The Virginia-based BimmerWorld team was looking forward to a successful race at their home track, and in many ways, the strides made by the BMW aftermarket and tuning specialists during the event were exceptional. Prodigious speed demonstrated in practice and again qualifying with the new BimmerWorld-developed turbocharged BMW 328i had team owner/driver James Clay feeling optimistic for race day with the German brand’s F30 platform.

IMSA’s Continental Tire Series has given the team great opportunities to showcase the F30’s performance attributes, but the 2.5-hour contest at VIR delivered more frustration than fruitful outcomes for Clay’s two-car program. With the No. 81 BimmerWorld BMW 328i driven by Andrie Hartanto and Tyler Cooke starring in time trials, and Clay and teammate Jason Briedis following suit in the No. 84 OPTIMA Batteries BMW, the best results were captured prior to the race.

“Every weekend these F30 BMW cars continue to get better,” said Clay. “We have tested multiple times at VIR, and we have the cars dialed in there, and they rolled off the trailer quick. We did do a bit of tuning because even though we had speed, the car didn’t feel right and wasn’t the long-distance racer I wanted to drive for hours, but by the last practice, we had them dialed and recorded the unofficial track record in the process. Qualifying again saw both cars inside the top-10, and we had the pace to have both top-5 without traffic issues.”

BimmerWorld races to develop next-generation performance parts for BMW owners, and as VIR proved, a brand-new racing platform like the F30 can present the team with learning opportunities in various forms. And when those lessons take the form of problems, Clay’s staff of engineers and technicians are quick to turn the information into revisions and upgrades.

“We have come far on this N20 turbo engine and it performed well even in hot conditions at VIR, but we had a couple of ancillary issues that caused problems,” he explained. “Now that the long race-every-other-weekend stretch is over, we have an opportunity to go over the cars with a fine-toothed comb. We continue to work on improving the cooling system as the summer moves along and the events get hotter. We were good at the 85 degrees of VIR and will have a few new parts on the car to handle the heat coming up at the next race in Texas.”

With two races left to run in 2015, Clay says BimmerWorld will use the time between VIR and Circuit of The Americas on Sept. 18 in the Lone Star state to bring the team’s F30s closer to Victory Lane.

“The first win of this platform has been within our grasp, but elusive to date,” he noted. “We have the pace and a solid car. I know we are doing everything we can to get that one out of the way before the end of the season.”

FOLLOW BIMMERWORLD AT: https://www.facebook.com/bimmerworld

STAY UP TO DATE WITH BIMMERWORLD NEWS AT: http://www.bimmerworldracing.com

ABOUT: BimmerWorld is renowned as a leader in BMW aftermarket and tuning expertise, and competes in the Continental Tire Series with a pair of BMW 328is (F30) where the Virginia-based outfit has become a routine winner and Championship contender.