Bumper Crop of BMWs In Club Racing at Watkins Glen

The Tire Rack BMW CCA Club Racing series visited legendary Watkins Glen International in New York on the weekend of September 25th-27th, which was the series second event there this year. The first took place in May. The September race at “The Glen” was a national event and had the largest turnout of the year so far. There were 77 cars that competed in the feature race on Saturday, which was the most on an entry since the VIR race in March.

There were so many cars at Watkins Glen that races were split into two groups, with the SpecE46, IS, PWR2, M3 T, JP and EXB classes in the first group and the rest of the faster classes in a second group. SpecE46 had the most entries of any group with a peak of 22 entries, with PWR3 not far behind with a peak of 15 entries. The only race where everyone raced together was the last race on Sunday, which was run on the NASCAR short course and had 41 cars on the entry.

Evan Levine leads a SpecE46 train through the esses.

Everyone was keeping an eye on the weather but it ended up being dry most of the weekend. It was sunny and breezy on Friday, cool and cloudy on Saturday, with just a touch of drizzle on Sunday. There were also relatively few incidents and cautions over the weekend, which was certainly helped by having the two different groups as well as split starts among some of the classes. The BMW racers shared the weekend with the Vintage Racing Group (VRG), which also had several other BMWs competing in their event, with some Club Racing competitors competing in their races as well.

Joe Fuchs pushing hard through the bus stop.

There’s always great racing in SpecE46 and there was a lot of dicing back and forth among the entrants in the class at Watkins Glen. Evan Levine stood out, winning three of the four races in the class, with Joe Fuchs winning the first race and finishing second in the feature. Jonathan Adams was also on the podium in three of the four races, and John Park was on the podium in two of them. Jesse Clark was on the podium in third in the second race.

Andrew Palumbo won the PWR3 class in two races and was on the podium in another.

Close racing was also the name of the game in the PWR3 class, with several of the top cars running very similar lap times in a tight group during the races. In the feature race, the six fastest cars in the PWR3 class set fast lap times within one second of each other. Andrew Palumbo won the class in the first and last races and finished second in the second race in his E46 M3, while Job Neiman won the second race in his E36 M3 and Ryan White won the feature in an E46 M3. Jared Randall (E46 M3) was on the class podium in three of the four races and Jeffrey Segal (E46 M3) was on the class podium in two. Jacques Panneton (E46 330i) and Mike Dellutri (E36 M3) also had podium finishes.

Todd Brown won all four C Mod races.

The C-Modified class had the fastest car of any of the groups, with Todd Brown winning all four races in the class and winning overall in the final race on Sunday in his E46 M3. Brown’s fast race lap over the weekend on the full course was a 1:55.577, which was around five seconds faster than the quickest M4 GT4 EVOs in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race here. Frank McCleneghen was on the class podium in the first two races followed by Scott Glenney, both in E46 M3s. Glenney was also second in the feature race, followed by Kirk Olsen in third in his E36 328i. Brandt Stover (E46 M3) and Andrew Staiano (E36 M3) were on the class podium in the final race on Sunday.

Frank McCleneghen finished second in the first two races in the C Mod class, then switched to M2 Spec for the final two races and won those.

The PWR4 class had a peak of six entries in the first race but dropped to five after Sri Haputantri ran into some car issues. Ryan Kerfien won the class in all four races in his Rooster Hall Racing E46 330ci, and he especially enjoyed running the short NASCAR course on Sunday. “I came from a paved oval modified racing family,” said Kerfien. “Watkin Glen was the closest the Cup series came to our home in Fulton, New York and it was a treat to see the stars run The Glen. They always ran the short course. When I saw “short course” on the weekend schedule for Sunday it made my eyes light up. We would literally be in the tire tracks of Dale Earnhardt’s legendary 1996 “Hurts So Good” pole winning run, we would follow the exact same layout Steve Park conquered in 2000 to claim his first Cup series win. For a New York native and lifelong stock car fan running the Watkins Glen short course was special.”

Ryan Kerfien won all four PWR four class races.

Phil Wurz finished second in the PWR4 class in the first two races in his BimmerWorld 435i, followed by a second in class in the final race. It was the first racing he’d done in the F32 435i since VIR, when it ran in the PWR3 class, and has had some minor adjustments since then as BimmerWorld gives the car more of a presence in club racing. “We’ve added a few cosmetic additions to kind of sharpen the car up,” he says. “We got some feedback that we should make it look more like a race car, so it has a front lip and a rear spoiler now, and we may still do a few more things beyond this. We’re also running 30 more horsepower than we were at VIR. Part of the data side of things is to see how the temps are going to be with more power.” More F32 435i’s are expected on the entry list in the next race weekend at Road Atlanta. Greg Wharton and Allan Lewis were also podium finishers in PWR with two podiums apiece, with both racing E46 M3s.

Phil Wurz raced the F32 435i in the PWR4 class, finishing second in three of four races.

