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.”

While he’s been out of the saddle for a while, Richmond ’s entering into the event with realistic expectations. “I’m going with the goal of having fun. The new E90’s are awesome--if i can relax and get in the groove, the speed will come naturally. If I can get settled quickly, I really feel like I can run with my team mates and challenge for a win.”

Matt was a fixture in World Challenge with BimmerWorld, but where has he been hiding of late? “I opened two businesses last year and have had no time race other than at my indoor kart track, Grand Prix Greensboro!” Despite his absence from the team, he’s kept in contact with James Clay as the BimmerWorld-built E90’s have progressed to the front of the field. “I am proud of these guys for keeping their chin up throughout the last couple of seasons. Mid-Ohio was a long time coming, but was also long overdue and just scratched at the surface of what they’re capable of doing.”

With the 2008 season coming quickly, has Matt thought about returning for another assault on the championship? “If everything goes according to plan, I will be there. We’re working hard to secure a great sponsor to join us.”

Joey Hand, pilot of the Mid-Ohio winning #37 BimmerWorld BMW, has been forced to step aside as the time commitments to his American Le Mans program have proven too much to allow him to continue racing in both the ALMS and in SPEED Touring Car on the same weekend.

“It’s been really hard to run back and forth between both series with the sessions so tightly packed. The Panoz program is a full season commitment, and unless I can give 100% of my focus to whatever I do, I didn’t want to risk not being able to give PTG or BimmerWorld everything I have. It’s sad for me because I love the E90’s BimmerWorld have built--we all saw what their BMW is capable of now; I’ll be cheering for Seth, James, and Matt to fill the podium at Laguna!”

The next race for the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Touring Car Championship will be October 21 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, CA, for Round Ten of the 10- race Championship. The race will be broadcast Saturday, Oct. 28 at 3:30PM ET on SPEED TV.

The BimmerWorld team is proudly supported by: BMW USA , Diffsonline, Moton, Performance Friction, BBS, Bimmerforums.com, Ground Control, JB Racing, Rogue Engineering, Silkolene, and Sunbelt Performance Engines.

BimmerWorld is a leading retailer of high performance street and racing BMW parts. Our race program continually drives development for BimmerWorld’s increasing line of BMW race and street performance parts. BimmerWorld customers expect the very best.

More information about the team, cars, and drivers can be found at http://www.bimmerworldracing.com. Information on BimmerWorld’s Customer Car Services can be found at http://www.bimmerworld.com.

Details on PowerFlex Suspension Bushings can be found at http://www.powerflexusa.com.

Regarded as the most relevant and top production car road racing series in the world, the SCCA SPEED World Challenge Championships are broken into two distinct sub-series that run separately from one another- SCCA SPEED GT and SCCA SPEED Touring Car. Each Championship is run in a 50-minute “sprint” race format, featuring recognizable cars, world-class drivers and standing starts. For more information about the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Championships, please visit http://www.world-challenge.com.