La Carrera Panamericana 2007
Story by Rhett Hubertus - Photos by Rhett Hubertus and Mario Domenzain

"Come Live the Legend," states the La Carrera Panamericana website enticingly to those with the drive & allure of speed & vintage road racing. I can now say that from experience this statement is as true as can be. Our team consisted of Terry Sayther - Piloto numero uno, Mario Domenzain - Co-Piloto, Bill Arnold - maestro de BMW & veteran Targa Newfoundland 3 time overall winner in his modified Bavaria, & myself - Rhett Hubertus Esq. Terry & I left several days early to head down to Mexico on the "Coyote Convoy," a group of racers from the US who gather in Laredo to cross the border & have a pre-race weekend in the beautiful town of San Miguel de Allende, while Bill & Mario were to meet us in Oaxaca. Last year was the 1st year the convoy stopped over in San Miguel, & a charity banquet in the racers honor as well as a car show in the Centro provided a warm relaxing weekend in one of the most beautiful colonial cities in Mexico. Our 58' BMW 502 sedan was a veteran of the La Carrera in 2002 & 2004, & the overall class winner in the Original Panam class in 04. It was also voted most beautiful car that year, & is always a standout among the typical Mustangs, Volvos, Studebakers (not to say they aren't beautiful), & Porsches. After the weekend in San Miguel we headed for Oaxaca where the event was to begin. Getting there a few days early allowed time to register for the event, look over the car & ensure its preparedness, & enjoy a few more relaxing days before the main event. Oaxaca is wonderful with its tropical background, excellent food, & colorful surroundings. The traffic & infrastructure of the main road through town though is quite insane. The main road is a like bizarro superman comic in that it criss-crosses several times, & once taking one direction of traffic into the center with 2 outside lanes on either side going the opposite direction. Lanes are reduced from 2 to 3, & shoving your way through traffic seems to be an official custom. If it can be done, someone will try it. Very entertaining. Thursday was the day of the qualifying which ran the 1st speed stage of the following race day. Bill, myself, & another service guy headed out early to find a spot to watch the 502 & the other cars take a few corners, as we wouldn't have much of a chance later on to see any of the action. The qualifying & 1st day are typically very hard on cars & drivers, as adrenaline starts to kick in as everyone has their 1st chance to put their car to the test on the pavement. Everyone was in good form, & no cars were wrecked on the qualifying. Most people were holding back in efforts to save their cars for another day. The 502 glided through the turns performing effortlessly, as it seemed to speed through the course faster then most of the other cars we had seen. No question, it looked damn good. That night Bill & I had a short list to tend to before the start of the race the following day.

