Perfect Symmetry - BMW at Laguna Seca

Take two icons and place them together, what you get? Magic that’s what you get!

When it was announced that BMW would celebrate their 100th anniversary they could not have picked a better race track than Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca; it’s eleven turns and 2.238 miles were perfectly suited for BMWs 100th birthday Bash as drivers and fans alike love the track nestled in the foothills above Monterey Bay. The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion with BMW as the featured marque got added to the MotorWerks Magazine schedule very quickly after the event was announced. And with the BMW CCA Oktoberfest running the following week at the same track, it would make for a perfect Germanic trip down memory lane. Memory is a great thing and when you are in your sixties like Norm Nelson and I there were many great cars in racing that made an impression on us and they raced on both side of the Atlantic. The BMW CSL is a true icon in motorsport, those big slab arches, huge rear wing and BBS rims. It was a standout, both in memory and on the track. Mazda Raceway had them aplenty! And Norm and I were in heaven, hopefully you will too, enjoy the photos.

Luigi Racing CSL chassis 001. Luigi and Francesco Cimarosti campaigning a BMW 2002 in the Belgian Production Touring Car Championship, winning it in 1970. They went on to take the top step of the podium at the Spa 24 Hour race in 1974 and 1975 proving to BMW they could take the Munich marque to the Winners Circle. In 1976 when the Group 2 saloon car regulations placed restrictions on wheel width, aerodynamics and engine configurations the Cimarosti Brothers saw an opportunity for Luigi Racing to step up and compete in the European Championship as BMW had no interest in running a factory team. Their previous accomplishments had impressed BMW enough that they supplied the duo with two CSL chassis for the upcoming season. Walker bought the car and had it shipped to Seattle in 2014. Over the years it had seen many modifications including the addition of Group 5 box type arches and a smaller fuel cell that had been used when the car was running in hillclimbs.

Owner: Scott Hughes

TC Kline Racing ran this BMW 320i inthe North American Super Touring CarChampionship

Defending Super Touring Car Champion, Randy Pobst switched brands when TC Kline Racing replaced the Honda Accord with a BMW 320i. The change to BMW did not yield the success the team or Pobst had hoped for and there were no wins in 1997 but consistency and finishes allowed Pobst to finish fifth in the championship. Seen here dropping through the Corkscrew TC Kline himself is piloting the car for Scott who is driving his Valvoline sponsored E36 in the same race.