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.

With a day until the race is aired, we’ve made two short videos for you to enjoy. The first is Seth Thomas’ amazing qualifying lap, done at 7:20am on a Saturday morning. Just as most people were waking up, Seth was flying around the Mid-Ohio course at 140mph fighting for pole position!

Seth shared his experiences with us:

What was it like qualifying at 7:20 in the morning?

Early - very early… Quite a bit ahead of my normal start of the day and you don’t really have much time to “get up and moving”. But honestly, with the weekend we were having, there was a lot of excitement so the 5:30 wakeup was really just pulling the trigger to launch another great day of racing.

Was the low sun an issue at all for sight lines or glare?

The sun wasn’t an issue, but the track was very cool and it took some time for it to get up to normal operating temperature.  Usually we would turn our fast lap 1-2 laps in, but this definitely made for a more exciting qualifying with the leaders constantly shuffling.

Tell us about the lap--how hard did you push?

I was pushing extremely hard! The track came on as the session went along and I was working hard to use the extra grip. Running with Joey at the end felt like guitarists trading licks - we were leapfrogging each other toward the front and almost had a BimmerWorld BMW front row until the last lap!

What parts of the track really suited the E90?

Mid Ohio has been an on and off for the BMWs. We have been working hard all season to really dial in the E90 BMW cars. At this point, we have really got it moving in the corners which are so important on a technical track like this one. And as always, Performance Friction gives us the strongest brakes in the field, which has been the cornerstone of our package since we built the cars.

Seth’s video is here: BimmerWorld: Seth Thomas Mid-Ohio Qualifying Lap

BimmerWorld team driver Joey Hand spent a session with a camera over his right shoulder for us to see how he goes about driving a BMW. We can’t show all of his secrets, but this final lap of practice does show how focused and committed he is to his driving. On previous laps, he’s seen working a variety of data inputs, talking on the radio to the crew, changing his Motec dash page to get specific info he desires, and all while giving 100% behind the wheel. It’s like watching someone juggle four chainsaws at the same time, and keeping them all in perfect balance and position. VERY impressive.

Joey’s video is here: BimmerWorld: Joey Hand Overhead Camera: Mid-Ohio Practice

After the race has aired, we’ll bring you some long and short versions of Joey Hand’s thrilling in-car camera footage from the race.