The most successful BMW Racing Car Ever....?

It began its life as a 2003 BMW Z4 roadster. Just a normal Black on Black Z4 with a 2.5 liter inline 6-cylinder engine, just like any other assembly line prepared BMW. It was transformed into a SCCA showroom stock b race car by Jim Leithauser, a racer and race car fabricator from Colorado. In 2004 the little Z4 took the race tracks of America by storm, winning 6 National races and qualified for the SCCA National Championship, The Runoffs, held at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington,Ohio. Leithauser landed the Z4 on pole position and ran a flawless race earning a National Championship with the little BMW. (Finishing in second place was a driver by the name of Toby Grahovec.) With an enormous accomplishment in hand, Leithauser decided to sell the BMW race car immediately following the championship race....and I bought it. (The Z4 was 7 for 7 with victories in each race)

Classic BMW has a long history in racing, but the time period between races was quite lengthy. A constant race group during the mid-seventies, Classic had vacated the racing scene for nearly 3 decades. The Z4 joined a racing stable with only one other car, a 1971 BMW 2002 that Classic BMW had begun its return to the race scene. We decided that we wanted to do everything in house and the racing team began under the crew chief, Tom Bull. Our driver, who will remain nameless was a salesperson that went through the process to earn an SCCA driver's license. In preparation for our inaugural race at Texas World Speedway, during our first lap of practice the engine blew up! Without a spare engine, the team packed up and returned to Classic BMW with a very sour feeling about the Z4. Repairs occurred and in a couple of months the race calendar brought us to the Texas Motor Speedway. Hopes were high again as the race began and the Z4 appeared to be competitive, but soon after the drop of the green flag, the car dropped back from the lead and only managed to land a third place finish. As the season progressed, the same results occurred. It was plain to see that we either had a car that was not competitive any longer or we had a driver that was not ready for SCCA level competition. In late July, with little remaining on the calendar, we decided that we would end the season and start planning for 2006, then my phone rang.

Toby Grahovec was a 26 year old, ambitious driver from Chicago. He was from a racing family and had spent all of his youth either at the race track with is father, Duane or on the ice rink playing hockey. Skilled in both areas, Grahovec had narrowly missed out on a Runoffs Championship and on the ice he had been honored as an All-American hockey player at Robert Morris University. Grahovec told me that if he drove my car in the upcoming runoffs that he would win a National Championship. One week after the conversation Toby and Duane met Team Classic BMW Motorsports at Motorsports Ranch in Cresson Texas and auditioned for the job as driver for the Runoffs. Two laps into the test Toby was more than 2 seconds per lap quicker than our regular season driver, proving the old adage that the most important nut in a race car is the one behind the wheel. Earning the job, the next stop would be Lexington,Ohio and the 2005 SCCA Runoffs.

The Runoffs could not have gone any smoother, Toby ran the car flawlessly through the practice sessions, qualified on pole position and lead the race from green flag to checkered flag. Toby had won his first Runoffs Championship and so had Classic BMW. The crew jumped into the Z4 as it made a full lap in celebration of the victory and champagne showered over everyone close to the championship podium. I'm very glad I didn't let that call go to voicemail. During 2005 the BMW Z4 ran in 4 National races and finished on the podium, 3rd or better in every race and in the end won the Runoffs. (7-0, podiums) 1 win, 6 third place finishes.

In 2006 Toby drove the car for the entire season. Without fail the little Z4 would qualify first and finish in first. The Z4 with Toby behind the wheel was flawless, effortless, beautiful. The car was no trouble, consistant and appealing, we nicknamed her Heidi. Heidi cruised through the year and when the Runoffs arrived on the calendar, she was ready. At a new venue, Heartland Park Raceway in Topeka Kansas, Heidi found out that the competition was advancing. With such a great record of success, SCCA had decided that something must be done to slow the Z4 down in order to make the races closer. The car was given 250 lbs of weight penalty and a restrictor plate was mandated to help reduce power. At the Runoffs it was apparent that the changes had indeed slowed the BMW down to a point that victory was nearly impossible. Toby ran a great race, with an enormous charge near the end, but could not manage anything better than a 3rd place finish. (For 2006 Heidi went 7-0-1, 7 wins and one third, all finishes on the podium.)

