn in to that first corner leaving the pitlane. You're like, 'OK, this thing's a little bit lighter. It's going to roll more' and you kind of know what you got. But there is that time that you might have gone down to a turn and you might have been at the wrong place if you didn't have your head screwed on quite straight and you go a little deep and be like, 'Hold on, let's get this straightened out...'

The BMW V12 LM was an eye-opening introduction to Le Mans Prototypes for Auberlen in 1999. Motorsport Images

Tracy notes that the prototypes of the BMW V12 LM and LMR period at the turn of the century "had huge power, big tires, big downforce. Those cars were very close speed, lap time-wise to an Indy car on a on a big road course or or street course. So, was there ever a time when there were conversations of you trying to go back towards open-wheel, racing?" Auberlen reveals that there had been inklings in that regard on both his own and BMW's part.

"That was the whole point, was we're going to take that motor and go IndyCar racing, and I was going to be the guy that was going to go race it," Auberlen says. "But the problem with that motor was it had a lot of issues. In the beginning, I think we were at 11,500 rpm. And by the end when we won the championship we were down to 9000. Won the race in Laguna, we're down to 9000 rpm. I mean, these things were blowing up left and right. So they thought they needed a little bit more work to do that, and that whole program was scrapped once we went to the LMR."

So of all the various BMWs he has raced – so far – which ranks as Auberlen's favorite. He has a hard time choosing.

"You have different choices for different reasons, right? Because I've been through every single car since the E36, so E36, E46, Z4, E92, M3, like the list goes on. It's long," he muses. "My first time when I went to Le Mans and the BMW McLaren F1 longtail. This was my first time at Le Mans – it's probably the equivalent to your first Indy; you know, it's a huge experience. Parade stuff going on. And the first time you leave pit lane and you release the pit speed limiter on this thing, and you hear that V12 screaming and you're going down the Mulsanne straightaway at 200 miles an hour!

"That car seriously gave you such a great feeling. You hit the brakes, everything glows on the railing, you know, on the guardrails on both sides, flames coming out. I used to tell people I was taller when I drove. That car was way better looking. That car made you feel awesome.

Auberlen "felt awesome" in the Team Davidoff McLaren F1 GTR BMW he made his Le Mans debut with in 1998. Getty Images

"Then you get to something like the BMW, V8, GTR, GT car. They built it just to skirt the rules.We won every single race and after one year we got kicked out. So as far as a driver is concerned, that's as good as it gets.

"And then you get to the best-balanced car, and it would be the E92 M3 that we raced in GT2 with Rahal. That thing would start out perfection. And as the tires went off the balance didn't shift one way or the other. You just lose a bit of lap time, but the balance was as good as it could be.

"I drive all these cars – BMW has kind of a historic division and they bring me out every year. We go to Homestead and we run every single car through the line-up, basically. I get to test them all out. And now in this, in this historic thing, it's now the M6, the M8, like all these cars. And you know, you get to feel them. They're all really, really good. You should you should come down to this event in homestead and drive them all and you'd have a great time. I definitely could get you down there if you want to go..."

We're just scratching the surface of the memories and anecdotes PT and Auberlen share in this wide-ranging edition of Racers Unchained. Watch the whole interview below.