Last Autocross of the season!

The Rocky Mountain BMW CCA summer autocross season will be wrapping up at Front Range Airport this weekend.  Be sure to register HERE before 6pm Wednesday to get one last go at cone dodging before the winter chill sets in!

Are you fighting for season standings?  Some classes are tight with only a few points separating members.

-BDS: Robert Critchley is only 11 points behind Tad.  Tad has a pretty safe buffer, but Robert could swing for the grandstands in the last event and upset Tads season long top spot!

-BCS: Caleb and Karl both only have 3 events this season, a presence this weekend could bring them within range of the lead.  

-X: Mark Bear has a pretty solid 26 point lead over David Jobusch at first glance... But Robert Thorne, currently in 12th, has 3 consecutive 1000 point days in his arsenal.  One more FTD for the monster S2000 and he'll jump to 1st like Jenson Button at the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix (ok not really, but that comeback is worth a google).

Hopefully overheating tires are not a problem with a nice 75° projected high for Saturday!

If you sweltered down in Pueblo at PPIR, fear not!  The heat of July and August will be gone with 70's all week and a delightful 75° on Saturday.  A sweatshirt in the morning might be handy as Western Kansas can be a bit chilly.

See you in the slalom! 

Ready, GO!

Autocross Event #5's Exciting Results

Just when everyone thought the summer just started… wait, what? The season’s over half over?

July 27 marked the Club’s 5th summer autocross and the competition heats up with the weather. Anyone who made it to four events has a new focus: Hold on to a class win, or improve on times and try to move higher in the trophy positions. Some classes are still anyone’s game with less than 50 season points separating the top standing driver from 2nd and even 3rd place in BMW D Street Tire, Ladies, Expert, Non-BMW Street classes, and even our top Novice drivers for 2013. Drivers will need to perform consistently well in the last two events this season to maintain their trophy spots!

View all photos here.

Event #5 also saw some new members and renewals after years of lapsed memberships. Several RMSolo SCCA veterans came out to experience a different type of day and racing community. Their presence was appreciated and readily welcomed, especially as several regulars were not present due to Ofest preparations or simply due to the vacation-centric nature of summertime. A few new joiners came for extra seat time to prepare for the SCCA Solo National Championships, which are held in Lincoln over Labor Day weekend; others wanted more time to shake down new vehicle builds; and others simply wanted to see why those of us who run with BMWCCA have such a blast! BMW generally has smaller run groups, more runs, a laid-back atmosphere, and all of our events feature a terrific “Let’s do that again!” course designed by Chris Mayfield. PPIR’s size and surface variations allow for plenty of room to get up speed as well as hone technical skills such as entering a sharp sub-90-degree turn right after the starting lights and, after a quick initial slalom to get everyone in the rhythm, force us all to look ahead to determine how much braking is needed to prepare for a turnaround that crosses the slick “skid pad” material in the Northeast corner. There was another turnaround shortly before the finish which tested every driver’s inner discipline; it was tempting to get too spirited with the throttle and try to powerhouse through the last turns to the blue finish cones, but instead steady hands and patience were needed to effectively set up for the final gates.

Robert Thorne took the day’s 1000 point PAX win in the BigBadWolf S2000, this time with fresh rear tires. Chris Mayfield was hot on Robert’s heels in his E92 M3 coupe. Chris is currently third in X for the season, not surprising considering how many hours of seat time he has put into honing his driving skills. The BigBadWolf’s codriver Amanda Hahn came in #3 for the day. Amanda has held firm class places and wins this season, her gutsy style allowing her to hold her own amongst racing veterans.

Amanda and Jessica battled it out in Ladies Class with Amanda taking the win by 2.2 seconds, though Jessica does admittedly have a “passenger.” But in a Street Prepared vehicle, every ounce matters. The combination of a well prepared car and fearless driver can create a challenging new dimension to class competition.

Expert Class saw yet another interesting rank of drivers; the top contenders constantly shuffle back and forth as they gain hundredths and even thousandths of a second. David Jobusch was edged out by codriver Lee Michael by 0.001 seconds! Mark Smith moved into the trophy spots in his mother Connie’s Audi TT and Chris Mayfield, who had been car-hopping which likely kept him out of the trophy spots, pulled a solid 2nd place in his E92 M3.

Tad Kaminski proved himself once again in D Street Tire; after event #3 he apparently won’t let Robert Critchley eke by him again, and took the win by over half a second.

Both D Street Tire and BMW Race Tire classes proved to be a showcase of decades of BMW development: D Street featured everything from a 1972 2002, to a 2004 330Ci. Joe Lavonas was out in his yellow 1969 1600 in BMW Race Tire, the bright little car like an M&M sliding across the kitchen counter.  He was matched against three E36 M3s and an E46 330i, with Brad Kettler taking that class’s win in his red 1998 M3.

