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| Behind the Scenes with Seth Thomas |
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His passion for cars and racing began as a child. He and his dad frequently attended races at Road Atlanta, conveniently located only a few miles from their home. My family loves speed, he explains. My dad brought me to Road Atlanta as a kid and I loved it. Racing is in my blood. Once he was old enough, Seth attended the Skip Barber Racing School at Mid-Ohio and began winning races soon after. My parents attend all my races; it's a family effort, he says. In 2001, the rookie driver raced in the ITB BMW in the Southeast Endurance Series. The following year, Seth ran a Dodge Neon in SSC and won the ARRC Enduro in a BimmerWorld ITS BMW 325. I also met up with James Clay that year. We raced together in a 12 hour enduro in a 325is, and were leading overall 6 hours into the race but lost due to a punctured radiator. During the 2003 season, he won both the SARRC ITS driver's title with eleven wins out of thirteen races and the ARRC ITS Championship in a BimmerWorld 325i, claiming the first National Championship for BMW.
Seth began his rookie season in the Speed World Challenge Touring Series in 2004 with BimmerWorld. At his debut race at Road Atlanta, Seth set the track record in his BMW 325i and finished in the top-five. The night prior to his race, the mischievous driver was performing donuts with his friends in abandoned cul-de-sac. We ended up getting arrested by the local police, laughs Seth. I almost didn't make it to my first World Challenge race! The charges were eventually dropped and he had a stellar year by finishing third in Rookie Point Standings.
In 2005, Seth reunited with BimmerWorld and scored eight top-ten finishes in eleven starts. He hoped to continue that success in 2006 with the new E90 chassis, but it wasn't in the cards. The E90 is going to be a fantastic car and it keeps getting faster, but reliability has been a real issue, explains James Clay, team owner and driver. Seth experienced mechanical gremlins during a few of the races, preventing him from landing on the podium. However, the tides finally turned in BimmerWorld's favor as Seth finished seventh at the season finale at Laguna Seca. I think it is great that we finished off the year on a good note, says Thomas. We know the car will be competitive next year. Thomas prefers the new chassis over the old E46. The E90 is sleeker, faster and better aerodynamically. We definitely have work to do in the off-season, but we are looking forward to putting BMW back on top of the Touring car ranks next year!
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