Dateline: Saturday, June 15, 2025
Welcome to the highly-anticipated (and oh-so-tardy) 2025 scR motorsports season-opening newsletter! I know, I know, y’all have been on pins and needles waiting to hear about our plans to dominate this year’s SRO GT4 America Pro-Am Championship, but, well, sometimes life gets in the way. Nevertheless, here we are embarking on our 29th season of reckless spending in pursuit of incredibly fragile, yet unbelievably heavy, solid glass trophies.
Here. We. Go. Again.
Q: Hang on, this is cut-and-paste from last season’s opening newsletter.
A: You’re not wrong. But the more things change, the more they stay the same. So, I figured a little recycling wasn’t out of bounds.
You may recall that back in 2024, we started off by leaving Sonoma with the GT4 America Pro/Am Championship lead, continued with a bit of a rough time at Sebring, but bounced back by winning the first-annual GT4 Lonestar Enduro at COTA. This positioned us at the top of the 2024 Championship leaderboard five races into that season.
Fast-forward to 2025 where we again started off by leaving Sonoma with the GT4 America Pro/Am Championship lead, continued by winning the second-annual GT4 Lonestar Enduro at COTA, and followed that up with a respectable pair of near-podiums at Sebring. This has positioned us at the top of the 2025 Championship leaderboard five races into this season.
Q: That’s a lot of sameness. What else is the same?
A: Well, I can confirm that the trophies are still fragile, yet unbelievably heavy, being that they are crafted from solid glass. Also, I can confirm that I still love racing with Tyler, James, Charlie, and the rest of the BimmerWorld Racing gang. These guys are the best in the business, but more importantly, over the past six seasons together we have become such dear friends. There is absolutely no place else I would rather be on any given weekend.
Can’t you just feel the bromance going on here?
Q: Something else that is the same is you haven’t written a newsletter yet!
A: Once again, you are not wrong. But here to hold you over is a very special treat. For the first time in years, “the teenager” (who, to be fair, now considers himself a “yuppie”) has returned to fill the void with his own special sense of humor, wit, and low-quality graphical imagery. All of this lends an element of quaint sarcasm to the reporting that has been absent from our recent recitations.
I promise that when life affords me the opportunity I will publish something of my own, but in the meantime, please sit back and enjoy the 2025 GT4 America Pro/Am three-hour Lonestar Enduro at COTA through Zack’s lens. If some of the references are obscure, arcane, or otherwise make you simply scratch your head, it just means that you haven’t been on this distribution list for the past 28 years. The boy knows his scR motorsports history.
JWJr
#82 GT4 America
@teamscR34 <- click here to follow us!
teamscR.com <- click here to e-mail us!
Dateline: Saturday, April 26, 2025
For a weekend like this, you need a great team, a great car,
and most importantly, a great bromance.
Q: How long has it been since we got a follow-up newsletter?
A: Four years, six months, and nine days [dad edit: it was October 18, 2020]. This is equivalent to 2,377,440 minutes, or 142,646,400 seconds. That’s enough time to complete more than a MILLION (qualifying or race pace, in fact) laps around Circuit of the Americas in a BMW M4 GT4 EVO. That’s enough time to complete a full four-year Fightin’ Texas Aggie mechanical engineering bachelor’s degree, graduate, and find a full-time job. That’s enough time to complete high school, graduate, and catch your dad’s race-winning interview afterwards. Unfortunately, it was only enough time for me to attend two (only two!) SRO race weekends, neither of which produced enough material for a decent automotive think piece.
In my defense, teamscr.com was blocked on Texas A&M Wi-Fi.
No joke. Fix your website, Dad!
Q: A think piece? I only seem to remember snark pieces.
A: I’m educated now. I try to think from time to time.
Same viewpoint, same photographer, same zoom,
7 years of iPhone camera enhancements.
Q: Congratulations on the graduation, by the way.
A: Thank you.
Q: Congratulations to Shelby, too.
A: Thank you from Shelby, too.
Good thing we had the race for entertainment.
1000+ graduates and we are Ws.
Q: Now, personal accomplishments are nice, but how’s your E36 M3 holding up?
A: No longer my E36 M3. You’d have to ask Mr. Clay.
So nice of Mr. Clay to bring home 240 more horses for his wife to train.
Q: You sold it???
A: Well, given that I was a lowly Kroger-employed high schooler when I “bought” the car (thanks, Dad!), it wasn’t truly mine to sell. Last fall, a hometown family friend informed us that he was looking for a buyer for his grown-up and moved-out son’s 2014 GTI. It barely had more miles on it than I had put on the M3 over five-plus years, my dad had helped our friend pick the GTI out for his son (who used to babysit us little Walkers) ten years prior, and the offer was at the right time and too generous to pass up, so we took it! I now commute to my yuppie job in a black Volkswagen, and nobody takes pictures of me at gas stations anymore.