Despite rain clouds rolling over Pikes Peak and heading east, the weather held in Fountain and the course stayed hot and dry until the 11:30th hour when it was time to quickly pack up.

Event #4 results and current season standings

A slew of E46 M3's line up for their afternoon runs.

Two days after Coloradans celebrated America’s 236th anniversary of its Independence from Britain, Rocky Mountain BMW club members gathered in the expansive parking lot of Pikes Peak International Raceway to shred some tires in the clubs 4th event of the 2013 summer autocross series.  Event #4 also marked the middle of the season, so if your one of those gunning for end of year championship trophies; you only have 3 more events to try and boost your standings!

Mark Gerrard brings the car out of the tight 180° corner at the end of the course.

Dan Barbattini had a blazing fast final run in his nicely upgraded M3

Bryce Kliewer has no problem with his season standings with his 3rd BAS win in a row in the grey 330i sedan; he has pulled a solid lead by over 100 points to second place Dan Barbattini in season points.  Eugene Yen lead the battle of M3’s, and Dan made a banzai last run to jump from 6th all the way up to 3rd place!

Kris Lee clamps down hard on the brakes after passing the finish line.

The MINI’s continue to mop up BBS class with Kris Lee at the front for the 4th time this year!  Ryan Telford brought his shiny new 2013 Pepper White MINI Cooper S out and was very consistent all afternoon.  As a former Pepper White Clubman S owner, this author enjoyed Ryan’s performance.  Mario Ricci snagged 4th place in his very nice Graphite Silver 2006 M3 and was the fastest BMW… in BMW B Street tire class, hmmm.

Ryan Telford and the other MINI's were fast all day.

Sarah Long entered her very first autocross & Fox Chung helps her navigate the course.

The round headlight battle in BCS continues, but with hot shoe Carl Levonas MIA, Eric Long grabbed the win from Karl Parsons in the lone E30 M3.

Eric Van Der Heide makes his dad's 330ci dance through the slalom.

Eric Van Der Heide found the very last bit of grip in his Dunlop Star Specs to take the win in BDS class.  BDS is always great for close competition, and this event was no different!  The top 6 drivers were all within a ½ second of each other in cars built over a 32 year span.  Gary Allen avoided the pointy orange things this event and wheeled his 2002 into 2nd place, his highest of the year!  Although Tad Kaminski and Robert Critchley came in an unusual 3rd & 6th place respectively; these two are only 12 points apart in the season standings, the closest race in the field.

A stock E30 in great condition like Deforest Hamilton's is hard to find now days.

Chris and Ian Guy brought out their well-loved E28 535i and ran it in BES.  Chris hacked a staggering 2 seconds off each of his 4 runs, but in the end lost to Deforest Hamilton by 24 thousandths of a second!  Hamilton and the Guys were all first timers to BMWCCA events, and I hope they continue to campaign cool joungtimmer BMW’s!

Karen Lange has been consistently quick all year in her Daytona Violet M3.

The Ladies Class once again brought in a large crowd of fast drivers.  Amanda Hahn showed up in a monster of a Honda S2000 appropriately dubbed “Big Bad Wolf” and handily took the win at her first event.  Jessica Feldpusch drove the green 325is to a solid second place while season point leader Kim Kliewer rounded out the top 3.  Karen Lange placed 4th in her purple people eater, and I made sure to take extra photos of the Daytona M3 as I must have missed it last event.

Amanda Hahn makes this S2000, dubbed BBW, really move!

Steve Hamilton zooms into the finish box.

Chapter president Steve Hamilton snagged the top spot in the BMW race tire class in his beautiful Estoril Blue 1999 M3.  Yarko Thomas’s blue MINI with extra wide hoosiers posted a fast time on his first run before the electronic throttle cable do-hickey decided it didn’t want to work any longer.  Cory Rowan cruised into 3rd and mid-season class leader, Geoff Kampe 4th.  If you are reading this from the email newsletter, you can thank Cory for putting the email together as well as working on updating/streamlining many of the social media avenues.  If you are the Charlie Sheen (the social media genius part, not the drug-induced crazy) of your online circle, I’m sure Cory would like your ideas on making the RMCBMWCCA’s online presence more valuable!  Drop him a note at marketing@rmcbmwcca.org

Kevin Aiken pilots CSU's FSAE car.

The usual suspects in X class were all out paced by Robert Throne’s Big Bad Wolf.  Wearing beautifully machined CCW wheels, Robert’s Honda S2k beat out Mark Baer by just a little more than a second PAX time.  In season standings, Mark has a solid 90 point lead over auto-x chair Michael Feldpusch after 4 events.  Barry Ott in a Honda-powered tiny open wheeler came in 3rd and course designer Christopher Mayfield landed in 4th before chording the front tires of the co-driven Mitsubishi EVO.

