BimmerWorld BMW E90 team mates James Clay, Seth Thomas, and Nick Esayian will look back at the 2008 Sebring opener with mixed feelings. “The good news is we have definitely had worse Sebring races!  The bad news is this one certainly didn’t live up to the expectations we had or the pace we set early in the week,” said team owner/driver Clay.  “I was in the top 5 in every practice, Seth put his car on the pole (temporarily) in qualifying, and Nick started from 4th – all indicators of a strong weekend and that the testing on the new tire and additional development we did over the winter is paying off.  Unfortunately, the luck wasn’t to last.” Clay’s hard work would result in a 10th place finish, and two awards—the B&M Holeshot and the Hardcharger trophies. While the extra awards were appreciated, “We wanted the big hardware—the one from winning the race,” Clay said.

With an encouraging 2007 season behind them, Dublin, Virginia’s BimmerWorld Racing team has spent the off-season filling key roles within the team and adding a strong list of new sponsors and partners to the team for 2008.

“Racing is a sport that requires us to keep growing and improving,” BimmerWorld owner and driver James Clay said, “and after the tastes of success we had last year, we’ve been working overtime to strengthen our team and our partners for the new season.”

Notable additions to the blue BMW’s are GearWrench (http://www.GearWrench.com) , the team’s Official Tool Supplier, and Alpinestars, (http://www.AlpineStars.com) supplier of racing safety apparel for BimmerWorld drivers James Clay, Seth Thomas, and Nick Esayian. Esayian, driving the #34 BMW E90, joins BimmerWorld after many successful seasons with RealTime Racing.

BimmerWorld BMW SPEED Touring Car driver Matt Richmond found himself in the midst of a tough return to the team and series last weekend. Practice and qualifying had proven to be a bag of mixed fortunes, and Richmond wasn’t initially sure he was adapting as fast as he should be.

“Any time you’re out of the saddle for a year, it takes a few sessions to hone your instincts and get plugged back into the attacking mentality you have to have. By the time I got to the race, I was primed to give the other guys (in the series) a hard time.”

Starting 22nd, Richmond found himself in familiar territory once the lights went out and the race started. “I guess I have a knack for winning the B&M Holeshot award…”

BimmerWorld owner/driver James Clay was proud to announce the return of a familiar name to the BimmerWorld fold for the season-ending race at Laguna Seca in Monterey , California , October 19th-21st.

Matt Richmond, back in his familiar #37 BimmerWorld BMW, is set to resume his World Challenge activities paired with his good friends James Clay and Seth Thomas. Richmond , a former podium finisher, and winner of the B&M Holeshot Award and the Hard Charger Award, knows exactly what’s required to succeed in the highly competitive Touring Car series.

Richmond can barely wait to catch his flight out to the west coast. “Man, I’m fired up! I’ve been ready to drive again for BimmerWorld for a long time. When James called and asked if I was available, I told my wife and she said to do it without any hesitation. That’s always a good sign.”

The BimmerWorld BMW SPEED World Challenge Touring Car had an unexpectedly rough weekend at Mosport, coming off the highs of starting 3rd and 4th at the last round in Mid-Ohio, with Joey Hand translating his 4th grid position into the first professional win for BimmerWorld, and their in-house developed BMW E90 chassis.

Hand, still riding a wave of excitement from his debut win in the series, had cause to completely forget the 8th round of the Touring Car season at in eastern Canada. Damage in Friday practice required all new bodywork, a new radiator, and the hard working BimmerWorld crew to replace his engine overnight.

Qualifying would prove no better for Hand, with the majority of his time during the rainy session spent on pit lane as electrical gremlins were diagnosed. Forced to start from the back of the grid but no less determined to charge to the front of the pack, Hand’s good intentions were met with damaged right-rear suspension after being clobbered from behind on the opening lap. Joey’s race ended immediately.

On the heels of BimmerWorld’s historic first win in SPEED Touring Car series, the first professional win for the new BMW 3-series (E90) chassis in North America, and Joey Hand’s win in his first attempt in the series, we wanted to share with you a compilation of Joey’s best in-car footage from the thrilling Mid-Ohio event.
With 50 minutes of footage to choose from, it was hard to choose what to cut! We’ve pared the footage down to 15 minutes, and as you’ll see, the BimmerWorld BMW, Joey, and his competitors fight for every inch and every pass.
Rather than tell you about all of the teeth-clenching highlights, follow the link below to witness one of the great drives in recent years of World Challenge racing.

BimmerWorld: Joey Hand Mid-Ohio In-car Race Highlights

A reminder to watch BimmerWorld’s glorious day in the hard-fought SPEED World Challenge Touring Car race from Mid-Ohio, in Lexington, Ohio. The race is broadcast Saturday, July 28, at 3:00 p.m. (EDT). Replays will air Tuesday, July 31, at 3:00 a.m. and Wednesday, August 1, at 2:00 p.m.

While new driver Joey Hand manages to recover from a slow start to eventually take the win in a thrilling last lap pass, picking off 4 cars throughout the 50 minute race, it’s firmly believed that had his team mate Seth Thomas not encountered transmission difficulty at the start of the race from his 3rd place qualifying position, a BimmerWorld 1-2 was very realistic. Which one of the two drivers would have been first is up for debate!

