Grahovec Racing

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Grahovec scores 4th top ten finish in a row at Watkins Glen.

Classic BMW Continues Roll with Fourth, Sixth-Place Finishes in New Jersey

PLANO, Texas (Sept. 5, 2008) - Classic BMW of Plano, Texas, campaigns two BMW Z4 roadsters in the Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series Street Tuner (ST) class. Throughout the season both cars have fared well, achieving seven top-10 finishes, but rarely have they both finished in the top 10 in the same race.
At New Jersey Motorsports Park, however, the orange and blue roadsters traveled distinctly different courses to end the race, both in the top six. The No. 85, driven by Al lamb and Leonardo Maia, placed fourth, and the No. 86, driven by Toby Grahovec and Pierre Kleinubing, finished sixth.
The fourth-place finish for Lamb and Maia was part strategy and part luck, as the No. 85 relied on an early pit strategy involving a driver change and a full tank of Sunoco. The early pit stop enabled the No. 85 to gain positions in the later stages of the race as it was able to go the distance on one stop. The yellow flag period was a blessing as the little BMW continued to move toward the top of the timesheets until the checkered flag finally fell.
"We had a great strategy," said Todd Lamb, crew chief of the No. 85. "I know a lot of people thought it was luck, but I knew what kind of race this was going to be and I made the decision to pit when we did because I knew we could make it the rest of the way. I wish we had more time under a green flag, because this car was set up perfectly and could have won this race."
The No. 86 of Grahovec and Kleinubing started the race in great position and was gradually working its way toward the top five when Grand-Am called Grahovec in for a drive-through penalty for going off the track...Because of the drive-through, the No. 86 fell back to 26th position. Kleinubing took over the car and found himself trapped in the constant caution, but was also the benefactor of a well-timed pit stop, as he also gradually moved up through the field. When the green flag finally reappeared, Kleinubing moved several places toward the front and crossed the finish line in sixth position.
Because of their top 10 finishes, both cars have landed in the top 10 in the season-long point championship. The Grahovec/Kleinubing team sits firmly in fifth place overall with 163 points and the Lamb/Maia team enters the top 10 in 10th with 130 points. A mere three points separates them from eighth position.
The coming weeks will be full of excitement as the team begins final preparations for Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah, with a practice event at the new Eagles Canyon Raceway just outside of Plano, Texas. The event will be an opportunity for Classic BMW's customers to watch the team in action and an opportunity to drive the new track. The team from Texas is looking forward to continuing its successful run to the end of the season.

CLASSIC BMW SCORES SECOND PLACE FINISH at TROIS-RIVIERES

PLANO, Texas (Aug. 19, 2008) - After running a very competitive race at Iowa Speedway - only to have a mechanical malfunction in the final laps - less than a week before, the No. 86 Classic BMW-Plano BMW Z4 ran a perfect race combined with great strategy to come across the finish line in second position in the Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series Street Tuner (ST) race Saturday. Brazilian Pierre Kleinubing finished a mere 2.77 seconds behind the Compass360 Acura TSX driven by Adam Burrows. Driver Toby Grahovec qualified the car near the top of the time sheets and started the race in what is becoming typical fashion. He drove a perfect first stint and moved up into the top five before an early pit stop with driver exchange and a full tank of Sunoco fuel sent the Z4 back into the action.
Kleinubing assumed the driving duties in 20th and quickly came to the front of the field. He brought the Z4 up into second position before the race experienced its only full course yellow for debris. The final 20 minutes of green flag racing saw an inspired Kleinubing all over the tail of the Burrows driven Acura. In the end, Burrows held off the talented Brazilian in what was a very close and exciting race for the Canadian fans.
"I've been racing here a long time," Kleinubing said. "I've come here with other series' in the past. I know how good the fans are. It's a good place to do well. It's the best finish we've had in a long time. We've been having problems often. Thought I had a strong finish last week in Iowa, we didn't get it, we were so close. It feels good to finally get one. Classic deserves it and we have to thank Cobalt brakes - they improve our program tremendously."
Kleinubing and Grahovec have been competitive all season, and their efforts were rewarded with their first podium finish this season. The duo believes in the final three races of the season they have a great chance of repeating the feat they accomplished at Trois-Rivieres.
"It's great to finish here second with all these great fans up here in Canada," Grahovec said. "It's great to be on the podium here with Classic. It feels great. We've been so close all year, but we finally made it up there. Hopefully we can step on up one more step and get a win in the next couple of races."

Once A Hockey All-American, Grahovec Now A KONI Challenge Driver
By Michael Harker

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (March 19, 2008) – Toby Grahovec had all the aspirations to someday become a hockey player. And eventually, he gained aspirations that even to this day he’s chasing and living.

When he was a year-and-a-half, Grahovec showed interest to his brother’s youth hockey games, and wanted to play himself. He starting skating at that point and playing games when he was only 3 with a bunch twice his age.

Naturally as he grew older and played more, his skills improved. He was part of a National Championship team at age 14 and played Triple A hockey, traveling all around the U.S. and Canada. He went so far to play at Robert Morris College in Chicago, near his hometown of Palos Park, Ill.