Salil Shukla is always smooth and well poised in his Porsche Cayman R.

Ryan Schossow’s Mitsubishi EVO handily beat Sali Shukla’s fantastic Cayman R in the non-BMW street tire class.  Brett Almquists piloted his Subaru STi into 3rd. Non BMW class always has an interesting mixture of cars, and this event was no different. The Stingray Corvette and original MINI were my two favorites.

The green-tape-on-a-spoke trick looked great at speed!

Our next event will again be at PPIR on 27 July.  Click here: http://rmcbmwcca.motorsportreg.com/ to register, deadline is 6:00pm on the 24!  Colorado Springs’ own Short Stop will be on hand brewing coffee and tasty breakfast burritos in the morning and hearty burgers at lunch.  Be sure to support the guys that support our events!

Heat A preps for the afternoon runs.

For more pictures, check out the full set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/55094281@N03/sets/72157634517953537/

Mario Ricci looking far ahead for the next corner segment.

 See you soon!

Summer Event #3 results:

David Duecker pilots his Z4 3.5is... The best looking BMW currently in production.

Rocky Mountain BMW CCA summer autocross #3 was a huge hit with 74 participants and a great course that was both fast and technical.  With 3 different type of slaloms, getting a good rhythm was difficult and an easy way to lose precious time.

David Jobusch explains the technicalities of the last slalom in the morning novice course walk.

The morning started with Fox Chung tech inspecting every car, David Jobusch giving great insight during the morning course walk, and Michael Feldpusch giving the drivers meeting.  Soon after, the first cars were off for the morning practice runs!

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Micheal Feldpusch hosts the morning driving meeting

Ryan Murphy recently upgraded to a newer M3 and spent the afternoon testing out the increased power-band.

This event had a huge ladies class with 10 Participants including a few first timers!  Karen Lange and Kim Kliewer had a close race for 2nd place; the two have been dueling all season and will be fun to watch for the rest of the year.  However, they were no match for Jessica Feldpusch who was over a second faster than 2nd place.  So fast in fact, she beat her husband who co-drove their mighty 325 by three thousandths of a second!

Current three-time Formula 1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel began go-karting at the age of 3.  Baby Feldpusch (inside the pink shirt) began beating daddy at 3 months in the oven!

BMW D Stock, as always, drew a large & diverse group of competitors.  Tad Kaminski worked hard, but was unable to unseat Robert Critchley from 1st place.  These two are always close competitors, and both are super smooth drivers.  Erick Van Der Heide snatched 3rd, and also took home bragging rights by beating his dad by over a second.

Haille Kupfer exercises "Barney," her dad's European spec 1993 M5 with the mighty 3.8L inline-6.

The battle of 1988 ///M cars continued in BMW C stock.  Unfortunately, the M3 co-driven by Caleb Levonas and Karl Parsons ran out of gear in the fast course, and Eric Long's M5 had the legs to edge out the little 4-banger.  A tighter course would have probably swapped the outcome.

Caleb Levonas makes the mighty E30 M3 dance.

Kris Lee's dominance of BBS continued with his JCW MINI destroying the rest of the field.  With his little MINI hardly keeping a rear wheel on the ground, this driver/car combo is always potent.  David Duecker brought his lovely 2011 Z4 3.5is and gave the Sunday cruiser quite a workout landing in 2nd place.  Christopher Dawkins rounded out 3rd, co-driving the JCW MINI.  BBS has many fast drivers that are great to watch while out on course.

James Dawkins in his Valencia Orange 2011 BMW 1M.

BMW A Stock should be renamed M3 class, as 9 out of 10 participants ran the top 3 series.  However, the class winner, Bryce Kliewer proves two events in a row that you don't need the ///Motorsports tweaks (or ///Marketing for cars built after 1991) to go fast.  Really fast.  Bryce's 2003 330i sedan edged out Shane Kurowski, the Fastest of the M3's, by just a tenth of a second.  Brett Kurowski nabbed 3rd and Eugene Yen, 4th.  The top 4 drivers were within a second of each other, making this a hotly contested class!

Quintin Golay drives the 2nd Generation M Coupe.  Apex Arc-8 rims look great on this curvy chassis.

The top BMW class, X-Class, had a very close competition between David Jobusch and Lee Michael in the red 1993 325is.  David used his slalom skills to his advantage and grabbed the win by almost a 1/2 second, and also had the fastest time of the day.  Mark Baer placed 3rd, and James Darden 4th in his lime green 2002 roundie.

James Dardens 2002 is bright, loud, and fast.  Cool.

Mike Faucett & Kevin Aiken drove this frankenstein 328i in X class.  It's wing is nutty, and the car sounds like thunder.

