BMW DNA

NOTE: This article was written for the Fall/Winter issue of BimmerLife with a theme of Generations. Since there was not enough space to publish it with another article, we are sharing it here.

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by Dan Tackett

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Racing is an entire family sport for the Varcos

“The acorn never falls far from the tree.” Sometimes that’s true for nuts of the BMW type too. Parents are always happy when their children take after their best traits. But it’s especially gratifying to see a new generation of BMW CCA members following their parents and becoming active members themselves.

In 1982, a young Dave Varco learned that his dad was planning to sell their beloved Sahara Beige 2002, and he couldn’t bear to see it go. So he bought it, and within two years joined BMW CCA after seeing a Roundel magazine on a shop table. Of course, he had to make it his own, starting with a 5-speed conversion and larger wheels and tires. Before long, he was autocrossing his 2002 and taking it to the track. At Oktoberfest ’88, he and Suzanne Varco shared it at the Watkins Glen driving school. Suzanne was terrified at first and felt like she was “done” with this track stuff after one session. But she decided to try again with a second Instructor, saying, “Tell me exactly what to do; when to brake, hit the gas, and start steering.” Ultimately she loved it, and yet another BMW enthusiast was created. They also admired an instructor’s new E30 M3 at the Glen, vowing that “someday, we’ll own one!”

This E30 M3 has been in the family for 30 years.

As the Varcos began their careers, they moved to San Diego and became active in the Chapter. From 1991-94, they jointly edited the newsletter, and in 1993-95, Suzanne was elected Chapter President and Dave was the Treasurer. Suzanne bought an E21 320iS, and with both cars, they were regulars at autocross, driving school, and car show events with the Chapter. As newsletter editors, they placed a “Wanted to Buy” classified ad to find an E30 M3, and received a call from a local seller who hoped to find the right steward for his ‘88 M3. Deal struck, now they were the proud owners of three BMWs.

Austin Varco wins in his Spec Miata

Dave had the itch to go racing, so he added a bolt-in roll cage and other safety equipment to his 2002 and joined BMW CCA Club Racing. The racing bug was strong, so for Christmas one year, Suzanne secretly bought him a Spec RX-7 race car so he could measure his talents against drivers in identical cars. Before long, Suzanne went from cheering at the track to sharing the race car on alternating weekends. Inevitably, they bought a second Spec RX-7 so they could compete with each other. A family that races together…

Two generations of Varco racers

After they started a family and were building up their careers, Club involvement and racing subsided for a while. But, true to their family’s motorsport blood, both of their kids got their first track time while Suzanne was pregnant with them! Vroom vroom in the womb! Since it was hard to fit child seats in the back of an E30 M3, they bought an E34 M5 (so the kids would never be late to school!). As their son Austin and daughter Emma grew older, for several years their summer camp choice was to attend a go kart racing camp. Of course it was! Austin began autocrossing with the San Diego Chapter as a teenager, and did his first HPDE in an E39 530i. Later, after buying his own Z3 M Coupe, he considered racing in Spec Miata (SM) where his dad had been racing since 2012. While pursuing his real estate and business degree, Austin began competing against his father in SM. It took a while, but Austin’s skills were honed to the point that he’s now faster than Dave. And Dave couldn’t be more proud of his son, who earned the 2022 Rookie of the Year title for SCCA Spec Miata.

Autocrossing with the San Diego Chapter: a gateway for many members!

Following his parents’ history of service to the San Diego Chapter, Austin stepped up when the Board of Directors needed a new Autocross Director. After conducting hundreds of parking lot events for 35 years, our “home” venue was torn down, a sad ending to our program in 2019. A new locale had to be found and a new volunteer team assembled to return to our glory days of regularly hosting autocrosses. Austin stepped up, remembering his formative driving years among the cones, and brought his youthful energy and new ideas to the effort. Though he was in his final college year, coaching drivers in Formula SAE, instructing at the Porsche Experience Center, and keeping a busy SM racing schedule, Austin was the catalyst that led to a successful result.

This 2002 has spanned THREE generations of the Varco family!

With his racing success in SM, Austin earned a drive in one BRSCC MX-5 race at Silverstone in England, driving on the wrong side of the car and shifting with his left hand! He also branched out with Spec E46 races and is pursuing other opportunities to become a pro racer. To stay focused on racing and cultivating sponsorship, he moved on from being Autocross Director at the end of 2022. But there is a clear lineage from Austin’s parents passing their racing DNA along to their talented son. The Varcos still own the E30 M3, E34 M5, and E39 530i that entered their lives at important times. And how about that 2002 that Dave bought from his dad? It now has an S14 conversion, a complete nut-and-bolt restoration, and is still in the Varco garage with 308,000 miles on the chassis. First owned by Dave’s dad, and now documented in a video story produced by Austin, the Varco 2002 has spanned three generations. There’s no evidence that it’s ever going to leave the family.

