BMW racers finished on the podium in the Touring Car, GTS SprintX, and GT SprintX classes on the Pirelli World Challenge race weekend at the Utah Motorsports Campus in August.
The marque’s best finish was an Am class win by Toby Grahovec and Chris Ohmacht in the #92 Classic BMW M4 GT4 in the second GTS-SprintX race. In Touring Car Karl Wittmer in the #91 Classic BMW M235i Racing finished second on both Saturday and Sunday, and in GT Sprint X Takuya Shirasaka and Naoto Takeda finished third on Saturday and second on Sunday in the #97 Turner Motorsport M6 GT3.
In the Saturday GTS SprintX race the #36 ST Racing M4 GT4 driven by Aurora Straus and Jon Miller was the best finishing BMW; the car was ninth overall and fourth in the Am class. The best finishing BMW in Pro/Am was the #17 Classic BMW M4 GT4 driven by Stevan McAleer and Justin Raphael; it finished 21st overall and eleventh in class. On Sunday, when Grahovec and Ohmacht won the Am class, the best finishing BMW in Pro/Am was the #38 ST Racing M4 GT4 driven by Samantha Tan and Nick Wittmer, finishing thirteenth overall and tenth in class.
The Utah races were the season finales for both GTS SprintX and GT SprintX. The Touring Car class finale will be run at Watkins Glen on Labor Day Weekend. The GTS Sprint X Pro/Am championship went to James Sofronas and Alex Welch in the #14 GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS GT4, while the Am title went to Drew Staveley in the #12 Ian Lacy Racing Ginetta G55 GT4. Aurora Straus was second and Grahovec and Ohmacht were third in Am class points (Titles are unofficial at press time).
In GT SprintX, where the Turner car ran in Utah, no BMWs were in the title chase for the entire season.
Vesko Kozarov in a Nissan 370Z was the Touring Car race winner on both Saturday and Sunday; he goes into the Watkins Glen finale leading the championship chase. Karl Wittmer was second both days, with M235i Racing competitors Matt Travis in the #26 Classic BMW car finishing third on Sunday and Johan Schwartz in the #80 Rooster Hall Racing car finishing third on Sunday.—Brian Morgan