Mid-Ohio marked BimmerWorld’s first win in SPEED Touring Car competition, as well as making history by delivering the first professional racing win for the BMW 325i (E90) chassis. BimmerWorld’s commitment to promoting the BMW brand in the top American touring car series is undeniable, and proudly undertaken by the entire team.

After years of learning the series and developing their own cars, the BimmerWorld SPEED World Challenge Touring Car team broke through at Mid-Ohio on Sunday to score their first win as an entrant, the first win for new driver Joey Hand, and the first professional win for the new BMW 3-series E90 chassis in North America.

After a weekend of so many firsts, team owner James Clay was beaming with pride after sharing sips of Hand’s champagne with his BimmerWorld crew in victory circle. “It’s awesome—it’s taken us a lot of time and a lot of hard work to get here. We knew it would be tough to develop these new cars and it’s nice that it’s finally paying off. It’s a start, but it’s just one win. (I hope) it’s the start of a trend.”

Joey Hand, new to the BimmerWorld team but by no means new to driving BMW’s or working with James Clay, was thankful for the opportunity to end a dry spell for race wins, and to exorcize the memories of a famous crash that saw him somersaulting last year at Mid-Ohio. The first thing he did after the race was to call his wife and tell her the good news, “Honey, I survived Mid-Ohio this year and actually won!”

SPEED Touring Car team takes the engineering lead; gets closer to bringing the new BMW 325i to victory circle.

Building, preparing, and running a racing car in a professional series is a never ending process of clawing and scratching for ways to improve that car. The rapid pace of development and improvement for teams within the SCCA SPEED World Challenge series is no different.

BimmerWorld Racing of Dublin, Virginia faces the unique challenge of not only having to keep pace with their factory-backed rivals in the SPEED Touring Car series, but are also challenged to lead the charge to extract and engineer the maximum performance from their unique new generation BMW 325i racers.

In a bid to demonstrate the strength and development of the BimmerWorld-built BMW E90’s racing in the SPEED World Challenge series, BimmerWorld owner and driver James Clay announced the addition of former BMW North America factory racer Joey Hand to his team for the final four races of the 2007 SPEED Touring Car season, starting with the next round held at the Mid-Ohio track, July 20-22.

Clay, opting to put Hand in the #37 BimmerWorld car while he sits out the round to concentrate on the completion of his new #36 BMW E90, is excited to show the drivers and teams in the series how competitive BimmerWorld’s Seth Thomas in the #38 and Hand in the #37 can be. “2007 has been a season of bad luck so far for us.  If we are going to play the odds, then I have decided to run an additional car to increase our chances at finishing the season strongly. Joey is one of the best BMW drivers in the world; we worked well together when I was in charge of a BMW North America Diesel race car Joey drove, so he was a logical choice for the #37 car.”

Watkins Glen confirmed two things about the BimmerWorld BMW E90’s: the cars are ready to challenge for wins with less than a year of development under them, and that if not for the black cloud that’s been following the team for the past few weeks, the team’s fortunes and finishing positions would be more to their liking.

Team owner James Clay has been trying to keep a positive outlook after another rough weekend behind the wheel. “The cars were fast and I felt great about the racing. I was 5th fast in Friday practice, so I was hoping to qualify in the area, if not better. In race 1 qualifying, I made 3 mistakes on my fast lap with the good tires under me, and it cost us on the stopwatch. The following morning, the track was much faster, but due to some miscommunications on the radio, I thought I had cruised to 3rd on the grid. When I realized that I was not even in the top 10, I went back out on track and got to work but the tires didn’t have the same grip in them as when I first went out; the best I could manage was 15th for the second race.”

We thought you might like to check out our new video release, BimmerWorld: Seth Thomas Utah In-Car Race Start, now playing on Brightcove.com

Seth qualified his #38 BimmerWorld BMW E90 3rd overall at the longest race track in America, the 4.5 mile Miller Motorsports Park circuit, in Tooele, Utah. Primed as always to take his BMW into battle against major manufacturers in the SPEED Touring Car series, Seth’s launch at the starting lights and subsequent opening lap was a classic affair: push as hard as possible, try to make up positions early, and let his BMW’s natural handling and power keep him in contention for the rest of the race. Seth started 3rd and after a race-long tussle with the factory Mazda’s and Acura’s, came home in 5th place. If nothing else, the glorious sound of Seth’s Inline-6 cylinder BMW engine is worth listening to alone. Turn up your speakers!

Leading BMW SPEED Touring Car team BimmerWorld faced two adversaries at the 2nd round of the SPEED World Challenge series at Miller Motorsports Park, in Tooele, Utah: the 22 other competitors in the field and a wicked virus that forced crew members to the hospital and both drivers to avoid food and water for three days.

Despite this, the strong spirit within theBimmerWorld team helped to keep 3rd place
qualifier Seth Thomas focused. “The crew works so close together that it was inevitable
to lose a member here and there from one of them coming down with it. Fortunately for us
they didn’t all come down with it at the same time. As for James and I getting the bug
I can’t even begin to explain what that was like. Right before qualifying and the race
I wasn’t sure if I could go the whole distance due to fatigue, and at times, being lightheaded. 
There was a job to do though and we couldn’t let the crew down after watching them battle
through it themselves, so I kept my head down and did what was needed.”