2007 went exactly the same as 2006 with victory after victory until a disappointing 3rd place again at the Runoffs. (7-0-1) The disappointment was so bad that we as a team decided that the penalties were so overwhelming that we would discontinue our SCCA efforts as a form of protest until something was done to allow us a chance for victory. In 2008 there were zero BMW Z4's in the Runoffs, a car that at one time had taken up as many as 6 spaces on the grid had vanished. Heidi took the year off. Seeing that they had over penalized the BMW Z4 to extinction, the powers at SCCA took all of the detriments away from the BMW Z4 in 2009---and Heidi was back in the racing scene.

2009 found Toby back in traditional form with race victories on each track that he and Heidi ran. They won at all of the Texas tracks and they took the checkered flag at Road America for the annual June Sprints. The Runoffs would once again prove to be the real measuring stick as the best of the best made their way to Road America for the late September race. Mustangs, Pontiacs, Hondas, Mazdas and BMW's filled the field at the Runoffs and under cold wet conditions Toby piloted the Z4 into the lead from 5th position on the grid. He managed to cross the finish line in first place after an enormous battle for the entire 45 minute race and gave himself and Classic BMW a second National Championship! (2009, 8-0)

As I write this story neither Toby or Classic BMW have celebrated a Runoffs Championship since 2009, but Heidi and Toby have managed to compete at a very high level with victories in nearly every race they have participated. A second place in Texas in 2011 ended the regular season winning streak and a 5th place finish at the 2011 Runoffs ended Heidi's podium streak. As close as I can figure this little BMW Z4 has the following record: 61 races....60 podium finishes. 47 wins, 4 second place finishes, 9 third place finishes and 1 fifth place finish. Heidi's all-time winning percentage is 77.05%, arguably the highest winning percentage by a BMW race car with more than 20 starts in history. Her record of 60 out of 61 podium finishes is without doubt the greatest on record.

The story is not over as this season marks the final year for SCCA's showroom stock b category and Heidi and Toby are already making their case as the pair to watch at the Runoffs. this season they plan on visiting some of the great race tracks in America, maybe you will see them at a track near you.

Top Step of the Podium @Homestead-Miami Speedway

The Showroom Stock Class of SCCA racing is remarkable. The cars are straight off the street with zero modifications from the factory settings, with the small exception of a rollcage, racing slicks, brake pads and exhaust. In some cases the drivers actually have license plates on the car and they drive them to and from the track. The class is comprised of cars that are all supposed to be similar in racing potential, a tapestry of manufactures and models that most would believe to be light years apart oddly enough converge at nearly identical laptimes on race tracks all over America. A small BMW Z4 roadster with a 2.5 liter engine competes with a Ford Mustang with a 3.6 liter engine. One is light and quick and the other is powerful and heavy but paired together they find themselves in tight races every weekend, cuddos to SCCA!

Homestead saw the BMW Z4, winner of 3 of the last 7 SCCA National Championship races competing with the Ford Mustang that has won the last two championships in succession. This race featured Toby Grahovec, from Classic BMW Motorsports in the BMW Z4 and Ed Zabinski, winner of the 2010 Runoffs in the Ford Mustang. Qualifying saw Grahovec take pole position with Zabinski in the second position. But as the green flag was dropped and the race began, Zabinski took Grahovec in traffic and assumed the lead. Zabinski in the more powerful Mustang held the advantage on Grahovec until Toby made his move on lap 5 and took the lead. Grahovec managed to maintain his advantage for the remainder of the race and crossed the finish line with his 3rd victory of the 2012 SCCA racing season! Congrats to Toby and the crew from Classic BMW for a great start to the year. More to come in the weeks ahead.

The Projekt Continues...