The PWR2 class also had a solid entry at Watkins Glen with eight cars. Frederick Erikson won three of the four races and finished second in the other in his E30 325is, while Russell Ehrman won the first race and finished second in the second race in his E36 325is. Yakov Bielak (E46 330) was on the podium in the first three races. Marc Thomaes (E30 M3) was on the podium in third in the feature race, and Mirril McMullen (E36 323is) and Ian Kimbrough (E46 330ci) both had podium finishes in the final race on Sunday.

Frederick Erikson won three of four PWR2 races.

There were around five entries apiece in the I Prepared and I Sport classes, which were exclusively E36 M3s. Matt Noonan was dominant in I Prepared, winning all four races, and finishing tenth overall in the first and last races. Noonan’s brother-in-law Gregory Teese was second in every race in the class, with Scott Reiman third in every race but the feature. Keith Primozic was third in the feature race. In the I Sport class, Francois Metivier won three of the four races and was second in the feature. Michael Saul won the feature race and was on the class podium in the other three races. Other podium finishes were Greg Martin in race one and Scott Stirling in the second race and the feature.

Matt Noonan won all four races in the I Prepared class.

The M2 Spec class had a decent turnout at Watkins Glen, with four cars initially on the entry for race one. That dropped to three entries for the second race after Krista Williams had an incident with her M2 CS and had to retire for the weekend, but the entry went back up to four in the feature race when Frank McCleneghen moved from C Modified to M2 Spec. Michael Wetzel won the first two races in class and finished second in the final two races. He was also in the top eight overall in every race. “I’m from this area so I call this my home track and I love it,” said Wetzel. “The M2 is still a fairly new car for me. I was used to low horsepower, high-momentum cars that can turn anywhere at any time (Wetzel raced an E36 in the IS class before the M2), but this is a different animal. It’s a legit race car, factory built and safe, relative to taking a street car and converting it.” Frank McClenegmen won the final two races in M2 Spec, and Michael Kerner was on the podium in three of the four races.

Michael Wetzel won the M2 Spec class in two races and was on the podium in the other two.

In B Modified, Matthew Poth won the first race in his E90 335d, and Justin Dexter won the final three races in his G82 M4 GT4 and finished second in the first race behind Poth. Dexter was also seventh overall in the final race on Sunday. “This is only my third event in the M4 GT4 after racing a Porsche Cayman S before, so I’m still a little tentative trying to push along faster each time,” said Dexter. “When you move the engine to the front, the tail end of the car wants to come around a lot easier. I spun it on the first lap of the first race yesterday, but I got back on track and finished the race.” Serguei Izvoztchikov was also on the B Mod podium, finishing third in the first three races in his E46 M3.

Justin Dexter won three races in the B Modified class in his G82 M4 GT4.

Other classes with minimal entries included M3 Touring, J Prepared and EXB. Bob Martin won the first race in the M3 T class in his E30 M3, but Matt Poth switched to M3 T from B Mod for the feature and the fourth race and won the class in both races in an E30 M3. Timothy Skeuse was the only entry in the J Prepared class in his E30 M3. In the EXB class (which had two Porsches in race one and one Porsche for the final three races), Paul Warner won all four in his Porsche Cayman GT4 RS Club Sport.

Bob Martin won the M3 T class in race one in his E30 M3, and also competed in the VRG race.

Five of the BMW CCA club racers also competed in the VRG races, including Bob Martin, Timothy Skeuse, Matt Poth, David Weaver and Todd Brown. Brown competed in the VRG races with an E36 M3 that was raced by Team PTG during their dominant era in pro sports car racing back in the late 1990’s, and that car went on to race in privateer hands in pro racing after PTG moved on to the E46 M3. It was great to see and hear that car on the track.

BMW Club Racers also competed in the VRG race, including (left to right) Bob Martin, Timothy Skeuse, David Weaver, Todd Brown and Matt Poth.

The Spirit of Club Racing award was given to Greg Miceli. Miceli had his race weekend end when the rod bearings spun in his race car. Rather than pack it up and go home Miceli stayed at the track to support his fellow racers in whatever way he could, which included taking the throttle linkage off his car to keep Jeffrey Segal’s car running. Miceli even provided radio support on Saturday. “I was shocked and honored to be selected for the Spirit of Club Racing award, so that was a fantastic way to end a week at the Glen,” said Miceli.

Greg Miceli (center) gets the Spirit of Club Racing flag from Sean McKenzie (right) and Keith Primozic. (Photo by Susan Dobson)

Wayne Dobson was the Event Chair at Watkin Glen. Ross Karlin and Asher Hyman were the Competition Stewards, and Larry Fletcher took care of the timing and scoring. Tech stewards were Bruce Smith, Tim Bradford, Ben Greisler, Warren Brown, Dick Cadieux and Thomas Rossi. The safety car was provided by The Little Speed Shop. The next Tire Rack BMW CCA Club Racing weekend will be at Road Atlanta on November 13th – 15th.

—David Haueter
[Photos by David Haueter]