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Austin Varco was also featured in the Union Tribune as a “San Diegan You Should Know.” He has combined his love and talent for racing cars with bringing awareness and understanding of autism. Austin's intensity of focus on racing is explained by a diagnosis of being on the autism spectrum. Click here to read the article.

BMW CCA Outstanding Dealership 2019 - BMW of Escondido

By Dan Tackett

BMW CCA recently selected BMW of Escondido as the recipient of the 2019 Outstanding BMW Dealership award for the Pacific Region. This annual honor is the result of a nominating process and a decision by a national committee. We were very proud to present the award and surprise Tim Brecht during a Club event that BMW of Escondido hosted.

BMW of Escondido is the only remaining family-owned BMW dealership in San Diego County. One by one, the other four dealerships, which used to be family businesses, have been sold to corporate owners. The Brecht family has maintained their ownership and passion for our favorite marque through three generations. Patriarch Bill Brecht began his enthusiasm for the marque as General Manager for BMW of San Diego way back in the 2002 era, when they were the only local BMW dealership and had a small operation on Columbia St. downtown. When a 3.0 CS that Bill had personally sold new came onto the market 15 years later, he promptly bought it, and that classic coupe remains in the family to this day. He stayed with BMW of San Diego for 20 years, overseeing their move to the current location in Kearny Mesa. Following several years of effort, Bill earned a BMW dealership franchise of his own, opening Brecht BMW in 1985 at a former Cadillac dealership facility in downtown Escondido. The family’s big step was to build a new state-of-the art facility in the then-new Escondido Auto Park, which now houses their Mini of Escondido dealership.

Once their modern building was completed in 1988, Brecht BMW was able to fully reach its potential. Along with his wife Jeanelle and sons Tom and Tim, Bill Brecht began to establish a strong reputation for great customer service and genuine support for the BMW community. Bill was also involved in his Escondido community through serving in the Rotary Club and on the Board of the Escondido Chamber of Commerce—a spirit of volunteerism that continues with both of his sons today.

The Brecht family had a long history of building very fast turbocharged dune buggies and enjoying many weekends racing them in the desert. Wasting no time once in BMW circles, they transferred their racing passion to the track after buying two 2002 race cars. I remember Bill Brecht saying, “If it goes fast, burns gas and makes noise, I’m interested.” Their family weekends moved from the desert to various race tracks as Bill, Tom, and Tim all got their SCCA racing licenses. The first shakedown of the 2002s occurred at our Chapter’s inaugural 1989 Holtville Driving School, making their driving debut as we made our hosting debut. The family went on to campaign a pair of E36 325s and later a pair of E36 M3s in SCCA National races. The 2002s continued in VARA Vintage racing in parallel with competing in SCCA driving in more current BMWs: a turbocharged Z3, then a Z4, and a 328i sedan. Brecht Motorsports has evolved into the current era by competing in a Motorsport-built M235i Competition. Bill even created a track paddock runabout out of a Motorsport-liveried Isetta, which remains in the showroom at BMW of Escondido. The lure of the desert hasn’t been completely forgotten: Tim Brecht built and still kicks up the sand in a dune buggy with a twin-turbocharged M5 V10!

Brecht BMW was a strong supporter of the San Diego Chapter from the start. After our first few years of conducting High Performance Driving School events, Brecht BMW became our consistent track school sponsor. Not only have they provided helpful funding and raffle items, Tim Brecht often came to the track in his racing rig with one or more new BMW models (and sometimes a race car) to give track rides to participants and demonstrate the capabilities of the latest cars (and SAVs!) from BMW. That is genuine enthusiasm for the marque and the Club! When another dealership bowed out of sponsoring trophies and providing some auction items for our Clean Car Show and Charity Auction, Brecht BMW stepped up to fill the void and has continued ever since. When we had a Club Tour or other event that started in North County, they often offered to let us start from the dealership and provided food and beverages before we hit the road. Our relationship has flourished for over 30 years.