1360 miles from home, Classic BMW Motorsports and driver Toby Grahovec started the big projekt for 2012, development of our BMW Z4 roadster with the n55, single turbocharger engine for the STU class of SCCA. Seems like a long way to travel in order to gain data in the hopes that a cure to our mechanical ailments can be discovered. Track time is enormously valuable in determining the competitiveness of your race car. The track at Homestead allows for an excellent range of situations. It has a very long, high speed section where speeds can reach in excess of 140 miles per hour. With high speeds comes very aggressive braking zones where the decrease in speed and the ability to have grip while braking determines your handling abilities. Low speed and high speed corners also allow for determination of how well the car can handle. These play into factoring how well this car will react to similar situations as we race this car at various tracks around America.

Practice emphasized the difficulties that we have ahead. The complications that have plagued us continued. The power of the BMW 6-cylinder engine is amazing, when it is not in the failure mode, called "limp mode." During practice we saw times when everything was operating flawlessly, but only for a few moments. Most of the time the car was signaling to the crew that something was wrong. Practice saw Toby run lap times in the 1:35 range and a knowledge that the quicker cars would be more than 4 seconds a lap faster than the Z4. Attempts were made to alter the faults, but none held for very long. As we set the car up for qualifying the hopes were there that the faultless Z4 would appear and she did. Until we have time to analyze the data we won't know exactly why things went right, but for a short amount of time---they did. Qualifying 3rd was an achievement, the only real achievement of the weekend for the projekt as the race found the gremlins in control again. Toby did complete the race and we did accumulate an enormous amount of data from the track time that we were able to experience. Hopefully in the time ahead we will trap the gremlins and fedex them to Mongolia...sorry Mongolians.

Second race, Second Racecar....Projekt STU

Honestly, Homestead-Miami Speedway, site of this weekend's SCCA double national weekend races, was not a location that Classic BMW Motorsports or Toby Grahovec had circled on the 2012 calendar. It's a very nice location in early January, located a few miles south of Miami and close to the Florida Keys, but as far as the track goes....not so great. It serves as an oval speedway for the Sprint Cup and for the Indy Racing League, but for sports car racing the banked oval is nearly completely removed and replaced with a makeshift track located inside the oval. It is like driving the Daytona 24, with just the front straight. We are here for one reason. To Learn

Our second racecar is another BMW Z4. It is a car that we have owned and raced for several years in the Grand-am series. The car is heavily modified with an elaborate suspension package, enormous brakes and an engine that should generate over 400 horsepower. Should generate because we have been unable to fully develop this car because of serious technical complications. The engine is from 2011 and the operating system is from 2003, (they don't communicate with each other very well.) During the 2012 season we hope to use our racing calendar to develop this car and evolve it into a fully functional, highly advanced, challenger for the National Championship at the Runoffs in September. September is a long time away and I feel we will need all of that time to be competitive.

The complications have been enormous. After we dropped the N55, BMW 6-cylinder, single turbo engine into the Z4 we realized we had a serious problem. With everything connected and supposedly ready to go, the car would only crank, but would not fire the engine. Idea after idea prompted the same conclusion, crank but no fire. BMW was ask to consult with us and after 10 days of working with engineers in New Jersey and Munich they pointed us in the right direction and still the same result. I received a call from a high ranking BMW employee who explained to me that his guys were working on something that they had never seen before and that the time they were spending on this project would not help them regarding normal situations. He advised me that there would be no more assistance from BMW, but wished us luck. The direction that they gave us did indeed help us reach the goal of getting the engine to fire. Actually, within 2 hours of BMW telling me they were done, the engine lit and we were feeling very good about the projekt. We learned quickly that there were more complications ahead. In the future I will detail some of these complications, but for today we launch into a new year of racing and development for the STU BMW Z4 at Homestead-Miami.

We don't expect to win this weekend, we expect to learn. Track time is very valuable and during the next 4 days we plan on spending as much time on the track as possible and will be making adjustments and trying new solutions in order to move this projekt to the next level. Best of luck to Toby and the crew just north of the Keys.

SCCA BF Goodrich Super Tour Victory today at Sebring!

