BMW racers emerged from the Pirelli World Challenge Series season finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with championships in two classes. Toby Grahovec, driving the #26 Classic BMW Motorsports M235i Racing, won the Touring Car class drivers’ championship and Classic BMW Motorsports won the team title. Michael Mills in the #46 Mills Racing Z4 GT3 won the SprintX Sportsman drivers’ championship and Mills Racing won the SprintX team title.
Grahovec, who came into the finale with the points lead, clinched his title with third place finishes in both the Saturday and Sunday Touring Car races. The win in both races went to Mazda MX-5 racer Patrick Gallagher. In the Sunday race Ari Balogh in the #19 Cameron Racing M235i R won the Hard Charger Award for gaining the most positions over the course of the race; he started 21st in the TC class and finished sixth.
Mills and John Edwards finished fourth in the Saturday SprintX race; the overall win went to Kyle Marcelli and Drew Regitz in a Cameron Racing Audi R8 LM GT. On Sunday Edwards ran the first stint and handed off to Mills. Mills led while holding off Porsche racer Tim Pappas in a close late-race battle. Pappas got by when Mills lost momentum on the final lap when he was tagged by another racer who did not see him. Pappas finished first, but Mills was declared the winner as Pappas was penalized for not meeting the 90-second minimum pit stop time.
At Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca BMW factory racer John Edwards substituted for Mills' regular co-driver Kuno Wittmer. Wittmer was competing in an M235i Racing in a VLN race on the Nordschleife at the Nürburgring, where he was logging the race laps needed to qualify to run an M6 GT3 on the Nordschleife in 2017.—Brian S. Morgan
