Racing Lines February 2025: Club Racing Comes Full Circle at Roebling Road

Sri Haputantri drove the E30 M3, the same car that Steve Eller had piloted to victory in the first-ever BMW Club Race at Moroso Motorsports Park in Florida in 1995. Haputantri achieved two overall wins at the Tire Rack Series BMW CCA Club Race season finale at Roebling Road in December. The wins, reconnecting the series to its roots, served as a fitting end to the 29th year of the BMW CCA Club Racing program.

Haputantri’s wins came in the Saturday morning and Sunday feature sprint, the year’s final race. Peter Agapoglou won the first sprint of the weekend on Friday in a C-Modified E36 M3, and Todd Brown (C-Mod E46 M3) won the enduro on Saturday.

More than 40 racers came to the Roebling Road Raceway (RRR) near Savannah to run in the perennial Tarheel Chapter event; everyone seemed to want one more weekend of competition before the long off-season break, and many wanted to wrap up titles in their respective classes. The only unwelcome presence pervading the event was tire degradation. The circuit was unforgiving, eating tire after tire as racers battled for positions and lap times.

Mike Akard, a front-runner all weekend in his PWR4 F82 M4 GT4, described the experience: “The issue for this event was tires …I had nothing left in my arsenal by Sunday and was off my pace for my best lap ever at RRR by more than six seconds for most of the feature race. In the endurance race, I had nothing for many cars I had been able to lap earlier. New slicks were no match for the abrasive conditions that seemed to remove their rubber like a cheese grater, leaving them very well worn by the end of the short races.”

Running solo in PWR4, Akard scored well nevertheless, finishing second in the first sprint, fourth in the enduro, third in the feature sprint, and eighth on Sunday when his tires were gone.

Akard finished second overall, and C-Modified winner Peter Agapoglou in the Friday sprint. Agapoglou noted afterward, “I had an absolute blast racing against Liam Harrow [C-Mod E36 328i] and Sri [Haputantri, C-Mod E30 M3]. Racing against those guys is fantastically fun; we swapped out P-One and P-Three multiple times each race, and I could count on them to race safely side by side, lap after lap, through many corners.”

Frank McCleneghen, also struggling with tires in his M2 Spec F87 M2 CSR, rounded out the podium in the Friday sprint. He would go on to win M2 Spec and nail down the national title in his class, with close competitor Michael Kerner in another M2 CSR taking the class win in the feature sprint.

It was Haputantri’s turn to win in the Saturday morning sprint. Since he had secured the PWR4 national title at Carolina Motorsports Park, he noted, “I decided to bring another one of my babies out for fun. I drove Steve Bassen’s C-M E30 M3 for the Roebling weekend. This car won the first-ever BMW CCA club race with Steve Eller behind the wheel.” Haputantri’s Sri Racing stable was busy at Roebling, supporting seven cars, among them the M2 CSRs of McCleneghen and Kerner, the I-Prepared E36 M3s of James Keown and Chris Lindner, and the PWR3 E36 M3 of racer Sanjeev Duggal.

Agapoglou, Harrow, Akard, and McCleneghen crossed the line behind Haputantri. The next class winner in the order was eighth overall, Emrich Steller, scoring his second PWR3 class win of what would be four for the weekend. He would exit the event with both the PWR3 national title and the Rookie of the Year award.
There were battles throughout the I-Prepared event, with Chris Lindner winning the first two sprints and James Keown—also in an E36 M3—winning the class in the enduro and the Sunday feature sprint.

The K-Prepared battle was a fight for the national title, with Johnathan Hewitt in E30 325iS sweeping the class and taking home the championship.

The two largest classes in the event were Spec E46, with eleven cars, and Spec E36, with nine. Turner Hilliard (330Ci) won the class in the three sprints, and Chris Randall (330Ci) won the enduro. Phil Wurz, who would emerge as national champion in the class, scored a pair of podium finishes and shared his 330Ci with his wife Carrie in the enduro, where they finished seventh.

National champion John Wilkins (325i) won Spec E36 in three races, and Bert Howerton in a 325is won the class in the second sprint. April Curtis, in her E36 328i, took solo class wins in D-Mod in the first two sprints and shared the car with Mike Hinkley for a solo class win in the enduro. Jayson Phillips (Porsche Cayman) took solo class wins in both the second sprint and the enduro.

Spirit of Club Racing awards were given to David Harrison and Mike Sewell for their dedication to the BimmerWorld BMW CCA Club Racing School. Nine students graduated from the school at Roebling Road, and one, Spec E46 racer Clayton Stinnett, competed in the races at Roebling in a 330Ci.

BMW CCA president Jeff Caldwell served as the competition steward, Mark Connolly, Barrie McMullen, and Mirril McMullen served as tech stewards, and Larry Fletcher served as the competition steward. Race results are available on the Club Racing website.—Brian Morgan, Roundel Motorsports Editor

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