Racing Lines | O’Fast Indeed: Quick Classes Dominate at Road America

Running at—or even near—the front of the pack in the October O’Fast races at Wisconsin’s famed Road America circuit required a high-horsepower race car running in one of the Tire Rack BMW CCA Club Racing series’ quickest classes. Overall winners Robert Chang (E46 M3) and Todd Brown (E46 B46) ran in C-Modified, and two-time overall winner Cory Deeds drove an F82 M4 GT4 in PWR5, the fastest of the series’ PWR classes.

Four races were run on the 4.048-mile track, including: a Thursday-afternoon sprint race, a more lightly subscribed Thursday-afternoon one-hour enduro run on the heels of the sprint, the feature sprint race on Friday afternoon, and a final sprint late on Saturday morning. The Badger Bimmers Chapter hosted the races along with a BMW CCA driving school event.

The Thursday sprint was a battle between Chang and Brown, front-runners for the 2025 national championship in the Tire Rack series. Chang, who would win by a scant 0.082 seconds, had driven the same car at the 2010 O’Fest races at Road America; it appears in the image of the pack run here a few weeks ago, where Chang’s car is just behind Steve Bassen’s E30 M3 in the second row. In Wisconsin, Chang said after the race, “[That] was my first time at the track, and my first year racing. Fifteen years later I’m back with the same car and chassis, but everything in it has been upgraded—still a C-M car. but a lot faster, and the driver wiser!”

Early in the race, Chang took the lead from Brown, who drove a Strom Motorsports-built E46 3 Series powered by a B48D four-cylinder turbocharged engine. Chang held on for the win despite last-lap drama. “At the very last turn, I had a huge throttle lag—and that’s where Todd Brown took the opportunity to pass on the inside,” Chang says. “As he was initiating his pass, I immediately dropped into second to find some throttle, fuel, and torque so that I could carry momentum close to his rear. There wasn’t any further lag after this, and I just kept the pedal floored with precise shifting. I saw what was barely enough space between Todd’s car on my right and another on my left, plus another car just ahead immediately in my path; it was just enough [room] to make it happen, and I squeezed in to take the win at a difference of 0.082 seconds. That was as close as I’ve been to the checker with another racer—and going down the back straight, Todd and I gave each other the thumbs-up. We both acknowledged the competitiveness we carry.”

Brown agreed, noting, “[Chang] had more ponies than I did, and edged me by a quarter car-length. It was truly one of the best races of my career from a strategy perspective.”

B-Mod winner Brooks Friedeman (F82 M4 GT4) rounded out the podium, and Cory Deeds, winning PWR5 in another F82 M4 GT4, finished fourth overall. PWR4 winner Ryan Osiecki finished seventh overall in an E92 M3. I-Prepared winner Matt Noonan (E36 M3) finished eleventh; he had traveled to the race with his brother-in-law, fellow I-Prepared competitor Greg Teese, who was plagued with car trouble at Road America. Noonan would go on to win I-Prepared in all three sprints, battling with Chad Waddell in another E36 M3. He said afterward, “This weekend I managed to stay consistent while Chad was right on my heels. My best lap was a 2:28.836, and his was 2:29.115. We were both pushing hard. Having Scott from Rooster Hall Racing on the radio helped me stay focused. When Chad started laying down those 2:29s, I knew I had to dig deep—but keep my rhythm. I could almost hear my late daughter Nicole in my head: ‘Be smooth, Dad—smooth is fast.’ That’s all I heard for the last four laps.”

Noonan’s report on his trip to Road America and his 2025 season is posted on the BMW CCA Club Racing Facebook site.

Additional class winners in the first sprint were Jesse Clark, beginning his sweep of the sixteen-car strong Spec E46 class in his 330Ci; BMW CCA Club Racing chairman Mirril McMullen, winning PWR2 in his E36 323is; and Keith Primozic, running solo in PWR3 in his E36 M3. Thirty-nine competitors contested the race.

Since the enduro began not long after the Thursday sprint race had finished, a number of racers elected to skip it, and several others went out for a few laps but did not run for the entire hour; Chang was one of those who did not run. Brown took the overall and C-Mod wins ahead of PWR5 repeat winner Deeds and Pacific Region racer Vic Pizzino, who won PWR4 in an E46 325i. PWR4 runner-up Erik Pylypchuk followed Pizzino across the line, just ahead of Osiecki and co-driver Randy Mueller, who had won two O’Fest races at Road America in 2010. Clark teamed with James Clay to win Spec E46, and McMullen won PWR2. There were no other class winners; fourteen racers were listed as completing the sprint.

The feature sprint, run on Friday afternoon, went to Deeds, with B-Mod winner Friedeman second and PWR5 runner-up Roy Lipner (F82 M4 GT4) third. Osiecki won PWR4 with a fifth-place overall finish, and I-Prepared winner Matt Noonan broke into the top ten, finishing ninth overall. Adrian Popescu scored a C-Mid win in his E30 M3 as Brown exited at the end of the warm-up lap with turbo failure; and Chang, who had led before a single-car incident brought out a late-race black flag, dropped out near the end with a clutch problem. Yakov Bielak (E46 330i) won PWR2, and Clark repeated in Spec E46. The feature sprint class winners are shown in the top photo of this story.

Deeds won again in the final sprint race on Saturday, with B-Modified winner Steve Barnett (F82 M4) finishing second overall and B-Mod runner-up Faisal Khan (F80 M3) taking third. Mueller piloted Osiecki’s car to fourth overall and the PWR4 win, while Noonan scored his third I-Prepared victory with a strong seventh-overall finish. Popescu won again in C-Mod, Clark completed his sweep of Spec E46, and McMullen won again in PWR2. Keith Primozic (PWR3 E36 M3) scored his second class win of the weekend.

Most racers traveled long distances to get to Road America. All who weighed in after the event had high praise for the circuit, the facilities, and the job that BMW CCA Club Racing management and the Badger Bimmers Chapter did in running the event. Cory Deeds’ comments typify racers’ sentiments: “It truly was a great event at one of America’s most iconic race tracks. What an amazing time of year to visit Elkhart Lake. with its fall colors nearing the peak of its glory—crisp, sunny mornings bleeding into perfect racing conditions! The event was well organized and running swiftly on schedule. If I could race only one event a year, this would be it! I hope that it can be on the schedule every year.”

PWR3 racer Keith Primozic, among the many who towed a long distance to get to the circuit, added, “I would come back every year if we could. Even given the thirteen-hour tow. It is that good!”

Bruce Heersink, Phil Abrami, and Wayne Dobson served as competition stewards; Bruce Smith, April Massagee, and Hunter Dyer were the tech stewards; and Roland Nieves ran timing-and-scoring.—Brian Morgan, Roundel motorsports editor

Lead photo by Jon van Woerden