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.
  

BTM Motorwerks in 1st place, Norcal region

October 2009 - Button Willow raceway

This was the the first time on the track at Button Willow raceway. For Saturday, I qualified 3rd with a 2:11.171. For the race, I was having a great race, but unable up my position and finishing 3rd. Not bad for the first race on this track.
Sundays race I qaulified 3rd with a 2:04.782 , 0.335 behind Ferarrio. At the start I was able to pickup a position, but Carl quickly got by again. We had a fierce battle for second place untill Carls tires were gone and he lost control in Riverside, thats when I made my pass. Unfortunatly we had contact and I went off the track high speed. We had a large gap to the 4th place car adn I was able to keep my second place till the finish.
With Donny Edward no showing, this now puts BTM Motorwerks racing in 1st place for the series.

Next month is the finals at Infineon. It will be a battle, but BTM Motorwerks has a little surprise. Stay tuned.

BTM Motorwerks, 4th place at NASA Nationals - Miller Motorsports, Utah

September 2009

NASA Nationals in Tooele Utah, Miller Motorsports Park

Team BTM Motorsports started with a very cool drive out to Utah, stopping at Bonneville Salt Flats. What an amazing flat large area. We didn't get a chance to unload our BMW Spec E30, but we did a few burnouts with our Ford F250. I think it would be alot of fun to build a Bonneville Bimmer or Porsche.

We arrived at Miller on Tuesday night to be ready for Wednesday Test & Tune.
On Wednesday, the first thing we noticed is at 4400 feet, we are down on power. The SE30's have 150 HP at sea level, so at 4400 feet we were around 135 Hp and on Miller Motorsports park, the car seemed slow. After a few adjustments, we were turing some good times.
On thursday Qaul race we Qualified 3rd adn finisehed 3rd at 2:22.891.
Friday we tried the Toyo RA1's , but were off pace and Qualified 4th.

On Saturday, we put the R888's back on. At the start of the race, right after going into 3rd gear, VICTOR BERAJA and Scott Neville hit, sending Scott into my drivers door. This hit sends me sidways across the track and into the dirt. I was able to keep my car going in the right direction, but was now behind. The Yellow flag came out which allowed me to catch up. Once the green flag dropped, Devinney, Cabetto, and Ferrario pulled away. I later found out that they all had fresh engines. Mine had 188,000 miles on it. The rest of the race was by my self trying to catch DeVinney. I finshed 4th in the NAtionals.
The whole event would have been better if ther were more SE30's out there.

Thunderhill Raceway, 8/22 & 8/23

Thunderhill raceway, August 22nd, and 23rd.

Rounds 11 and 12. Team BTM Motorwerks is sitting in second place for the series points.

• It's Saturday August 22nd, it's 103 degrees out and I'm(Brad McClure) in the BTM Werks Spec E30 racer. I have qualified in 7th position on my new R888 tires. During the start of the race I was a little too aggressive grabbing second gear and missed the shift. Fortunately it didn't loose me any positions. Rounding turns 1-3 went smooth holding my position. In turn 4, this is when things get messy. The Berkley Motorwerks car # 26 driven by Gary Rieger is in front of me and starts going wide, then wider, then he's off the track. I proceed to stay on line going up the bypass and Gary hits he hard in the RR quarterpanel sending me spinning up and over the bypass. It was quite the spin. The hit bent my control arm, broke the CV joint, and did some body damage. Take a look at the damage he took.
  

Thunderhill Raceway

Bumper fragments from Team Berkley's car

My wrap got damaged too.


Here is Brad in rental car for Sundays Race





Finished 7th in a 318is after sliding off the track 4 laps into the race. This car was very fun.