A big thanks from Kevin

I just want to thank The BMW Store and Brown Bros. Racing for doing such a great job this weekend. Without all their help I would not have been much help to the team. I was really impressed with the late night fix of the shock on Friday night. You guys did a fantastic job. Dave did an awesome job all weekend and I am bummed that he didn't get to drive the 330. Rocky I think Dave has earned a full race weekend with Dave, the full time driver, and with the full team support. Wayne thanks for all your help this weekend also. Wayne, Dave, Geoff and all the crew did a great job fixing the wheel studs fast, and without that we would not have made the top 10. Thanks Geoff and Jay for all your fast tire changes and everyone else that helped change tires. Thanks to everyone that fueled the car. We had to fuel the car a lot and it was done in a quick and clean manner every time with no penalties. Thanks also to the guys that kept all the fuel jugs full of fuel. That was a full time job. We used about 400 gallons of fuel for the race and that was just the M3, they were busy. I just can't thank the team enough for all their hard work the whole weekend. During the race, everyone did a great job of quickly getting ready for pit stops and making the pits stops smooth and fast. Felt bad a couple of times that I had to wake people up for pit stops but there were no complaints from anyone. Alex did a great job with all the data and diagnosing problems quickly, then fixing problems fast. It was a pleasure to work with the whole team and being apart of such a great event. I was very pleased how well it turned out.


I want to thank all the drivers for doing a wonderful job. It was nice to work with my boy Taylor Hacquard again. He did an awesome job on track with really fast and consistent times every time he was in the car, even when it was in the middle of the night. I have worked with Mikel Miller before but this was the first time with him as a driver. Miller was great all weekend and helped a lot with feedback for setting up the car. It was the first time for me to work with Carlos Tesler-Mabe and he is truly a professional driver. He is a very consistent driver and a pleasure to work with on and off the track. Chris also did a great job with consistently fast times. It was great working with Chris again.


Thank you Chris for letting me join the team for this event. You said that once you do this race once you get hooked. That is true because I can't wait to do that race again. I hope I get the opportunity to do it next year.


The whole crew deserves a very big thank you because without them we wouldn't of had a chance to race this weekend. You guys made a great car and that is the biggest part of this race. You can have fast drivers, a great strategy, and fast pit stops, but if the car doesn't last 25 hours then you have nothing. You guys built two cars that lasted the whole race. I am very impressed by that accomplishment.


I can’t give my thanks enough to the crew and drivers.


Thanks


Kevin Harrison

Two top-10s for The BMW Store/Yahoo! cars!

The final results out of 73 cars:

#16 M3 - 7th overall
#99 330 - 9th overall, 3rd in class

So we came down from Canada and put the two BMW Store/Yahoo! cars in the top 10 of this huge field! What an amazing job by everyone involved, especially the mechanics and pit crew. I am so impressed and proud. We had a lot of work to do when we unloaded on Thursday and were hit by several setbacks, including one that could have prevented the M3 from even starting the race. But nobody gave up, they just worked harder and found solutions.

It's hard to explain how epic a race like this is. Each car travelled over 3,100 km during the race, which may not be impressive until you consider that the cars are either accelerating, braking, or cornering near their limit the whole time...and it was dark for at least 13 hours of the race.

A big thank you to everyone involved, which included a large crew that came down from The BMW Store and Brown Bros. Racing to support both cars:

Dave Dalmonte
Nick Viel
Jay Kendal
Chris Lacousta
Brian Wickware
Andrew McKinnen
John Baytka
Wayne Johnson
Marcus Schellhase
Geoff Holmes
Rich Fakui
Bryan Taylor
Adam Ingram
Don McLain

(I sincerely hope I haven't left anyone out)

Thanks to Yahoo!, our title sponsor. The cars looked fantasic in the Yahoo! livery and were definately among the most noticed and talked-about at the race. They should look good on TV too when the highlights package is aired.

I want to especially thank Dave Dalmonte from The BMW Store. Dave put an incredible amount of work into the build and preparation of both cars, especially the M3 in the last few months. He really put his heart and soul into the car and we wouldn't have been there, or finished the race, without him.

Nick Viel from The BMW Store has also been a big part of the build and prep of both cars, thanks Nick.

Thanks to Andy Pearson from Specialty Engineering who did a lot of custom fabrication, engineering and build on the car.

Thanks to Neel Vasavada and Alex Weissinger from Apex Speed Technology who made this complex car actually work and helped us iron out the bugs. We didn't know how ambitious this project was until we started to hit the roadblocks but they helped us get over them. It was especially great to have Alex on hand at Thunderhill to diagnose and fix things things on the fly.

And keeping things running smoothly all weekend were John Olsen and Kevin Harrison from World Speed Motorsports who seemed to get by on coffee alone. It was great to have their guidance and expertise.

To other the drivers of the #16 M3: Mikel Miller, Taylor Hacquard, and Carlos Tesler-Mabe...thanks for doing such a great job and making sure the only one damaging the car was me. Next year I won't make that mistake again.

And of course a big hats-off to the drivers of the #99 330 who took that car to 9th overall and a podium in class: Tony Morris Jr., Keith Carter, Rocky Elli, Ryan O'Connor, and Nick Viel.

Stay tuned, or sign up for email updates, we should have more pictures and video available soon.

Thanks!

Holding on

The #16 is holding on to 7th, the #99 is holding 9th. 7 minutes left.

Nursing both cars home

In the M3 we've asked Mikel to run slowly to keep the studs from snapping. It must be driving him crazy. Currently 7th but likely to lose some spots.

The 330 is running 9th overall and 3rd in class, and is nursing its brakes but has a nice 6 lap buffer to the next car. Keith Carter is in the car.

24 minutes left.

#16 M3 back on track

After a lengthy pit stop to remove and replace 2 of the 3 broken wheel studs the M3 is back on track. Looks like the stop dropped us from 4th to 7th. We're not sure how hard we can run the car with the wheel studs as they are so we're telling Mikel to back off a bit so we can keep enough laps to hold on to a top-10 at a minimum.

The #99 330i is running 9th overall, 3rd in class. The car has lost rear brakes but with 49 minutes remaining they're going to run the car until the end as-is.

Huge setback for the M3

The #16 M3 has been in the pits for the last 20+ minutes with three broken wheel studs. The guys have been trying to remove the stubs and have only been able to get 1 of 3 out so far. We need at least one more. The car is dropping steadily down the standings and we're hoping to get the car out in time to hold on to a top 10.

We knew there was a high likelihood of something going wrong and now it has.

Full course caution at 9:50AM

The car immediately ahead of the #99 330i just blew a motor on track and is out of the race. The cleanup has brought out a full course caution which will help both cars conserve fuel. The #16 M3 needs at least one full fuel stop and potentially one splash and go.

The #99 330i is running 10th now, up to 3rd in class. There is a 3 lap buffer ahead and 5 laps behind. Tony Morris Jr. is still at the wheel, Keith Carter will be getting in once the caution period ends and the car comes in and pits.

The #16 M3 is sitting 4th overall with Mikel Miller at the wheel. There's a 2 lap cushion either side. The plan is to leave Mikel in until the checkered flag although he'll need to pit at least once more.