Our next event is quickly approaching at Pikes Peak International Raceway on July 6th.  Strategically placed one sober sleep after the 4th of July; this should be a great event as PPIR is a huge lot allowing course designer Chris Mayfield lots of room to challenge us drivers.  To register, Click here: Registration 

Old MINI's are Awesome.  Bob Dixon's 1979 Austin MINI is super cool!

Just like barnacles on a ship's hull, nearly every car has a go-pro suctioned onto it in some way.  I've you've uploaded a video from the event, please share it in the comment section below!  Here are two runs in my old E28 M5, what do you think of view through the sunroof Karen?


After the first two events, I was asked dozens of times if I uploaded all the pictures I took of the event somewhere.  Luckily sometime between event #2 and #3, Flickr announced a free 1TB of storage for photo's!  So follow this link for a large amount of pictures from event #3! 
Tons of event #3 pics!

Download/link/share as you please, I took these photo's for our club members to enjoy!  Also, I took about 1600 total, so if you want to see more of your car (I choose the ones I thought looked the best) just leave a comment with the car # and a good way to contact you.

2002 owners...

Have a fun & safe 4th of July, hope to see you at the next event!

Summer Event #2 results:

Eric Mees drives his 328i to the limit on the back slalom.

Event 2 at PPIR was a welcome change from the cold wind of event #1!  Chris Mayfield designed a fast course that flowed nicely when driven briskly, but got super technical when wheeled just faster than you’re comfortable.  Many of the students from the previous days auto-x school were able to put their training to good use in both the increasing radius sweepers and offset distance slaloms that kept your rhythm guessing!

Mark Baer piloted his E36 M3 to the fasted time of the day.

David Jobusch’s morning track walk gave great insight into the track layout.  A few corners could have been tricky if driven “cone to cone” but as David pointed out, a nice constant radius turn can change the set of cones that don’t line up just right into a nice smooth arc.

Dan Barbattini flies through the last corner

Bryce Kliewer beat out ALL OF THE M3’s in BAS using his 2003 330i, besting Eugene Yen in his well prepped 1995 M3 by over a second.  Peter Williams did a great job shaving time off of his runs, dropping about a second per lap and finishing in 3^rd place.

Bryce Kliewer's 330i is fast.  Fast sedans are cool.

 

Kris Lee and his tripod MINI JCW dominated BBS all day; in fact he was almost a ½ second faster than the winner of class above him!  James Dawkins in his 1M took second place from Mario Ricci as he got faster and faster each run. If James had 3 extra runs he might have been able to close the gap on Kris!

 

Tad Kaminski entering the difficult increasing distance "wall'am."

By far the largest and most diverse class of the day was BDS with 16 motorist driving 8 different chassis.  Robert Critchley squeezed out a victory over Tad Kaminski by just 2 hundredths of a second!  The top 5 drivers of BDS were within a ½ second of 1^st for a very competitive class.  The Clary clan gets the award for most drivers with the same last name, while Hallie and Victor Kupfer battled it out in Vic’s euro 3.8L M5.  Hallie edged out her dad by a tenth of a second; did he let her win, or did she out wheel her dad? Hmm...

Robert Critchley's 325is navigates the Wallam while Sputnik the water tower looks on.

Kim Kliewer took the class win in the Ladies Class in her seriously fast 2003 330i.  Melanie Pora in her DSP prepared 325is was just a tenth off Kim’s time and Karen Lange rounded out the top 3 in her Daytona Violet M3. 

David Clary's 540i/6 sounds like a Hawker Sea Fury at takeoff.

In the Non BMW class, Ryan Schossow beat out Tyler Jago in a battle of the Japanese AWD turbo monsters.  Rick Black and Vicki Kording co-drove their Noble M12 that looked like a quite a handful.

Rick Black's Noble attacks the last straight before the final sweeper.

Mark Baer is 2 for 2 in X class wins in his 1997 M3. Mark also took the fastest raw time of the day & the top PAX time.   Fast!

Mark Baer in his lucky socks collects his winnings.

 

Michael Feldpusch and Tom Pora, both in DSP prepared 325is battled for 2^nd all afternoon, with Michael taking 2^nd  in X class by a quarter second!  

Tom Pora's DSP prepared 325is has so much grip that only 3 wheels are necessary.

 

Chris Mayfield came in an unusual last; driving his new S54 powered 325is that he finished putting together early the morning of.  His runs looked more like a jet boat without a rudder than a race car on gummy Hoosiers!

Chris Mayfield drifts into the timing lights.

The race tire class was fairly small with only 3 cars entered.  Brad Kettler took the class win in his 1998 M3.  Cory Rowan came in second also driving a E36 M3, and Geoff Kampe was close behind in 3rd.

Brad Kettler's E36 M3 blasts through the timing lights.

Quite a few cars have go-pro's suctioned all over them; if you have uploaded some of your runs, please post a link to your video in the comments section! 

James Dawkins BMW 1M looks like a lot of fun at the limit.

 See you in June!