Bill Brecht succumbed in 2003 after a battle with cancer, a sad loss to the entire BMW community. His sons have maintained the enthusiasm that their father exuded, and despite a franchise-required name change to BMW of Escondido, the Brecht family still conducts their business as Bill would have. Going to extra lengths as a business, genuinely supporting the BMW community, and being a sincere friend of the San Diego Chapter are great reasons to honor them with the Outstanding BMW Dealership Award. And as a tribute to the memory of Bill Brecht and his fine example of volunteerism, our Chapter annually selects the “Bill Brecht Volunteer of the Year” award recipient to recognize the Chapter member who stands out for going above and beyond in their service to the Chapter. Congratulations to BMW of Escondido!

30 Years of HPDE

Thirty Years of Going in Circles

By Dan Tackett

1989. The Soviets were still in one Union, there were still two Germanys, and the E30 M3 was still a new car. The fastest sedan sold in the US was a BMW M5, with an exotic race-bred twin cam engine that produced 256 horsepower. And back then Bluetooth sounded like the nickname of some pirate.

Our San Diego Chapter was a mere fraction of its current size, but we had big ambitions. A few of us had explored the capability of our BMWs and ourselves in well-structured driving schools hosted by the much larger neighbors in the BMW ACA Los Angeles Region and the BMW CCA Golden Gate Chapter. We marveled at the organizing that it took to rent a “real” racetrack and coordinate a safe learning experience with instructors, classroom time, staying on schedule, and hosting a social dinner event. Could our Chapter do that someday?

Enter Jay Jones, a motoring journalist who would guide our Chapter as President in 1992-93 from his home in Orange County. While a Board member in 1989, Jay had the vision to create a High Performance Driver Education event (HPDE), but we needed a venue. The closest racetracks, Willow Springs and the former Riverside Raceway, were already being used for schools hosted by LA. The only option nearby was a dusty World War II-era airport near El Centro, morphed back then into an active SCCA circuit called Shangri-La. There was a short, semi-permanent layout on inactive runways and taxiways with a rough concrete surface that tortured tires.

As our Chapter’s first foray into high performance driving beyond a parking lot, Jay developed a multi-tiered event that included a car control clinic (with several specific driving exercises on Saturday and driving on the course on Sunday), an advanced driving school (with Instructors on the 2.1 mile, 7-turn layout), and an optional Time Trial on Sunday afternoon. The December 1989 event had an entry fee of just $75. Jay recruited several sponsors to provide financial support and raffle prizes, and our dealership sponsor, Cunningham BMW in El Cajon, provided some race-experienced instructors and brought a then-new M5 and M6. More Instructors volunteered from the LA BMW Club and SCCA, and a resort venue was secured for a Saturday night banquet.

As we arrived on Friday to set up the driving exercises with orange cones, we couldn’t help but notice a lumbering C-130 cargo plane repeatedly using the active runway. Jay ventured over to make sure our event didn’t conflict with their plans, only to discover that the British Royal Air Force was using the desert for paratrooper training. Before long, a deal was struck: if we let them ride in our vehicles, they would let us ride in theirs. And thus our event took off into the third dimension…

Our driving activities went well on Saturday, including giving the Brits some rides in Cunningham’s M cars. We parked several cars on a taxiway to spell out “B” “M” “W” for a flyover photo by private pilot Tom Newport. Sunday morning began with the C-130 making a surprise LOW flyover above our pits as we were preparing for our day. Coffee was definitely spilled! After our driving activities were over, we decided to stage an intentional flyover, parking several cars on the inactive runway to capture the C-130 overhead. The first pass was impressive, and we got a good photo. Beginning to disperse, we noticed they were coming around for a second pass. The C-130 got lower and lower…and lower! Some people flattened to the ground thinking the pilot had misjudged. He later reported that his radar altimeter showed it just 12 feet off the deck! Finally, promise kept, several of us boarded the cargo hold and took a short flight above the desert. This was such an improbable experience that it was documented in Roundel magazine (June 1990) and really made a name for the San Diego Chapter.

After an aircraft-free repeat of the Holtville event in March 1991, Dan Covill, who served over several years as Fahren Affairs editor and President, proposed that we step up to a “real” racetrack with the radical idea of hosting an event at the Las Vegas International Speedway. The distance and scope were very ambitious, but Dan did a lot of homework and we agreed that LVIS was alive. His painstaking planning led to success as we promoted the event throughout the Region, recruited a lot of Instructors, and had our first smooth-running event there in February 1992. In 1995, Rich Gehring took over, managing the annual event—one of the countless roles he served for our Chapter.

