Are you a fan of E30s? How about racing? Well then, PRO3 has something right up your alley—a racing documentary narrated by BMW CCA Puget Sound Chapter member Jim Cissell. It’s almost three years in the making and culminates with the 20th Anniversary at Pacific Raceways in July 2022, where a record 49 PRO3 cars took the green flag.
The film begins with Cissell looking back to PRO3’s start:
Welcome to PRO3, where every race is 30 minutes of nose to tail, door to door, fender to fender action. And between races, competitors chip in and help each other out.
PRO3 started right here in the Pacific Northwest, and not even a pandemic could stop it. In 1999, twins Wes and Ken Hill found their BMW E30 race car no longer competitive in SCCA. So. they created a new class, PRO3, in the international conference of sports car clubs, which is the largest sports car racing sanctioning body in the [Pacific Northwest]. PRO3 raced provisionally in 2002, and as a fully sanctioned class in 2003, when Ken won the championship.
Other pioneers, Lance Richert, Bob Mearns, Dale Beunig, Bill Spornitz, Michael Olsen and Greg Miller, [all of which are Puget Sound Chapter members,] called themselves friends between checkered and green. There were just six drivers the entire first season.
Today, PRO3 averages over twenty cars per race. With the ground pounders we’ve had 61 cars on the track. Yeah—it’s competitive. And based on the ‘87 to ‘91 BMW E30, it’s relatively affordable. Race-ready cars sell for as little as $12,000 and engines last for years.
If the film below interests you and you’d like to see more, please visit PRO3’s website for additional videos, photos, and information.