In his three seasons with the Eagles – a dominant NAIA college in the ACHA Conference – Grahovec scored a school record 100 goals. That effort alone was enough to earn All-American honors twice and make him the school’s best scorer to date. The only ever player from the school to have his jersey number retired, Grahovec also graduated with a 3.4 GPA and a degree in Business Administration. MORE...

Daytona Race Report

As the "Fresh From Florida 200" at Daytona International Speedway drew near on Jan. 25, the team from Classic BMW Motorsports met at Daytona with mixed feelings. The BMW Z4 roadsters, the Nos. 85 and 86 cars were known to be very good handling cars but were not the best top speed racecars. Based on last year's performance it was clear that the draft was going to be essential to running near the front of the field.
A spectacular, drafting exhibition by Toby Grahovec during qualifying landed the No. 86 Z4 on the outside of row two in fourth position, while the No. 85 car driven by Al Lamb was challenged by the draft and managed a disappointing 28th starting position.
The race began on a fantastic note as Grahovec took advantage of an early race error by one of the leaders and drove deep into turn one to take the race lead. The 86 car maintained the lead for nearly the entire first hour, turning very consistent laps until finally giving up the race lead.
The 85 car driven by lamb quietly clipped its way through the field jumping from 28th to 20th position before turning the roadster over to Leonardo Maia. Maia jumped behind the wheel and propelled the 85 car up into the top 10, but was forced to pit late in the race to add fuel and concluded the race in 13th position.
Grahovec turned the 86 car over to four-time World Challenge champion Pierre Kleinubing in excellent shape. Immediately after taking the wheel, Kleinubing experienced an electrical problem that managed to progressively worsened throughout his stint. Kleinubing was forced to fall back in the field but managed to bring the car to the checkered flag bringing with it crucial points toward the series championship. The team was excited by the performance of the cars, but a bit dejected by the finishing positions.
"These cars were much better than 13th and 14th," Grahovec said.
During the offseason the Classic BMW Motorsports cars were indoctrinated into the world of BMW Performance Parts. This is a new division of BMW Parts that is geared directly toward the tuner crowd.
"The beauty of the ST division is that most everything that is on the racecars can be put onto our customers' daily drivers," said team manager Tom Bull. "We have added the new BMW Performance Parts brakes and the new strut tower brace to the Classic BMW Motorsports Z4 and we have seen a very nice improvement on the racetrack from both of these additions.
"We hope that through our racing efforts BMW customers will see the advantages of these new tuning parts and improve the performance of their cars," Bull continued. "These parts are available at all BMW Centers, but Classic BMW in Plano Texas is the first in the world to actually race with the new BMW Performance parts."
This season has just begun and the team from Classic BMW Motorsports is very hopeful. The cars have proven to be competitive, yet unreliable. This season the emphasis is on reliability and preparation, the independent team from Texas believes that this package may be the best by the time the long season is over.

Grahovec Scores His 5th Podium at the Runoffs

Toby Grahovec has become a fixture on the SCCA Runoffs SSB podium. The 2005 Champion has 5 top 3 finishes in the last 6 years.

Classic BMW Celebrates First Koni Challenge Podium Finish

Plano, Texas (July 10, 2007) Classic BMW Motorsports, based in Plano, TX, is proud to celebrate their first podium finish in the Grand-Am Koni Challenge Series. The Classic BMW Z4, piloted by Toby Grahovec and Leonardo Maia, led several laps and finished in 3rd position at the Supercuts 200 held in Watkins Glen, NY... MORE

Team Mobility Storms to USTCC Victory

Plano, TX - Team Mobility and driver Toby Grahovec captured their first US Touring Car Championship race victory on Sunday, September 10 at Infineon Raceway (formerly Sears Point) in Sonoma, California. Grahovec was able to utilize a smart pit stop strategy by his Team Mobility crew and deliver his BMW 330i to victory lane with a commanding 30-second margin of victory. With their victory, Team Mobility and Grahovec will donate $500.00 of their prize money to Guide Dogs for the Blind. Grahovec also shared a 2nd place finish in a NASA endurance race with Scott Riley of Dallas, Texas. Grahovec and Riley co-drove a Classic BMW and Team Mobility supported BMW M3.
"This is an awesome win for us. My guys just worked so hard. We had a severe engine problem in testing and practice here and I was worried that we weren't going to be able to race," said Grahovec, the 2005 SCCA Showroom Stock B National Champion. "But, Tom, Brad, and Monti never gave up. I'm glad I could do my part and bring home a victory for Team Mobility, Classic BMW, and all of our sponsors. They've been behind us 100 percent all year and they deserve all the credit. I had it pretty easy on the track after our fantastic pit stop."

Behind the Scenes with Toby Grahovec
By-Sahar Hassani

This season, Classic BMW-Plano driver, Toby Grahovec, has scored one podium and three top-five finishes in the Grand-Am KONI Challenge ST class in his Z4. The talented young driver has scored several SCCA championships and he hopes to score his first in Grand-Am in the near future. MORE...

Next SPEED Touring Car Race
July 3-5
Broadcast on SPEED: Wednesday, July 22 at 2 p.m. (EDT)

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