Bill Auberlen will be starting a new chapter in his long career at BMW M Motorsport this year, driving for a new team and with a new co-driver. Auberlen drove for BimmerWorld Racing in the SRO GT World Challenge America series last year in an M4 GT3. He’ll be back in that series with the same race car, but will be in an ST Racing entry in the Pro class with Varun Choksey. Auberlen is under a multi-year contract with ST Racing that will take him to 30 years of racing in BMWs in 2026.
Auberlen is up for the challenge and is looking forward to driving with Choksey. “I am excited to begin another chapter with BMW and BMW of North America,” he said. “In addition to driving the Roundel to the top of as many podiums as I can, I have always enjoyed mentoring up and coming drivers. I’m happy to welcome Varun to the BMW brand. ST Racing has already enjoyed quite a bit of success in SRO competition, and I hope Varun and I can contribute to even more great results.”
Auberlen has started more races at the wheel of a BMW than any other driver in the world and holds the record for most wins in the IMSA series at 65. Auberlen began his BMW career in 1996 with BMW Team PTG in an E36 M3, and he’s driven pretty much every BMW race car since then, including the V12 LMR prototype in the American Le Mans Series in 1999-2000. He also drove a McLaren F1 GTR in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1998. In SRO GT World Challenge America last year, Auberlen and co-driver Chandler Hull had seven podium positions with the M4 GT3.
Varun Choksey is 27 years old and has a lot of racing experience, though racing in a GT3-spec car will be new to him. He drove in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America championship in 2022-2023, and before that was competing in single-seater series like the Formula Regional Americas Championship and the F4 United States Championship. “It is important for me to continue to race a GT3 car and learn the intricacies of the co-driver relationship in the next stages of my career,” he said. “SRO is a great step because GT World Challenge America offers great competition with excellent manufacturer support. When I was looking at next steps, Bill’s name was put forward as someone I should speak with. After a few calls, our families got together at Petit Le Mans 2023, and we began to make a plan. Bill put together a test at Buttonwillow with ST Racing and it went very well. I believe Bill and ST Racing is the combination that is the perfect move for me.”
With the addition of Auberlen and Choksey into the ST Racing lineup, the team will now have two M4 GT3s in the SRO GT World Challenge America series, as Samantha Tan and works driver Neil Verhagen will be sharing a car in the Pro-Am class. The first round of the series is at Sonoma Raceway in California on April 5th-7th. —David Haueter
[Photos courtesy BMW, ST Racing]
