October Rounds 13 &14 @ Infineon Raceway

Infineon Raceway, October 9th

• GTS1: McClure qualifies on the pole and wins race!
  

• Spec E30: Brad McClure Qualifies in 2nd position next to Trefethen on the Pole with Gary in third.
  

• 1	69	Loren Trefethen	1:57.568
  2	91	Team BTM Motorwerks	1:57.666

• After two restarts, and Team Berkley got black flagged, the BTM Motorwerks BMW walks away from the field, post fast lap of the race with a 1:58.491 and takes 1st Place.

Oct 10th, round 14

• GTS1: McClure again Qualifies P1 and wins race.
  

• Spec E30"Round 14 qualifying was almost a copy of Saturdays results with Trefethen on Pole, Brad Mcclure, Greg Petersen, and McMicking

		Loren Trefethen	1:58.740	4
		Team BTM Motorwerks	1:58.863

Due to a horrible starting in Saturdays race the official decided to penalize us with inverting the grid. The funny part is, that Team Berkley who has been winning a lot of races this season, for some reason qualified 3 seconds off pace, and now with the inverted field, he's up in front again. A little suspicious. In addition to the inverted grid, the track configuration was changed to the Indy setup.
The start was great, Brad McClure nails the start and jumps 5 position as he heads in to turn 2 with 17 anxious Spec E30 drivers. Fortunately for the first lap, it was all clean tight racing. The BTM Motorwerks BMW was working up in the field, dodging Scott Nevels punt/spin in turn 4 and then later the Berkley car gets punted in turn 7, making McClure go really wide and gets passed by 3 cars.
The rest of the race, was just a serious battle to the front like if you were in a concert trying to get to the front bar.
We ended up in Second Place for the event. What a great race it was.

Our Next event in November 6th & 7th for the season finally. BTM Motorwerks is currently in 3rd place.

A RS America in Marina

BTM Motorwerks racing has been visiting Marina, CA with the Porsche club during the summer break when NASA Road racing series takes some time off.

Here is a great Picture of Ross & Keli Martindales 1994 RS America at Marina.

Our own Porsche Carrera RS Turbo is getting dialed in. Unfortunately on the second run, we broke a axle. The turbo power comes on in a fierce way and with the 335/35/17 Hoosiers, something is going to give way. I'm glad it was just the axle and not the 915 gearbox.

We will be at Infineon Raceway on October 9th and 10th for round 7 of the Nor Cal Spec E30 racing series http://norcalspece30.com/ Anyone is welcome to come by. Just look for the Big black truck & trailer with the BTM Motorwerks.

Cheers

Brad.

Thunderhill Backwards is Llihrednuht.

NASA's May return to Thunderhill had racing going the opposite (clockwise) direction around the track as the previous event, so Team BTM mixed things up as well by having me run Spece30 Saturday, and Brad running the full schedule Sunday at the aptly-named Llihrednuht track.

Aside from a broken suspension piece causing a dismal 11th place qualifying for the Saturday Spec e30 race, qualifying was relatively uneventful and we prepped the 91 car for a GTS Challenge race followed by a Spec e30 race later in the day. Known to be built in the center of an unpredictable weather zone that would put the Bermuda triangle to shame, just about 20 minutes before the GTS race, the skies clouded over and put a significant amount of water down on the track, leaving the field scrambling for tires and setup options.

The large Norcal GTS Challenge field took its usual rolling start and had a surprisingly uneventful trip through turns 15 and 14, a sole 911 slowly spinning off out of the rest of the field's way. One standout though, was the BTM 91 car picking up a few places from its midfield start in the first turn. But it didn't stop there. Even though running in the slower GTS2 class, Brad began to reel in several GTS3 and 4 cars, eventually running in 2nd overall for most of the race. While his wet-weather skills were unparalled, the track's unpredictability hit again, this time drying out, and allowing Team Roadrunner's Austin N. to catch up and challenge, finally passing Brad in a daring move going into T15. Brad brought home 2nd place, still ahead of several much higher classed cars.

I jumped in the 91 car fresh from earlier qualifying repairs and lined up a dismal 11th. No rain or other extenuating circumstances appeared to be imminent for the race, but I knew I could surprise a few people with a car faster than it was in qualifying. The signature Spec e30 standing start went off without a hitch, and the field charged into the 15 - 14 complex 3 wide. With some good anticipation and help from a spinning car, I worked through the field, and got a good run coming out of 10 for the charge up to 9. A few more optimal turns, and after the 1st lap I found myself in 6th. And while I'd taken 5 cars on the 1st lap, the next 10 laps turned into an epic battle with the Team Roadrunner car again, this time driven by teammate Kevin N.