Broadening our driving activities beyond the Las Vegas school in 1995, we also decided to conduct an event at another unorthodox facility, the Emergency Vehicle Operations Center (EVOC) in San Bernardino, used by the Sheriff’s Department. On a hot August weekend, we created a multi-event program that included testing reaction times in the Sheriff’s emergency lane change simulator in our cars, plus practicing car control on a 70,000 sq. ft. wet skidpad… in retired Sheriff Crown Victorias! You haven’t lived until you’ve drifted a cop car. Meanwhile, classroom sessions took place in an air conditioned building (a popular spot in the heat) and participants also got to drive repeated laps on the facility’s 1-mile banked tri-oval. Sunday was a repeat, minus the skidpad exercise, but we added a timed autocross competition in their simulated street grid layout where officers practice pursuits. To cap off a very busy 1995, we even hosted a BMW CCA Club Race (in their very first year) at the Las Vegas International Speedway that November. All three of these driving events repeated in 1996; a couple of very busy years!

After mentoring the fledgling Sin City Chapter in Las Vegas to keep the LVIS event going, we moved on to our next track home at the (then) new Buttonwillow Raceway Park in 1998, with Rich Gehring managing this major transition. The Golden Gate Chapter hosted a trial event there in September 1997, but we began putting on a springtime school at Buttonwillow that was often the first one of each year. Our Chapter hosted an Instructor Training program on the Friday before the HPDE every other year to mint more skilled mentors. Several Chapters within the Pacific Region offered financial support to defray the extra track costs and sent prospective Instructors, whose increasing ranks would improve the HPDE events throughout our Region. 

Our annual event at Buttonwillow continued through 2010, often including a Club Race and Instructor training. One of the benefits of Buttonwillow is a choice of layouts and direction, so to keep it fresh we changed the direction every other year. In 2007, Andre Pantic took over as Chairman of our HPDE events, building on the strong foundation that Rich Gehring established over the previous 11 years. In 2011, under Andre’s leadership, our Chapter moved on to yet another newly-built racetrack, the Chuckwalla Valley Raceway, less than an hour east of Palm Springs. This track was closer to San Diego and avoided the dreaded drive through LA. It is a great learning track, with a variety of corners and a nicely-banked turn, and can be run in either direction. We continued to offer run groups for all skill levels and hosted Club Racing events. Anne Littrell volunteered to be our HPDE Chairman in 2015 to continue producing well-run events at Chuckwalla. The remote location challenged us with its long drive to and from the track, expensive lodging costs, and the difficulty of attracting participants from outside Southern California. After a lot of discussion, Anne and our Board decided to work toward getting a coveted slot on Buttonwillow’s busy calendar again. And in 2016 we succeeded in scoring a Fall date on their crowded schedule, meaning that we hosted an HPDE at Chuckwalla in March and one at Buttonwillow in October that year.

After the 2017 event at Buttonwillow placed a burden on our treasury once again, our Chapter was at a crossroads: The leadership team was tired, and we hadn’t found a way to make HPDE events both affordable to members and a break-even for our Chapter. During a critical Board meeting, we actively discussed whether our Chapter even wanted to continue hosting HPDE events. We needed new leadership and a new formula if they were to survive. Seth Hanson stepped up to volunteer as our new HPDE Chairman, asserting that track schools were one of the main reasons he joined the Club and he didn’t want to see them end. With creative input from Matthew Kogan and Tim Brecht, a new formula was conceived that re-sorted the driving groups, reduced our lodging costs, and added a Time Trial group like we’d had way back in 1989. This new format was introduced for our 2018 event at Buttonwillow, and it sparked much more participation and financial viability. The new Team had cracked the code, and our HPDE program was given new life. Further refinements in 2019 reduced entry cost and increased participation to the point that the total number of people on site—drivers, instructors, staff, corner workers–was 190! It was an appropriate celebration of our 30th Anniversary HPDE event!

Thirty years after hosting our first driving school, we have used 5 different facilities, improved the skills of thousands of drivers, trained multitudes of Instructors, benefited from the hard work of six different Chairpersons and lots of staff workers, and our events are as strong as ever. Though Dan Covill and Rich Gehring are no longer with us, their proud legacy lives on every time the green flag drops for the first track session of each HPDE.

As our program has continued to evolve, so have the BMWs that we drive. Remember the world’s fastest sedan when we began, the 256 hp M5? Today, the base 4-cylinder G20 330i comes within just one horsepower…so we need to keep learning!

