In the Seventies, racing wasn’t accessible to a kid growing up in South Carolina. Sim racing didn’t exist. Karting was dangerous and poorly regulated. And that was before considering the cost. Though less than today, it wasn’t what you’d call cheap. Mike Renner had to watch from the sidelines.
When Mike was 24, he decided to get off the sidelines. He was building a career in sales and sales management, but the racing bug bit. Hard. He started by sharing a car—and costs—with a friend. After multiple rollovers and crashes, his friend’s foray into racing ended. Mike’s didn’t.
Road Atlanta, his home track, is only two hours from Greenville. Trips there gave him the opportunity to race in multiple series and cars, including Porsches and, since the mid-Eighties, BMWs. Mike started in SCCA Showroom Stock C and continued with lots of endurance racing. This was all while he still had his full-time sales job, so racing filled gaps when work, family, and budget permitted.
In 1993, he started his own mortgage business, but continued racing on the side. Around that time, he met Bobby Hitt, then BMW’s head of public affairs for the Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant. That meeting was life-changing. Hitt told Renner about the new track BMW was building across the street from its factory. It seemed like a natural fit. Soon after, Mike was a contract driver for BMW, working events like the media launch of the X5.
He remembers how BMW prepared 100 X5s for the event, with hundreds of journalists and dealers coming from around the world through that little Greenville airport to see and drive BMW’s first SUV/SAV. He also helped launch the E92 M3, an event held in Germany at the famous Nürburgring, with 50 brand-new M3s lined up in German precision. And thanks to a scheduling issue, he was one of the first American ‘Ring taxi drivers, taking journalists and other dignitaries on laps around the famous track. In 2001, Mike sold his business and went to work for BMW full time.
Now, 25 years later, Mike is a well-known BMW racer responsible for many of the corporate and special events at the South Carolina Performance Center. As well as being a driver and instructor, he coordinates many activities with the BMW CCA. Several chapters put on special M School events with the Performance Centers, and if you do it through the club, you’ll get more track time and a special rate.
Perhaps the most exciting part of Mike’s job is being a key part of the hot lap program. This is where drivers take spectators on a “hot lap” around a track in a new BMW during events like the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix (one of his favorites). These hot laps are all about giving the passengers a thrill, a taste of what it’s like to be on track at speed. They often involve drifting through the corners, which is an absolute hoot.
But what’s his favorite part of the job? It’s helping people enjoy their cars and become better drivers. He has a wealth of experience in everything BMW makes. When pushed on his favorite models, after some thought, he says it’s the latest M3 and M4 xDrive Competition models, though the new M2 is high up the list as well.
One might wonder about what it costs BMW to build, support, and staff the Performance centers. For those who haven’t been, it is well worth the trip and the experience; they are wonderful facilities. There are typically more than 30 new M cars for events, plus a plethora of SUVs—usually X5s—for the off-road course. Plus motorcycles. But these one- and two-day M driving events, along with the hot lap program, put people in BMWs and give them a chance to see what these cars are truly capable of, in a safe and controlled environment. Mike wouldn’t tell me the numbers, but you can be assured that many people quickly go to a dealership and order or buy a car immediately after attending one of these events. Many happy owners and club members can likely thank Mike for exposing them to what a BMW can do.
In Mike’s long career, it seems he’s lived multiple different lives, so what were his worst and best jobs? He couldn’t think of one that would be the worst but had no hesitation in telling me which was the best. “This one,” he says. Like the old saying goes, find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
That certainly applies to Mike Renner.
