On July 19th and 20th, our Chapter played host to BMW CCA members from all over the North Atlantic Region when IMSA visited Lime Rock Park for the Northeast Grand Prix. When IMSA runs at Lime Rock, they bring the Michelin Pilot Challenge Series and the GTLM and GTD classes from the Weathertech Sportscar Championship. The good news for BMW fans is that GTLM and GTD are where the BMWs run and in the Michelin Pilot Challenge race, BMWs appear in the GS class, so we didn’t miss a thing with the classes that weren’t in attendance.

We had members attending the hospitality tent and corral from the six New England states as well as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and even South Carolina. On Friday, members of the BMW Team RLL visited the tent to meet with the corral participants. And on Saturday, Kevin Phillips, Manager, BMW M and BMW Individual, paid us a visit and recapped some news from BMW, as well as entertained questions from the crowd. We were also visited by reps from BMW NA who were performing VIN searches to determine if member’s cars had any outstanding recalls.

Unfortunately, on track we couldn’t witness any BMW victories, as the best GS finish in the Michelin Pilot Challenge race was a 4th Place by the BimmerWorld Team of James Clay and Devon Jones, while Robby Foley and Bill Auberlen managed a 10th Place finish for hometown favorite Turner Motorsport. In the Weathertech race, the M8s could only manage 7th and 8th in GTLM, while the GTD M6 of Turner Motorsport did grab a podium with a 3rd Place finish for Foley and Auberlen.

I want to thank BMW of North America and Tim Parker and New Country BMW for their sponsorship of the event. This corral would not be possible without their support. Door Prizes were contributed by: (in alphabetical order) BimmerWorld, BMW CCA, the BMW Performance Center, Connecticut Valley Chapter and Lime Rock Park. Also, each participant was given a goodie bag and the following contributed to that: BimmerWorld, Tim Healey, Perfect Auto Image and Sonax. I also want to acknowledge our new Regional Vice President Jeff Caldwell for his help in securing the BimmerWorld contributions.

And huge thanks go out to our volunteers who endured extremely oppressive heat for two days to ensure that the event went smoothly: Dave Boone, Paul Frickenhaus, Tim Healey, Sheila Morin, Joe Robinson, jerri Wiley and Willy Wiley. Hopefully, we’ll be back again next year for another exciting weekend of racing!

Bob Morin