Racing Lines | Returning to Road Atlanta, a BMW CCA Club Racing Fixture

As club racers return to Road Atlanta in November for the penultimate event of the 2025 season, it is important to note that the Peachtree Chapter event has been a mainstay of the Club Racing series since its earliest days. The first race there in 1995 happened before Racing Lines became a fixture in Roundel. In 1996, the November race at Road Atlanta was covered in person, and a report appeared in the magazine.

A look back at that event sheds light on the series’ early days, and provides 2025 racers with a context for the traditions that they will no doubt uphold with style. The 1996 race drew 32 participants who ran a twenty-lap sprint race. Alfred DuPont of Delaware took the overall win in an A-Modified supercharged E36 M3 (shown in the lead photo) after a race-long battle with New Jersey’s Gary Bossert in a D-Modified E30 M3. Both racers were coming off wins in October; Bossert had won at New Hampshire International Speedway and DuPont had scored his first win at Mid-Ohio. (As a side note, do not attempt to compare 1996 classes to those run in the Tire Rack Series in 2025; many of the labels may be the same, but the technical specs have changed dramatically.)

The 1996 podium at Road Atlanta was rounded out by I-Prepared winner Don Salama in an E30 M3. Salama, of course, has gone on to prominence in professional racing as the chief strategist for Turner Motorsport. Turner himself was in the pack at Road Atlanta in ’96, finishing sixth overall and first in L-Prepared in a 325iS.

Stan Parker, a fixture in club racing for many years as a competition steward, finished fourth at Road Atlanta in an H-Prepared-winning E30 M3, and Manny Kruger, who would go on to be a perennial front runner in BMW CCA Club Racing, finished just behind Parker, finishing second in I-Prepared in an E36 M3. Rounding out the top ten after Turner were Dave Chenoweth, third in I-Prepared in an E30 M3; Peter Klein, first in I-Stock in an E30 M3; Holland Hale, second in I-Stock in an E30 M3; and Billy Revis, third in I-Stock in yet another E30 M3—one of the seven finishing in the top ten.

Top-ten runners Gary Bossert, Stan Parker, and Peter Klein have all passed away in the years since that race.

Two racers who competed at Road Atlanta in 1996 are still active in the series in 2025: Ross Karlin, currently our chief competition steward, is still racing the same E21 320i that he piloted to an E-Modified win in ’96, and Fred Landwehr, who finished sixth in I-Sport in an E36 M3, now competes in an M235iR running in the M40i-R Spec class.

BMW CCA Club Racing founder Scott Hughes served as competition steward for the 1996 race, while timing-and-scoring duties were handled by Nanci Maloney and Steve Maguire.

Back to the present: At deadline time, 44 racers were registered for the November 2025 race. They will no doubt put on a great show while upholding a long-standing tradition in BMW CCA Club Racing. Meanwhile, if anyone has the results from Road Atlanta 1995, please send them to briansmorgan@comcast.net, and I will include them in the 2025 Road Atlanta race report.—Brian Morgan, Roundel motorsports editor

Lead photo by Brian Morgan