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BimmerWorld Racing - Road America Race Notes |
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Written by Jeff Seabrook
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Tuesday August 24, 2004 |
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Radford, VA - Round Eight of the SPEED World Challenge Touring Car
Series at the fast 4 mile Road America racetrack moved the Bimmerworld
team drivers further up in the points championship, but not without
another dose of drama that has been with the team for the last four race
weekends.
The excitement started immediately for the team in qualifying. James
Clay drafted teammate Matt Richmond to gain additional speed on the
front straight to start his first qualifying lap. Coming into turn one,
the car slid wide into the deep gravel trap on the outside of the turn
and slowly rolled on its side and then roof. "It is difficult to get
the tires warm on this long track and the small window for tire grip and
excessive speed from the tow down the front straight all combined in the
worst way and I ended up upside-down" explained Clay. "The gravel there
is really loose and soft. After a quick inspection I convinced the
workers to put it back on the wheels and let me qualify for the race."
Clay qualified 10th, on grid directly behind Richmond in 8th, with third
teammate Seth Thomas grabbing a solid 16th position.
Matt Richmond had a steady drive to a 6th place finishing position from
his 8th place qualifying, driving the fifth fastest race lap in the
process. "I wanted to keep the car on track and drive to another strong
finish" said Richmond. "Thanks to the incredible efforts from the
BimmerWorld team, my car is fast and getting faster every race!"
Richmond's finish moved him up to 14th in the driver points
championship.
Seth Thomas had problems on the start which shuffled him back several
positions. But with consistent lap times all close to his fourth
fastest race lap, Thomas finished his #38 BMW in eleventh position - his
best finish yet of the 2004 season.
James Clay in the #36 BMW 325i quickly moved into 6th position at the
start and then continued up through the field to run third for the
majority of the race. Slowly gaining on the 2nd place car at an average
0.3 seconds per lap, Clay was solidly on pace for the team's first
podium finish when a noise appeared from the suspension in the closing
laps. Clay slowed the car and in the braking zone for turn one in the
final lap, the rear suspension finally broke sending the car sideways
into the gravel trap where it flipped for the second time of the
weekend, finishing 19th as the last car in the lead lap.
"We have had a string of really horrible luck" stated team owner James
Clay. "But we are getting faster every weekend and I am having trouble
sleeping now in anticipation of our return to our home track at Road
Atlanta! We knew at the beginning of the season that this would be a
development year and I am really thrilled with our progress at this
point."
The Road America World Challenge Touring race will be televised Sunday,
August 29th at noon EDT on SPEED.
The 2004 BimmerWorld World Challenge team is sponsored by Ground
Control, Hawk Performance, Stoptech, Quartermaster, Silkolene, Eibach,
Rogue Engineering, Bimmerforums, and the Wheelchair Foundation.
Pictures and in-car videos from the 2004 season can be found at
www.bimmerworldracing.com.
James Clay
http://www.bimmerworld.com
http://www.bimmerworldracing.com
Engineered BMW Performance
540.639.9648
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Friday January 09, 2009
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