It took a good 4 laps of picture-perfect turns to get up to the rear bumper, and a few more laps to figure out where I could possibly get around Kevin. One lap I got alongside in T6, and we battled side by side, over 5, 4, 3, and finally he was able to make it back around in T2.

It ended up that I wasn't making time on him on the front straight in spite of the draft, but his line into 9 seemed to be where I could make up the most. I set him up for that, passed going out of 9, and came alongside braking for 8, a full-speed downhill bumpy camber-challenged no runoff turn. We again stayed side by side all the way into T6, but this time, I was able to make the gap stick. Kevin dogged me all the way to the finish line, but a hard-fought 5th place went to the BTM car.

Sunday went even better - Brad brought a few more tweaks to the GTS challenge race, got pole, and motored away from the pack. Stay tuned for pics and video!

-- Andy Chittum

BTM - T for Thunder

There comes a time in each racer's career when they've looked at, sat in, raced, and smelled a car for some period of time. You know each curve, crease, scrape and could tell the tire pressures or lug nut torque just by looking at them. Then a moment of revelation. "Oh, you idiot!" Then a few minutes later on the track, you're going a second and a half a lap faster.

That was my day at Thunderhill yesterday. Brad masterfully kicked the weekend off with a win in GTS2 and a strong 2nd place in Spec e30. Usually there's someone on Saturday night at Casa Ramos who's collecting more than their fair share of slaps on the back, and that night it was Brad. The BTM car has done okay this year, but the rising Norcal Se30 talent has kept it off the podium so far. Brad had done some very good Saturday driving. And perhaps those few subtle tweaks at the shop since round 2 really helped.

With Brad heading back to Campbell Sunday to build a customer motor, I got the 91 car up and running, warmed up and qualified. Aside from running out of gas early in the GTS Challenge qualifying session, the car felt fine, but not great. There was just something not jelling - my times were close to Brad (three-tenths can easily cover the top 10 Se30 qualifiers) I still felt that I was fighting the car instead of melding with it. And qualifying 7th in GTS and 6th in Se30, nearly 2 seconds back.

Then the moment. 20 minutes before I needed to be on grid for the GTS Challenge race, I knew what was wrong. 19 minutes later I was ready to go.

The flying start for NASA's Sunday GTS Challenge race ended up being a little ragged - the faster GTS cars and se30s not exactly all taking off at the same time, but I was able to take good advantage, and by the time I was setting up for the T5 bypass I'd moved from 6th in GTS2 to 2nd and looking for 1st. Greg Petersen's Green Machine was working well too and we had a great battle to the end of the race, picking off American Muscle-Buggy traffic left from the group ahead of us, each gaining and losing inches each lap.

20 minutes after finishing, the Se30 field took off and this time, a near picture-perfect start made me really work for the passes. A few good moves on the first lap, and I found myself at the tail of a Petersen - Zwain - Clough - Neville train practically glued together at the bumpers.

Under pressure from Scott N, Scott C did some high-speed lawn-mowing on the outside of Turn 1 about 5 laps in, and we motored by him. After a short yellow to clear another car, Scott N also went wide in T6, and I caught up to Tony Z. While I was able to get a nose around in a few places, and finish with my tail lights even with his doors at the end of Thunderhill's long front straight, I had to settle for 3rd, and 2nd podium of the day.

Thanks to Brad for building a great little car. Looking forward to going really fast once I get to know it better...



Andy Chittum

BTM Motorwerks Porsche RSR revieled

Sunday Feb 7th, 2010
BTM Motorwerks revieled there Porsche RSR Turbo at the SCCA Solo II Race.
Designed specifically for Solo II X Prepared, this car utilizes full race suspension components from ERP and Smart Racing. with a power output of 390 HP and weighing just over 2000 Lbs, acceleration is fierce.
Sundays runs were planned shake down runs and data gathering. Overall, once tire temps started to increase, the performance was impressive. For the 1st shakedown we were only 2 seconds off TTOD.
Stay tuned for more info.

2009 BTM Motorwerks Racing Season wrap up

BTM Motorwerks had a very good season.

• Andy Chittum driving the BTM Motorwerks / Lemans Karting BMW 328I US Touring car had a great season finishing 4th at the NASA Nationals at Miller Motorsports park ans Second overall in US Touring car championships
• http://nasachampionships.com/pdf/2009/Group%20C.pdf
• http://www.ustcc.com/
• Brad McClure, President of BTM Motorwerks also had a great year of Racing. This was Brad's Rookie year acquiring his Race license in 2009. Some key points
• 3rd fastest lap record at Infineon
• 2nd fastest lap at Button Willow
• 4th Place at NASA Nationals at Miller Motorsports Park
• 3rd overall NASA Norcal.