Classic BMW’s Racing Roots


As soon as BMW came into existence it entered racing events. BMW felt like racing was important to prove to the automotive world that their product was worthy of the consumers' money. BMW's early record in racing was stellar actually setting land speed records by a motorcycle as well as altitude records with its aircraft engines. Automobile racing followed with great success in all forms of competition.

In the early 70s Classic BMW opened its doors in Richardson Texas. And quickly after opening a race effort began. A BMW 2002 was prepared by a crew of Classic BMW technicians and Jack Scott, a salesman at Classic took the wheel as the driver. I was a kid and my dad would take me to the races at Green Valley Raceway, famous because Evel Knievel once jumped a bunch of cars there. We would watch race after race, smelling the familiar racing smells or gasoline, brakes, clutches and burning rubber. Imagine the racing scene in the early 70s - American muscle was at its peak. Corvette, Mustang, Camaro and Barracuda were the names of the day, and those were the cars that the little 2002 raced. And the 2002 did very well, quick in the twisty portion of the track and not so fast in the high speed sections, a third place trophy from the SCCA Sunburn races of 1972 sits in my office.

Move the clock forward to 2004 and Classic BMW ramped up its racing efforts to the modern day. We began the same way that we started in the early 70s, with cars that were prepared by Classic BMW technicians and driven by one of our salespeople. Our initial efforts featured a 2002. Our return year into racing taught us that there was a learning curve. In 2005 we bought a Z4 roadster and entered into SCCA's Showroom Stock B category. The car had success with its prior owner, winning the prestigious "Runoffs", the equivalent of a racing National Championship. Our first few races with this car again proved to be lackluster, as we managed podium finishes, but never near a race win. As our season neared an end I received a call from Toby Grahovec, a 23 year old racer from Chicago from a racing family. Toby and I struck a deal and Toby entered into the 2005 "Runoffs" at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course as the driver for Classic BMW Motorsports. In a test session prior to the race Toby ran times much quicker than we had ever seen from our driver. He showed us that "the most valuable nut in the race car is the one behind the wheel." Toby qualified the Z4 on pole and led the race from green flag to checkered, giving both himself and Classic BMW a first National Championship!

Since that time we have won a second National Championship in Showroom Stock, in 2009 and we have managed to finish on the podium in every race that Toby has driven our Z4 in SCCA.

We also have competed in the Grand-am series in the ST class. We ran two full seasons in Grand-am finishing a few races on the podium and placing in the top 10 each year in points. In the Grand-am series we have led races at Limerock, Laguna-Seca, Barber Motorsports Park, Mosport as well as Daytona.

September 2011 again found us competing in the "Runoffs" with one car running in the STU division, heavily modified under 3.0 liter cars and the Z4 again in Showroom Stock where we won the pole position the race. Holding a respectable position while dealing with some technical difficulties the Z4 finished fifth. The saying, “give them roots and give them wings” certainly applies to the Classic BMW Motorsport team. The team is well grounded but has been given wings to fly around the track. The future continues to look bright for Classic BMW Motorsports as we fine-tune our game plans for next year.

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