As the ever youthful Californian Has made A lot of
Lemonade out of driving for BMW in Sports Cars…
Yeah Kiddoes’, know you’ll All be Delighted! That your
Humble No Fenders scribe Tomaso has decided to Dust off another aging No Fender
yarn that’s been vermintin’ in Ye Cavernous No Fenders Story Cellar for several
years. As I think it’s Ok now to uncork a 2018 vintage story, Righto?
Nah, No Forrest Gump soliloquy's here. But I did find it
Karmic how once again, thoust Seas of Synchronicity were Washing over Mwah,
when listening to the Speed Freaks, Wayback’ on Sunday night, May 5, 2019, Aye
Karumba!
Wayback when I used to listen to them on a weekly basis.
When Statmann' Caruthers interviewed Bimmer Billy, aka Bill Auberlen at Mid
Ohio. As Auberlen was then closing in upon Scott Pruett’s record of 60 career
IMSA victories. Having just tied Pruett Me Thinks?
And it wasn't that long ago when Auberlen was reportedly
retiring to become a BMW Brand Ambassador instead. But apparently ‘Ol Racing
Drivers never really hang-up Thar Driving Suits. Especially since Aubelen’s
been racing steadily since supposedly being “Eased” Out of the Seat…
http://www.nofenders.net/2018/01/rolex-24-what-colours-will-bimmer-billy.html
Since Auberlen had been on thou mind, mostly due to
what’s become another languishing No Fenders tome I first "tucked
into" nearly some five years ago now when initially reviewing Bimmer
Billy's racing exploits.
With the Bad Arse Californian being half of the duo that
gave BMW it's lone Prototype W' when claiming victory in the 1998 Professional
SportsCar Racing Championship series season finale at Laguna Seca in a Riley
& Scott MkIII BMW powered 4.0-litre normally aspirated V-8. Which I believe
was BMW’s maiden Le Mans Prototype (LMP1) victory. And just one of Auberlen’s
countless wins.
Whilst I’m also fascinated
over BMW’s former LMP1 Prototype that won lee 24 Heurs du Mans some 24yrs ago,
when Auberlen was part of the No. 18 Price + Bscher entry that finished fifth
Overall with Thomas Bscher and Steve Soper aboard their year old BMW V12 LM
racecar, but I digress…
It’s old news now that Bimmer Billy has indeed broken
Scott Pruett’s IMSA Career Wins tally, when capping His 61st victory at
Virginia International Raceway on August 22, 2020. And I believe He’s currently
got 64 W’s?
And having capped His 400th Start for BMW Wayback’ in
2017, He must be closing in upon 500?
Yet Auberlen began His professional racing career
spending six years racing Mazda RX7’s in IMSA’s GTU Class. Before spending more
seat time in a variety of Porsche 911 Panzerwagens, and the list goes on ‘N on…
As Racer’s Marshal Pruett did a Great Interview with
Bimmer Billy some three years ago, when celebrating Aubelen’s 61st victory.
As Auberlen tells a great story about His first actual
win in Japan. Along with mentioning driving briefly for Kevin Doran aboard His
Ferrari 333 SP, for which sadly one of His Co-Drivers Never showed up with the
Cheque and Auberlen ended up driving a completely different Prototype chassis
at Daytona instead.
Also mentioning how He thought He was just doing a
“One-off” for the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2002 with my Homeboyz’ Ferrari of
Washingtion race team. Noting how He, Cort Wagner, Constantino Bertuzzi and
some Day-toner’ 500 winner named Derrike Cope ran a Ferrari 360 Modena at
Daytona, where they suffered a Gearbox failure. Yet, Auberlen ended up running
the whole year with Wagner and they narrowly won the GT Championship that year.
Auberlen also discusses driving the Panoz LMP01 Evo in
2002, for which David Donohue and Gunnar Jeannette were His teammates at
Circuit de la Sarthe. But said it was pretty embarrassing getting passed by the
Older Panoz chassis that wasn’t even competing! Just running as a Camera Car
that year, Yikes!
And one of the Bombshell’s Auberlen drops is how during
1998 He was negotiating to race in Indy Cars for Hogan Racing! For which the
seat went to a former BMW teammate of His named JJ Letho instead. And then the
following year somebody named Helio Castroneves drove for them, during His
rookie season in CART.
Yet Auberlen muses how BMW offered Him a three year
contract at that time, which has now spanned nearly three decades! Not to
mention BMW placing Him into one of those ultra Bad Arse Mclaren F1 GTR’s for
his Debutante 24 Heurs du Mans outing in ’98.
For which Auberlen’s gone onto spend considerable
Seat-time racking up multiple wins for BMW aboard the likes of Prototype
Technology Group (PTG Racing) in those dominant BMW M3’s. Along with Rahal
Letterman Lanigan Racing and Turner Motorsports. Where He’s currently piloting
the #95 BMW M4 in the GTD Pro category.
As here’s the link to Marshall’s lengthy, but great
Interview about Bill Auberlen’s Racing Life, Which is definitely worth a
listen!
https://racer.com/2020/09/03/bill-auberlen-my-racing-life-and-career/
