As the Tire Rack BMW CCA Club Racing Series navigates its 30th season, we asked both founders of the series, Scott and Fran Hughes, and the current chairman, Scott Reiman, to reflect on the state of the series today.
Scott Hughes said, “We are both quite proud of the evolution and development of BMW CCA Club Racing. With an understandable bit of nostalgia for the early years of 2002s and E30 M3s, the long-term success of the program meant embracing and promoting the newer and current BMW models. We are equally proud of the team that developed over the years to carry the program forward to today.”
Fran Hughes added, “We started the race program so driving-school students would have a safe place to graduate to. We focused on the 13/13 rule to enforce safe driving. We have been proud to see graduates of the racing program go onto the pro level, like Will Turner, Don Salama, and James Clay.”
Then we sat down for an interview with current Club Racing chair Scott Reiman.
Roundel: What is your general view of the state of Club Racing today?
Reiman: We have a strong cadre of dedicated volunteers who deliver the program and equally dedicated club racers who have helped us grow it. Selected statistics through the end of 2024:
• Average driver count per race was up 11% versus 2023 (we have gone up every year since 2021; the total gain over that time is 44%)
• Miles raced in 2024 up 9% on 2023 (the average of miles raced each year over the ’21–’24 seasons is up 43% on the average miles raced per year over the 2018–2020 period)
• Contact incidents per 1,000 miles raced were down 11% versus 2023. While we encourage competitive racing, this shows our focus on rules compliance and driver conduct is working to maintain and enhance our commitment to 13/13 non-contact racing.
Roundel: What is working well?
Reiman: We have a dozen committed volunteers on the CR leadership team and more than 25 volunteer stewards whose focus is always on the customer. We survey every driver after every event and use that feedback to ensure that our chapter hosts and the CR team adapt and respond to shortcomings while reinforcing and emphasizing what drivers enjoy most about our events.
Roundel: What, if anything, would you like to see change?
Reiman: CR needs to help all BMW CCA stakeholders in supporting chapter track-event programs. Racing requires track time, and a big draw for our drivers is our ability to schedule races at premier race tracks in both Canada and the U.S. Track time cost inflation (running well higher than that of the overall economy), changing demographics in the driving community, and increased competition from commercial entities hosting track events have forced CR to seek partnerships outside the BMW CCA. Finding solutions to the competitive and cost challenges facing our race-hosting chapters is a significant priority.
Club racers run in the 2010 Oktoberfest race at Road America [Brian Morgan photo]
Roundel: What current initiatives are in the works?
Reiman: Three initiatives come to mind for 2025:
1. We have two races in the North Central region: Indy and O-Fast at Road America. We’ve offered a no-cost license promotion to qualified drivers in the region new to CR with the intent to support these events and the Buckeye chapter’s aspiration to return to regular race-hosting at Mid-Ohio. (We also have agreed with Buckeye to run a racing school at Mid-Ohio in August this season.)
2. We have launched a trial program to mentor drivers who receive probationary penalties; these mentors will hold a virtual session to review incident videos in order to facilitate learning. Ultimately we expect participation in these sessions to become a requirement to end a probationary license period.
3. We’re leveraging technology this year and are introducing a paperless incident-management process. There are three objectives for this new effort:
a. Make the process easier for our volunteer stewards.
b. Ensure consistent and full reporting from both the drivers involved in contact and for steward investigation and adjudication.
c. Improve communication and KPI data collection for the CR stewarding and administrative teams.
Additional information on the series is available at www.bmwccaclubracing.com —Brian Morgan, Roundel motorsports editor
Lead photo: Club racers take the green flag at Thunderbolt in 2024. [Brian Morgan photo]