-Dan Tackett

BMW Performance Center Visit - January 27, 2019

Thermal Management - M Car Fun at the BMW Performance Center

By Dan Tackett

Thermal Management M Car fun at the BMW Performance Center

Our Chapter is fortunate to have one of BMW’s premier facilities, the BMW Performance Center, located just 3 hours away. So we have organized a special program there every year since 2015, featuring a program tailored and priced just for BMW CCA members. On January 26th, over 100 members ventured into the desert to Thermal, CA, location of the Thermal Club and BMW’s Performance Center facility. To provide the maximum driving time to all members, our goal was to be very efficient. We all registered and paid online beginning last September, most participants filled out another online registration and waiver for BMW in advance, and we pre-sorted drivers into 5 equal-sized groups with a sequence of activities to follow. That got us into our buffet lunch early and led right to the driver’s meeting.

The buffet lunch offered a tasty variety of salads and fruits and gourmet sandwiches, giving us a great start to our event. Our Instructor lead for the day was Brian Randall, who was very entertaining as he reviewed driving technique and briefed us on safety measures. “I named my dog Apex to make sure he would never be hit by a car.” Brian also drove us around the Hot Lap course, 3 passengers at a time, showing us how well an M3 can be drifted with careful management of extreme throttle and steering inputs. For many, riding sideways on a track was a highlight of the day. The Performance Center managed the inevitable tire destruction by having 3 more M3s parked in reserve. As Brian wasted one pair of tires, he’d just hop into the next M3!

Another driving station was the Drag Race, including a U-turn at the end and a drag race back to stop precisely inside a tight box. As last year, the AWD straight-line specials included the X5M, X6M and M550i. Those heavy SUVs are uncanny in their ability to accelerate, corner and stop so quickly. You can’t break the laws of physics, but these X5s and X6s surely bend them. With full throttle and full braking runs all day long, the cars never got hot and the brakes never faded on a nearly 80 degree day. Good thermal management indeed. A surprise treat was that BMW included two of their exclusive M760i’s, with 600 hp twin turbo V12s! Never before has a sub 4-second 0-60 been so stately. Where else would you get to drag race two V12 sedans side by side?

To learn how to manage momentum on a slick surface, our experience included a “Rat Race.” Using their polished concrete skidpad and a tight oval layout, two drivers would start on opposite sides, then chase each other round and round while trying to close the distance. This rewarded deft throttle and steering skills to control a drift that was just sideways enough to keep the car moving forward without being at an angle that cost momentum. “When you’re going sideways, you’re not going forward.” Last year, we used 340i sedans with traction control off, which required miniscule throttle and steering inputs to win. This year was different. BMW gave us new M5s to drive, with 600 hp and all wheel drive. Having AWD was controversial when the M5 was introduced, but in this application, it was brilliant! Instead of tip-toeing around to avoid a spin in the 340i, the AWD Sport setting enabled heroic slides with lots of power that could be easily recovered with the pull of the front tires. The M5s allowed sideways AND forward to coexist, and boy was that fun! BMW generated a lot of AWD converts that day, which is good since the next-generation M3 will have the same system.

Those with a competitive streak reveled in the timed autocross event. Nimble M2s and a challenging, tight course combined to bring out the Beast Mode in all of us. Each driver got to be a passenger first, learning the layout of the turns, why “Patience Corner” earned its name, and when to apply full ABS to stop within a tight box at the end. We were required to leave DSC engaged, so there was no option for the throttle steering that many of us have used at Chapter autocrosses to point our cars tighter. Each driver had two timed runs, and when the red mist cleared, the clock told us that our third place finisher was Serhan Emre, second went to Greg Uhler, and our champion in the Autocross was Joey Cipponeri. Congratulations guys!

The main draw for many at the Performance Center experience was a chance to drive on one of their 3 race tracks. Only members of the Thermal Club, credentialed journalists at manufacturers’ press events (the new 911 was being introduced while we were there), or Performance Center participants are allowed to drive at this facility. We were able to learn the most challenging layout, the Desert Palm Circuit, in a lead-follow format. Three groups of Instructors would lead 3 drivers each around on the correct “line” while in constant radio contact. It was a great way to learn how to manage straight-line braking, precise turn-in, accurately hitting the apex, progressive throttle application, and unwinding to the exit in each turn. The layout had everything from a second-gear hairpin to a 115 mph straight, and the M4 Competition coupes never missed a beat all day. To provide the maximum driving time, 2 reserve M4s were parked in the paddock to save us time when refueling was needed. When the day in Thermal was over, we had managed our driving time, the BMWs managed continuous hard use without strain, and all of us managed to have a big smile on our faces.

If you missed it, we have already reserved January 25th, 2020 for our next Performance Center experience.

-Dan Tackett