BimmerWorld Road America Report

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: johnt@c2group.com

BimmerWorld Team Is Tested As Road America Takes Its Toll

With no time to spare, BimmerWorld's crew cleared major hurdles  
getting from the Centrex Grand Prix of Denver to the Generac 500 at  
Road America, in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. With one damaged E90 and  
another with an expired power plant, the crew contributed a herculean  
effort to have three cars ready when the green flag came down on  
practice for Thursday's promoter test day.

"Road America was a challenge before we even got to the track," noted  
BimmerWorld owner and driver of the #36 BMW 325i, James Clay. "We  
only had two days to turn the cars around and had some heavy crash
damage to repair from the fight on the streets of Denver. Ron Butler  
at Butler C&D in Kansas City was instrumental in getting the cars  
straight and ready for the track. In addition, the BimmerWorld crew
put in two extremely long days to ensure we were ready to race."

Not a team to look for sympathy, James reflected on the time two  
years ago when they wrecked three cars in California.

"We picked up a lot of fans with that streak of bad luck," said  
James. "For some reason this recent run of bad breaks is not quite as  
appealing. We're really having to gut this one out. It goes right  
back to getting the new cars late... it just seems as though we've  
been chasing things ever since. I'm glad we've got the core group of  
fans that we do. They sure give us a lot of encouragement."

"I will say, I was very happy to see the cars as fast as they are,"  
James added. "Seth and I were running times in the new E90s right  
from the first test session that should put us at the front of the  
grid. I feel like we've had podium-worthy cars."

Unfortunately, fate was not on James' side as the testing wore on.

"I had just turned a good lap in traffic during the second practice  
session," James recalled. "I had broken out for a clean lap with my  
teammates close on my heels. The car went through turn 1 smoothly  
right until the rear tracked out over the exit curbing. As soon as it  
touched, the car did a snap spin, putting me backwards into the wall  
at the exit of the turn. Post-mortem inspection showed a crack in a  
fastener on one of the rear suspension links. That is a bit of an  
anomaly on a car this fresh."

"My BimmerWorld E90 is definitely getting fast," continued James.  
"But after four events, I have yet to turn a race lap. I think  
Leighton Reese's monkey has jumped on my back and I need a change in  
luck!"

Having to sit out the race, James made the best of the weekend by  
joining up with Tom Hnatiw in the announcer's booth.

"While I enjoy doing the color commentary for the series and with  
Tom, I prefer to be in the car," James qualified.

Seth Thomas, driver of the #38 BimmerWorld 325i, was also out of  
favor with Lady Luck during this road trip. His weekend ended with a  
19th place finish and an overheated motor.

"The crew did an amazing job of handing us a great racecar under  
tight scheduling," said Seth. "They had to replace my motor after  
Denver and fix James' car. They worked hard and it paid off in the  
laps that we did run. James and I both had fast cars right out of the  
box."

"I left Denver with a huge burden on my shoulders having had a good  
car but not being able to pull it all together," recalled Seth. "I  
was excited about Road America and hoped to start where I left off in
Denver. My first session out was on old Denver race tires and I  
turned a lap time that ended up being faster than my qualifying time.  
I knew right then I was ready to get on with the weekend."

Later on in that same session Seth started getting a hot engine  
warning. The problem plagued him the rest of the weekend.

"Before qualifying I had only turned about six laps in practice and  
testing," stated Seth. "Then when I went out to qualify there was oil  
on the track. According to our data, that one spot of oil cost me 1.5  
seconds... enough of a difference to qualify 14th instead of 2nd."

"Sadly, my race went the same way," said Thomas. "I was moving up  
through the field and had Pierre [Kleinubing] in my sights when the  
motor started running hot again. This time it didn't hold. Game over."

"There was a bright spot in the weekend though," added Thomas. "I  
worked on improving my braking technique with the new Performance  
Friction brake system on the E90 at Denver. This really helped during
the Denver race and I was able put it to use again at Road America.  
 From what I can tell the gain is about another 50ft in the brake  
zones making it much easier to pass."

"So I leave Road America in the same boat as after Denver," Thomas  
said. "I am ready to race. I'm confident we will get this monkey off  
our backs and we'll show the fans of BimmerWorld and World Challenge
that the BimmerWorld built BMW E90 is the best chassis in World  
Challenge! Now on to Mosport".

Toby Grahovec joined BimmerWorld for the weekend driving the #39  
BimmerWorld BMW 3251 for his first SPEED World Challenge Touring Car  
start. He qualified 17th for the race and finished 15th.

"Toby was fast all weekend," said James Clay, "but a bobble in his  
qualifying flyer and then a brake lock in the race which sent him off  
track, took him out of the top-10 finish I had expected for him. He
did a great job, though."

"We're confident in our ability and the people that make up our  
team," concluded Clay. We are in a position where we are having to  
develop cars during the race season which is far from optimum. But
from the progress we are making, I am very motivated to get the final  
bugs sorted out and start winning races. I have told our guys that  
the way development is going, the first race I finish will be the  
first win in the new chassis!"

BimmerWorld is pleased to have support from the top performance  
companies in the industry: Performance Friction Brakes, Moton, BBS,  
Bimmerforums.com, Diffsonline, Ground Control, JB Racing, Rogue  
Engineering and Silkolene.

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.

To learn more about BimmerWorld and their extensive line of BMW  
performance products, go to their website at: www.BimmerWorld.com

Additional BimmerWorld Racing information and bios are available at:  
www.BimmerWorldRacing.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 www.world-challenge.com.

Photo Credit: Jim Sykes



________________________________________________________
John Thawley  ~  Creative Communications Group ~ 248.356.5699