Part 2 There had been a knocking noise when going over bumps, which we sourced to a loose sway bar link, & the right exhaust had wallowed itself out at the exhaust manifold around the doughnut causing the entire right exhaust from the manifold back to become loose. We tightened the sway bar links & shimmed the exhaust doughnut with project wire, checked the fluids, made sure everything was tight, test drove, & gave it our seal of approval. Bill & I needed to be out early the next morning, so after filling up the car & the test drive, we took it to the hotel so Terry & Mario would be able to drive out the next morning from the hotel, while Bill & I were to take a taxi early in the morning to get to the truck & head to the service checkpoint. Waking up at 6am & scrambling to the truck foreshadowed the next 7 days of the race, as it’s a necessity for the service crew to be ahead of the racers & prepared at the service checkpoint for whatever the day may bring. We made it to the checkpoint by 8:15 & started the long wait for the destined service time of 10:15am. Around 10am, cars began trickling in. Calculating the time that the 502 had left, we determined that it should arrive at approx. 10:37am. Bill waited in the truck, ready for action, while I waited at the checkpoint taking pictures of cars as they crossed. Almost all of the cars had arrived, including some cars that had placed after the 502. I became anxious regarding the status of the 502, as there had been some rumors of wrecked cars but no real details. I continued looking for our car when Chacho, a friend of Mario’s & mechanic crewing for a Mini team from Florida, pointed to a van saying, “isn’t that Terry?” I looked over & saw Terry with a bandaged hand & knee, in shorts & no driving suit. This could not be good. “The car wrecked… it drove itself into a cliff… we sort of jumped, then fell backwards into a ditch with the nose pointed towards the sky… I’m not sure how bad the damage is, but it’s bad… Mario’s still with the car… I don’t know if he’s got a wrecker…” “Not good at all,” I thought. Terry said that he was alright, though his knee was hurt, but overall he said he was okay. Mario was alright as well, & had stayed with the car. I’d got Bill after talking to Terry, & he’d heard already hear that the car had wrecked. It was another 15 minutes before enough traffic cleared to drive to the 502. After 30-40 minutes of driving we found the car on the side of the road, damaged badly in the left front where it came down the hardest. The wrecker had pulled it out of the hole upside down we later found out, and the roof and trunk were damaged from the extraction. I immediately checked the steering to see if the linkage had failed, but the linkage & tie rods were still attached. Mario was nowhere to be found, & Bill & I helped the wrecker driver secure the car (the rear wheels/axle appeared undamaged), followed him to a police station where Mario had supposedly been taken. Once we arrived, we were told that he’d just left, so we followed the wrecker driver to his junkyard where we were able to load up the car backwards onto the trailer with the help of this skilled wrecker-meister. After everything was loaded, we drove towards Tehuacan to find Terry & Mario. We initially had some trouble finding them as there were 3 possible hotels for Carreraristas, but we were eventually able to find Terry & Mario at their hotel. It had been a long arduous day filled with stresses that I’d hoped not to have, but we’d made it through with the car in tow & everyone was mostly alright. Terry had a cracked kneecap, & both Terry & Mario felt sore from the wreck & from bruises from the seatbelts. All things considered, they were very lucky to have such minor injuries. That day was definitely an illustration of the bad side of racing.

December 3rd, 2007

Well, the reviews are in and it's official, CVAR drivers liked the new Eagle's Canyon race track outside of Dallas. This weekend was the opening show for the track and general comments on the vintage racing forum were all positive. People commented about the technical challenge as well as the wide lanes. Terry said this :

"It could end up being the best track in Texas.."

Take a look at the track plan (Courtesy Eagles Canyon Raceway)

November 26th, 2007 - Reinforcing the 2002 Rollcage

September 29th, 2007- BMW CCA Oktoberfest Race at Motorsport Ranch in Ft. Worth, TX

Another big national race in the Frankenstein car. Last week we learned that we have suspension problems causing the inside wheels to lift in sharp corners. Without much time between events, we could only try small experiments - like installing smaller swaybars and changing tires.

The smaller swaybars from a stock M3 didn't do much for handling, so the aftermarket front bar went back on, rear off completely, front tighter then looser, then smaller rear tires...the cars handling became a real handful!

We may have to do some serious body lowering over the winter, but in the meantime, the group N Bilstein shocks are just too stiff and have to be replaced with adjustable racing shocks. And lighter front springs, and, and ,and.

Racing again found me in midpack - but we'll do better. I hope.
 

September 20th, 2007 - Terry drives to Atlanta!

Terry ventured to Atlanta for the weekend with Frank N. Stein (our monster 2002), and our friend Richard Walker to face off the C-modified class in BMW CCA club racing.

Here's Terry with more...

"Back to Road Atlanta for my very first time! Road Atlanta is a very fast, beautiful track with lots of close, concrete walls. I attended the Panoz driving school there in 1999 when I was just thinking about racing, and I always wanted to go back.

Road Atlanta is FAST! Did I already say that? The back straight saw my Frankenstein go 7000 RPMs in 4th gear - over 150mph we think. And I was just in the middle of 40+ pack of BMW racecars! These eastern racers are the cream of the crop and really, really quick.

We learned something new at Atlanta: the Frankenstein suspension is now pretty well balanced, but tends to lift both inside wheels in sharp corners. And that's not ok. First of all, 2 wheels is not enough for optimum traction, and secondly, how do you suppose roll-overs start?

So, Road Atlanta was interesting, but I certainly never mastered the track. I had a couple of decent races, but mostly learned that we still have alot to learn."

September 9th, 2007 - Texas World Speedway 

Into each life a little rain must fall. Well, not actually rain since we had hot sun, but this was not a good race weekend for Terry and the Pirates. Carburetor and Ignition failure kept our 2002 out of contention this weekend and Steve Cole from Dallas in his Fiat was our class winner. That Steve Cole is something else!