The old and the newish. Both doing great at not showing their age.
Q: The VW Bros are clearly still living rent-free in your head.
A: I do look a little bit more like them while driving now. Unfortunately, my FCP Euro sunglasses recently broke after five-plus years of solid use, so I no longer have my bright blue reminder of them when it’s sunny outside. Also unfortunately, Ethan had to sell HIS red GTI after the annual College Station hailstorm this spring. I got mine in December, so for just a few months, we were the new VW Bros. Far less mature than the originals.
Merry Christmas from the VW Bros 2.0. I hope Mr. Hurczyn and Mr. Vincent
are out there in the world doing great things.
Q: So, Mr. Clay bought the M3? Is BimmerWorld branching out into vintage racing?
A: Nope. He is just helping with transportation. The car has been purchased by the ***REDACTED*** and you will see it in the ***REDACTED*** ***REDACTED*** and have a chance to ***REDACTED***.
Q: Not this ***REDACTED*** again.
A: I can’t find any mention of my wonderful (and it really was) car’s future on the Internet anywhere yet, so you will find out in your own way. Shades of The Secret Car.
Man, that really was five years ago. Time is a funny thing. It’s also a valuable thing. You can watch it fly by as the pendulum swings. You can watch it count down until the end of the day, as the clock ticks life away. It’s so unreal.
Q: Where does the time go? Right out the window?
A: In fact, it does. Mr. Dawes, who sold us the M3 way back in the TCR days, came to the race this weekend too, shortly before Mr. Clay drove it off to its next adventure. Nothing like two good full-circle car ownership true stories to warm your heart.
It all comes back to M3 in the end.
Q: Is there a certain Linkin Park song stuck in your head today?
A: Yes. But let’s not let this ear worm pass without some lessons. You can, in life or in racing, try so hard, and get so far. You can have a rough qualifying run (after the three-second tariffs on Japanese lap times were apparently lifted mid-session), but you can then storm back through the field, taking advantage of BimmerWorld’s race-winning endurance experience and well-timed R-rated McLaren crashes.
Because I am unable to independently verify the minimum age of newsletter readers,
please write your own jokes for this one.
Q: Don’t tell me our heroes fell, and lost it all?
A: As I was saying, you can try so hard, and get so far as to hold a 20-second lead over your nearest Pro-Am competition with 27 minutes of racing left [dad edit: it was more than 30 seconds], pit stops and penalties completed, and a second consecutive Lone Star Enduro win in sight – with the whole family in attendance this time! Then the caution flags can be thrown for a stalled BMW on the outskirts of the Carousel, leaving you nervously wondering if this is all for naught. If this is the moment when you tried so hard, but in the end, it didn’t even matter. Anything can happen on a restart, and with the added bonus of a few lapped cars that somehow wound up only a few corners in front of the leader at the restart, this had the potential to get crazy.
So much for that 20-second lead.
Q: Did the last 12 minutes of green flag racing live up to the anticipation?
A: Absolutely. You couldn’t have scripted a more exciting finish. This was the best short segment of racing I have ever witnessed. The GT4 America/COTA combo really does not disappoint. Battles for the lead in two classes, podium battles and spins in Silver, it was everything you want from a restart shootout finish. Go watch the last 12 minutes on YouTube, it was fantastic.
The hotter the brakes, the cooler the photo.
Q: What happened in the end?
A: We’ll ignore the leading Silver-class Supra of Tyler Gonzalez, since he took off so quickly he became irrelevant. Tyler (McQuarrie) got off to a strong restart, holding fourth overall and leading in Pro-Am with the green #7 Porsche, last year’s champion, two cars behind, second in class. The fight between the other podium runners in Silver got pretty wide pretty fast, culminating in Tyler squeezing past Zac Anderson as he and his Aston Martin foe swung way wide into the dirt heading towards Turn 10.
Through goes McQuarrie!
The “thundering maelstrom” (excellent metaphor, commentators) swept through the back straight and into Turn 12. The green #7 Porsche braked to within inches of Tyler’s rear bumper, making this the most hair-raising moment from my vantage point on the Carousel bridge.
The thundering maelstrom. Dangerously close to the one-point-space-time thing.
Now this was not to be confused with a “Vantage Point,” where two JMF Motorsports Aston Martin Vantages try to occupy the same Point in space at the same Point in time. Which, if you recall from previous newsletters, is impossible.
Successful, yet frustrating day at the track for the JMF team.
Tyler was being chased down but did a beautiful job of car placement to keep the green #7 Porsche at bay. But here came the white third-place Pro-Am Aston Martin to do battle with the green Porsche and relieve some of the pressure on our heroes. Tyler took ad-Vantage (a ha ha ha) of this development to stretch out his lead a few more precious seconds and that was that.
