After a long but hectic off season, the BimmerWorld haulers made their way into Sonoma last week to kick off the 2022 SRO Motorsports America season. Out rolled three beautiful BMWs ready for battle, including our first entry into the world of GT3 racing, the No. 94 TACenergy / OZIUM BMW Motorsport M4 GT3 piloted by Bill Auberlen and Chandler Hull this year in the GT World Challenge America Presented by AWS series. The M4 GT3, which BimmerWorld took delivery of only the week before this race weekend, and two M4 GT4s were prepped, stickered up, and rolled through tech Wednesday afternoon. Drivers made last-minute checks to their seating positions, and the cars were put to bed until the first test session the next day.
With all the anticipation and anxiousness leading up to the beginning of this season, it was slightly anticlimactic to arrive at the track Thursday morning to rain. The forecast said it would rain on and off throughout the whole weekend. Rain tires were mounted up and the crew and drivers dug right in and got to work.
Friday was sunny, clear, and dry and allowed the team to really start finding its groove with the new GT3 while Auberlen and Hull exchanged notes.
James Clay and Charlie Postins, drivers of the No. 36 OPTIMA Batteries / Lifeline USA M4 GT4, were busy getting comfortable with driver changes while James Walker, Jr. and Devin Jones, drivers of the No. 82 Red Line Oil / Veristor M4 GT4, poured over data to find a tenth here and there to make the most of Sonoma, which in the past has never been the best track for the BMW.
With rain sprinkling on and off throughout all qualifying sessions, the goal was equally about surviving as it was about finding speed. With the largest GT4 field on record at 41 cars, there wasn’t a lot of open track and plenty of close calls while everyone scrambled to put down their best lap.
The forecast was finally dry and sunny for both race days. Auberlen and Hull had a solid Saturday running in the top-three the entire race and finishing on the podium in third. Sunday they had a tougher time getting to the front and finished seventh. In a car that was delivered only a handful of days prior, the team was very pleased with the results.
The pair of M4 GT4s took to the track, and the No. 36 of Clay and Postins started on the pole and took the win for Saturday by less than two tenths of a second! Sunday they managed to stay up front once again and grab another podium with a second-place finish. The No. 82 of Walker, Jr. and Jones was in the thick of battles every lap and managed to dodge many offs, crashes, contact, etc. to keep the car clean and intact. After the dust settled, they came home with a top-10 finish in the incredibly competitive field of over 20 Pro/Am entries in GT4 America SprintX both Saturday and Sunday.
Starting off with three podiums out of four races is an excellent kick off to the season, and we’ll be rolling this momentum right into the next race at Ozarks International Raceway on the weekend of May 20-22.
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ABOUT: BimmerWorld is renowned as a leader in BMW aftermarket and tuning expertise, with operations spanning from stock, aftermarket, performance, and racing parts sales and development through racing from club to professional levels. BimmerWorld Racing competes primarily with the BMW Motorsport M4 GT3 and GT4 in North America in both SRO and IMSA Championships, where the Virginia-based outfit has become a frequent winner and championship contender.
While Sonoma Raceway provides beautiful rolling hills, sunny skies, and perfect temperatures, it’s not without its own list of challenges. The infamously slippery track surface makes tire management throughout a 60-minute race just as important as overall speed. In the past, the BMW hasn’t produced the best results at Sonoma, so the team knew they had their work cut out for them. Team principal James Clay noted, “While it’s tough to start the season on the track you know is your worst, it allows us to really dig in and work on developing the car which will help us throughout the rest of the year.” With a qualifying position of P4 for the No.36 OPTIMA Batteries / Racing to End Alzheimer’s M4 GT4 driven by Clay and Nick Galante, it showed that the speed was there, they just had to make it last.
Right off the bat, James Clay in his No. 36 OPTIMA Batteries / Pörq M240i Racing was showing the speed he would have all weekend long. In qualifying, Clay missed the pole by a mere .055 seconds – that’s how close this series is. In fact, for several laps prior, he was tied with the exact same time for the pole, down to the thousandth of a second – they ran the exact same lap time. That’s insane competition!
Chandler Hull and his No. 94 TAC Energy M240i Racing had a rough start to his weekend, but the team rallied and gave him a car that he could keep at the front of the field and deep into battle in both races, finishing in fifth each day.
James got the top spot on the podium with a win in Friday’s race, and he fought hard down to the very last corner for the lead, finishing with a solid second-place in the next race, well ahead of the rest of the field. These two finishes add extremely valuable points for the overall championship, moving him to second in the overall driver’s standings.
The Red Line Oil M4 GT4 piloted by Bill Auberlen and James Walker, Jr. had a great start, again posting the fastest time in practice. When it came time to qualify, many in the field found speed that the Red Line Oil M4 GT4 struggled to match. In this extremely competitive series, qualifying well is crucial, and starting mid-field means luck has to go your way on top of being fast in order to move up several positions. Auberlen and Walker did a great job running a very clean race and nailing pitstops, but the results weren’t what they had hoped for. 
The BimmerWorld Racing team heads back across the U.S. to their home base in Dublin, VA to do a quick refresh on the cars before loading them back up to head to Road America on August 27-30 for Round 4.