August 29th, 2007

Frank N. Stein, our monster 2002 in its' inaugural BMW CCA racing season has quickly risen the ranks of the CModified class to be the supreme leader of the season-long points race. Points are given for race results and to a small degree for participation. While Terry and Frank are in first place currently, much of the season is still left with many events before December, so things could still change before then. Keep it tuned right here for all the updates!

- Click Here to See this summer's current Points Standings -
 

August 20th, 2007

Look at the new cylinder head being installed on Frank:

Click here for more on Frank N Stein 2002.

August 18th, 2007

Installation of headers in the Vintage 2002.
 

July 24th, 2007

New waterpump for our 1958 BMW 502 La Carrera Racer and photos from it up!

July 8th, 2007

UPDATE!- More photos here!

The 24 hours of Lemons has begun and the Lemon Bimmer is representing us at Altamont. Here's some photos of the Pirates featured on Autoblog.com

June 26th, 2007

BC operates the race car scale in order to fine tune the ride height for balanced weight on all four wheels. A race car dummy was com-'pile'-d to simulate the weight of the driver on the track.

June 16-17, 2007
BMW CCA Club Racing at Texas World Speedway
College Station, TX or: Racing Days Make Me Nervous
by Terry Sayther
Photos by Rhett Hubertus

You'll remember, boys and girls, that in our last episode we won the race in the dry on Saturday only to finish last in the rain on Sunday for lack of rain tires. Well, now we have rain tires and this was another race weekend.

Racing in the rain on any tires, on any car, is very tense. All the cars are at the edge of being out of control and even if you drive perfectly your car may loose traction, aqua plane, at any time and leave the track or spin. Or, heaven forbid, hit another car. I didn't do any of those things and the rain tires were a huge advantage, and I was able to finish 2nd overall behind Andy Price. And I had no fun at all. Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate - and suddenly the race is over and I'm in 2nd place.

Sunday the rain was even harder, and I decided to skip the race and go home to have a pleasant nap. Frankly, I do not want anybody to hit this car.

May 25-27, 2007
BMW CCA Club Race at Hallet Motor Racing Circuit
First Pole! First Win!

Photos by Birds Eye Photography

George Adkins, Phil Hartman, & Terry took the Frank N. Stein modified racer to Oklahoma for the weekend to a BMW CCA Club Race. Fridays Practice went smoothly between rain squalls and Saturday was a cool day made for racing. Terry qualified in first place - his first ever pole position - and then drove smoothly away from the field to win his first ever Club Race!

Sunday was another story - Rain Rain Rain. Without rain tires, the car did NOT want to stay on the track! After a massive agricultural excursion through the mud and grass during practice, Terry had to slowly cruise the course through the race - and finished last! Humble Pie, but no harm done.

Here's our article sidebar soon to featured in Roundel magazine:
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BMW CCA Club Racing in Oklahoma----YOU Shoulda Been There!

Hallett Motor Racing Circuit in May is a beautiful, fun-to-drive track in the green hills of northeastern Oklahoma. It's a great place to race and it has some of the best track food anywhere! For some strange reason, just nine of us signed up for this event----must be just nine racers in the country who remember that historically, Memorial Day was made for racing. And Saturday we did some racing. Terry Sayther qualified on the pole and then drove to his first ever overall win, but the real racing was for second place between Bob Mainini and Brian Beckett. Bob came from far behind---he had an early off track excursion, during which his inside mirror exploded and his shift knob flew off. He didn't know it at the time but his trans mounts also broke and he missed shifts throughout the race as a result. Even with mechanical problems and a hard fight with Andy Price he fought back to take second. A great job and a good time was had by all. Sunday's story was rain, rain, rain. Brian Becket's car turned out to have the best hull and keel design as well as the best Captain, clearly and he splashed to a win. Andy finished second in spite of a massive first lap, first turn agricultural excursion. Bob Mainini finally got his first ever class win in JP and Lynn Cochran persevered to wind up his rookie period. Sayther, with neither rain tires nor swimming skill, finished last.