So, 2012 has begun with two consecutive huge victories for Classic BMW Motorsports and Toby Grahovec. Today's race at Sebring International saw the team from Plano Texas that travelled more than a thousand miles to participate, smoothly win with very little pressure from the past two National Champions. Grahovec, starting in second pressured Michael Sconavacchi and managed to take an early lead after an apparent gear box problem took Scornavacchi from the competition. Grahovec and the BMW Z4 drove a smart, controlled race from that point forward and took the first SCCA BF Goodrich Super Tour victory of 2012!

This victory mark the first Super Tour victory for both Classic BMW Motorsports and Toby Grahovec, it also marked the first race victories at Sebring International for Grahovec and the Plano BMW dealership.

Look for more, as the team heads south to Homestead Raceway near Miami next weekend to participate in the STU class with the 3.0 liter turbocharged BMW Z4. More to come.

Congrats to Toby and the crew.

Victory is ours! Sebring 2012

As the first official race of the SCCA 2012 schedule for showroom stock b concluded yesterday at the Sebring International Raceway, Toby Grahovec and the Classic BMW Motorsports BMW Z4 climbed to the top step of the podium. It marked the first victory for the BMW Z4 from Texas at the famous Sebring circuit and it was a battle between three of the top drivers in the showroom stock category. As the race developed the Toby Grahovec piloted BMW worked its way through traffic until finally it was met with a hard charging Michael Scornavacchi, the defending SSB National Champion. As it went to the wire the BMW narrowly held onto the victory. While this marks a huge accomplishment and the completion of one of the Classic BMW goals for the season, the BF Goodrich Series race on January 8th holds a certain level of acclaim and points for the current season. Can Toby and the little orange and blue BMW earn two victories to begin the season?

Qualifying has landed Toby in the second spot for this important race. Race time is 2pm eastern as the green flag will wave and we will be off to the races again! Cross your fingers and wish good thoughts as we look for another key victory in the 2012 campaign.

More to come...

Off to the Races!

It's been a long time since Toby Grahovec, driver of the Classic BMW Motorsports Z4 has driven the long course at Sebring International Raceway, but the rust seemed to brush off quickly as Toby took pole for tomorrow's opening race of the SCCA season. The lap time of just over 2:36 was only a fraction quicker than Michael Scornavacchi and Ed Zabinski. The race tomorrow should be incredibly interesting as it matches the winners of the last 3 National Championships, all driving different models and makes of racing machines. Scornavacchi, who won the championship in September driving a Ford Mustang will be featured in a Pontiac Solstice, Zabinski, the champion in 2010 will be piloting a Mustang and Grahovec will run the BMW Z4. It will pose some fascinating scenarios as to which car has the advantage in a very demanding race that showcases power and handling.

Pedal to the metal, we are off to the races for 2012!

Racing into 2012 Starting at Sebring

Classic BMW Motorsports is headed to Sebring Florida to start the 2012 season. Sebring is 1,172 miles from home but has long been a sought after venue for a racing victory. Tom Bull, crew chief for the team will miss this trip as he continues another wave of chemotherapy in Dallas and is not cleared by Doctors to travel. Tom was diagnosed with cancer a year ago and has fought hard enduring 8 months of chemo during 2011. Tom had been given the green light late in 2011 as the doctors determined that the cancer had been controlled. They changed medication to a maintenance drug and Tom's life returned back to normal. But Tom's reprieve was short lived as the cancer began to grow at a very high rate. He has been confronting the cancer with weekly visits to the hospital and has been told by his doctors that travel is impossible until further notice. For now, Tom will be guiding the team either from a hospital bed or from the iphone in his house. His passion for racing is enormous and so is his will to live. His attitude is always upbeat and positive, even while his face is sullen, broken out or tired and even though his hair is beginning to fall from his baseball cap covered head. These racing weekend allow him the opportunity to mentally leave the chemotherapy and join the race team, if only digitally.

Toby Grahovec, two time SCCA National Champion will pilot the BMW Z4's this year and will be featured in the first race of the season as he matches skills with the new SCCA Champion, Michael Scornavacchi. The quest this season is to win and win often. We hope to venture to many of the great tracks in America and bring home trophies, and if we don't we plan to make some friends along the way.

Say hello to the crew if you see them in Florida this weekend! And send your thoughts and prayers to Tom Bull, we all hope to see him at a racetrack soon.