James Clay and Tyler Cooke piloted the #84 BimmerWorld F30 328i to a fourth-in-class finish in the April 30 Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race at Monterey's Laguna Seca Raceway.
In qualifying, Clay put the car on the Street Tuner class pole—the second straight pole for the #84 BMW, as Tyler Cooke had placed it in the top spot on the grid for the March race at Sebring.
Clay, who was under the weather, ran in the top group for his entire stint, running second when he handed off to Cooke. Cooke finished fourth, edged out by just .061 seconds at the end of the race by Eric Foss in the third place Porsche Cayman that he shared with Jeff Mosing. The top two positions in ST went to Mazda MX-5s; defending class champions Chad McCumbee and Stevan McAleer won while Andrew Carbonell and Liam Dwyer finished second.
The next best BMW finishers in the race were Tim Probert, Brent Mosing, and Justin Piscitell in the Murillo Racin 328i. The JDC-Miller Motorsports 228i driven by Michael Johnson and Stephen Simpson made its debut in the race. It had been plagued with electrical problems in the days preceding the race, but it made the start. It was retired after running four laps.
The overall and Grand Sport win went to Trent Hindman and Cameron Cassels in a Porsche Cayman GT4. It was the second consecutive win for the duo. Hindman was a BMW junior in 2015. There were just seven cars in the GS class; Rum Bum, a two-time class champion, pulled its Porsche from the series before the Monterey race weekend. There were 27 cars in Street Tuner.
The series takes another long break after the Mazda Raceway weekend; it runs again at Watkins Glen on July 2.—Brian S. Morgan
