Will there be a BMWCCA car coral at Petit? Are any of our forum folks or Fest attendees going? I work for Bridgestone & we will be at Oktoberfest all week & I am driving up from Florida. Might as well come a day or 2 early & go to the race.
I'll be heading to the race from FL as well. Peachtree Chapter is the local BMWCCA chapter and I thought they might organize a car corral, but they have nothing posted about Petit LeMans.
Shame on BMW owners/clubs/company All: At the Porsche 250 races on Barber Motorsports in Birmingham last July, the Porsche Car Club had more attendees than the BMW Car Clubs, thus Porsche got to do the "Victory Laps." The only reason we got a tent at Barber Motorsports is because Bill Munn took it upon himself to contact potential donors and arranged to collect enough money to cover the rental cost of the tent. Bill did a great job and we all should appreciate what he did. Now the Petit ALMS is in Road Atlanta from September 23rd to the 26th. I purchased my Road Atlanta ticket, and when I inquired about the BMW Car Corral pass they informed me that no BMW Club has made arrangements for a Club Corral; they offer me the choice of either Porsche or Corvette Car Club corrals, the only Car Clubs that have confirmed Club Corrals. What a shame, especially since the BMW Octoberfest starts on September 28, just one day after Petit ALMS with several functions at the same location, and there will hundreds of BMW owners attending Octoberfest. Shame on BMW and all of us BMW owners that we are going to let Porsche owners defeat us again - two times in a row within two months! I encourage you all to contact BMW and whoever is necessary to have a BMW Car Corral at Road Atlanta for the Petit ALMS. I suggest emailing your BMW owners friends to get this going - I don't have the email address of the BMW CCA, but if someone has it emal them and encourage them to have a presence at Road Atlanta, unlike Barber Motorsport, where we where humiliated by an overwhelming Porsche presence. Or maybe I should consider trading my six BMW's for Porsches? Maybe trading my '09 750Li for a Panamera and my M5 for a GT3, etc. What has happened to the BMW Clubs/owners/dealers/company about competitive spirit and "the ultimate driving machine? Let's get a Club Corral at Road Atlanta and show that BMW has more passion for racing than Porsche does. Al
It all comes down to local club members and whether or not they want to put up a corral imo. I'm guessing that the Peachtree club members much more than have their hands full that weekend with O'fest the following week, so perhaps now isn't quite the time to ask them to find more to do. However, club corrals are fun at Road Atlanta...at least they were in the 70's when I used to go to the IMSA races there twice each year. In any event, the Porsche corral was huge last year, and I enjoyed walking through it and checking out all the cars. There was an Audi corral there too with some interesting Audis including some very nice 80's era Quattros which are very rare now. I looked everywhere for a BMW club corral, but I didn't come across one. Oh, yeah, and the Vette corral was awesome with some outstanding examples from all eras. Speaking of GT3s, I'm not planning on ever selling my M5, but I'm looking pretty hard at a GT3. A good friend who is both a BMW and Porsche nut just picked up a very nice GT3, and the car is really nice...raw, direct, fun as heck to drive -- stuff BMW is slowly losing as time goes by.
Some of you will recall that BMW NA sponsored and handled the logistical work of providing a Petit Le Mans corral in 1999 and 2000 (the year O'fest was in Greenville and the track was Road Atlanta). I think every spectator there had to be impressed with the lucky owners of BMWs that really got to attend and all-day party on the hill overlooking turn 5. I know the national office of BMWCCA tried to get a sponsor for a corral this year, but no one came through. So bring your own food and drink and envy the Porsche and Corvette owners. What a shame with BMW back in the ALMS and O'fest starting a few days later.
Just got another note from the Audi club today. Perhaps I should just drive the S4 instead and play like I'm some Audi freak instead.
Great News - Car Corral at Petit on Fri & Sat http://bmwcca.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5874 Just got the email on my phone. Looking forward to more info/details.
This really sounds great. One of the reasons I got an M3 was because of the club's driving events and support. I'll probably make it a two or three day trip now instead of just showing up for the race. I look forward to meeting some of you there.
Kudos to our National office for their continued efforts to obtain sponsorship so we can have a proper corral. And thanks to the Performance Center and United BMW of Roswell for stepping forward as sponsors.
Yeah, what he said! Steve follows through again! I suspect Schlossman was the driving force behind the decision to set up a BMW CCA corral at Petit Le Mans-bravo, amigo! In any case, the details have now been posted (click here). Remember that if you're going to park in the corral, there's only a limited number of spaces!
We'll be at Petit (our 4th straight year), but are passing on the hospitality package. Will there be parade laps? We'd like to participate in that, although we're bringing the R56 JCW rather than the E46 (we ran in the JCW with the CCA parade laps at Sebring).
Do we pick up our car corral pass/ ticket for the Petit LeMans at will call or will they be mailed to us?? Thanks
I got my Petit Lemans package today, thank you. Looking at the car corral/parking pass it appears to be good only for Saturday; is there no club parking/ corral on Friday? Do I have to pay another 40.00 for Friday parking? Thanks
Same question here. I'm glad BMW will have a corral, but it cost me $85 extra as I had already purchased a Road Atlanta Superticket valid from Wednesdat to Sunday, which I had to give away to get the BMW car corral pass. I hope I don't have to fork another $40 for parking on Friday.