VICTORY! It’s been a million laps since my last newsletter, but for two or three more and the Aston may have caught up to the lead. He showed some real speed in the final laps to close in on our #82, but the checkered flag fell on BimmerWorld first, with the green #7 Porsche slipping down to fifth after some fierce battles throughout the entire field.
This is what we like to see in the mirrors.
Q: Who deserves all the credit for this?
Everyone, of course! Fantastic driving by my dad to build the big lead, fantastic defense by Tyler to hold it at the end. Fantastic work by the BimmerWorld crew on both cars and excellent work by Mr. Clay and Mr. Postins to bring home the Am/Am win as well. And finally, some fantastic racing luck! You can never have too much.
If you’re JMF motorsports, you could use some luck.
Any luck. Even average luck would do.
Q: Any secret good-luck charms we need to know about?
A: Yes. Dave, BimmerWorld’s long-haul driver and gourmet chef, brought a special addition to the usual trackside grill menu this weekend: chicken feet. Apparently, you can grill them, sauce them up, and eat them like wings. His excuse was that they were $2 per pound. This is probably due to the miniscule amount of meat present on each one.
Shelby bit into a whole one and learned that chickens have bones in their feet. I also tried them – slightly worse than wings but definitely edible. I doubt my dad tried them [dad edit: clearly, he did not], and I’m not sure about anyone else, but they clearly provided good racing luck nonetheless. I hope Dave continues to bring them to the paddock in the future.
Chicken foot time coincided with race strategy time.
My dad may not have even known about these.
Q: What about nap time?
A: I suspect nap time occurred in the trailer while I was in the stands watching the GT3 race around 1 PM. This would have been shortly after chicken foot time. Remember Bill Auberlen? He’s in GT3 with Random Raccoon Trash Can Vandals now. After that race finished up, I tried to peek into the trailer to get a photo of nap time (for my curious readers), but strategy time had begun again. My apologies for interrupting the strategy meeting. Judging by the race results, they were not fazed.
“The Creation of Adam” in my house. Nick Galante approves.
Q: Does a better nap correlate with better driving?
A: Judging by the improvement between qualifying and race, clearly so. As racing drivers get older, they increase in wisdom, skills, and experience. However, they tend to decrease in quick reflexes and their ability to stay awake while digesting meals. This is nature’s way of balancing out the young, aggressive guys with the older, wiser veterans. It’s nature’s own Balance of Performance.
Look at their roofs. Copycats.
Time for some Hello Kitty Duct Tape to see how serious they really are.
Q: I hope Dave got appropriately rewarded for his culinary genius?
A: He did. Despite initially thinking he’d have to stay until Sunday due to the tightly-packed trailer configuration, Dave and the trailer were able to roll out Saturday evening after the festivities had concluded. Win-win-win. No doubt he was plotting more chicken foot recipes on the way back to Dublin, Virginia.
James got a fast car, but Dave’s got a plan to get us outta here.
Q: Feeling musical, huh?
A: I thought of that one while driving to the track, and I’m glad they won, otherwise I couldn’t have used it. I’ll refer you to my father if you prefer the haikus.
New McLaren series entry to root for during nap time. Go Bills!
Q: Pills Mafia? First the OnlyFans car and now drugs? What has become of GT4?
A: No. Drugs is a dirty business. There really should be only one L in the name, as this car (driven by Eric Filgueras, former partner of the famous JCD) is sponsored by a Pilsner company from upstate New York, home of the Buffalo Bills and the Most Amazing Fans In America. So, it’s alright, and it’s not even the only team in the paddock sponsored by a beer company this year.
Driving under the influence of… nothing at all.
Q: Is this a one-time guest appearance or have you rediscovered the power of the written word?
A: It’s yet to be determined how many races I will make it to this year, but I kind of forgot how much I enjoy this. Now that I am out of college, writing can be fun when it’s not for a grade. I also realized, while typing, that I thought of way too much newsletter material on the drive to COTA and back. Texas is big. This think piece entails way too much thinking already, so some of it will have to remain in my Notes app until I decide to deploy it at an uncertain future time. I mainly write these for my own amusement, but if you like to read them as well, that’s very kind.
Q: Is the start of this season feeling like last season to you too?
A: Yes, it is. It’s up to everyone now to make sure the rest of the season doesn’t follow the same year-over-year pattern. There is still time to fall (and lose it all), but this team is really something excellent and we would love to see them continue their Austin success in other locales. This was last year’s high point and back-to-back endurance wins are nice, but it is still a long season ahead and there is much work left to do. Data to analyze, driver changes to make, naps to take, and newsletters to write.
Great race and double team win! Everyone really does deserve credit for this one.
Q: Do you think this season will turn out better from this point forward?
A: If the last few years have been any indication, there is no racing luck in this world except the kind your team makes for itself. We’ll need all the chicken feet we can get. In the end, we want all four of our beloved drivers to stand on that top podium step and think “you know, this really is somewhere I belong.”
And God bless Texas!
See you at the track!