Long Beach, Calif. – April 19, 2009… James Sofronas, of nearby Newport Beach, Calif., took a popular hometown win Sunday at the World Challenge ACS Grand Prix of Long Beach Presented by Lala Motorsports, Round Two of the 2009 SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT Championship. Eric Curran, of Easthampton, Mass., and Brandon Davis, of Huntington Beach, Calif., completed the podium.

In the curtain closer of the 35th Annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Sofronas started second in his No. 14 Global Motorsports Group Porsche 911 GT3 and moved past Mike Davis' No. 11 Applied Computer Solutions/SunMicro Ford Mustang Cobra on lap two to take the lead he would never relinquish. While withstanding heavy pressure from several challengers, Sofronas drove a flawless race to take his second-career victory by 2.43 seconds, averaging 73.686 mph.

"This was a race we wanted to win for obvious reasons - you want to win in front of the hometown crowd,” Sofronas said. “We"ve been coming here for the last three years and had top fives every time, but finally getting the win is so gratifying. I think our team was one of the last to leave the paddock this weekend. They were up until 2:30 in the morning making changes.

“Having GMG right down the street, we’re lucky to have a lot of clients here and a lot of our cars on display. It gave a chance for people to see that we’re not as much a race team as a Porsche prep shop. We do a good amount of racing, but we do a lot more on the street tuning side. The racing is the branding. It gives us the image of racing on Sunday and selling on Monday. The best part though, is having my wife here. She’s amazing. I couldn’t do this without her and we’re expecting a baby girl in three months.”

After Sofronas took over the point and had the younger Davis (Mike’s son Brandon) behind him, he knew he’d be in for a fight, but learned he had the right car to do the job.

“I got by Mike [Davis] and the next thing I know I have this black beast in my mirrors, but I told myself to be smooth and run consistent laps,” Sofronas said. “What was amazing was, when I was going through traffic, I got into Turn Nine at full brakes and I had no idea I had that much brake left and it made me that much more confident. Moving forward, I was so confident knowing that, if Brandon came charging, I knew I could brake deep with the Stoptech brakes. I knew that as long as I didn’t make a mistake, I’d be okay."

Long Beach, Calif. – April 18, 2009… With a third-place GT2 class finish by the No. 92 M3 of Tommy Milner and Dirk Müller in the Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series at Long Beach, the BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team reached the ALMS podium for the second consecutive race. The duo completed 70 laps around the 1.968-mile temporary street circuit in the one-hour-and-forty-minute contest.

Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand scored their first points of the season, finishing eighth in the No. 90 M3 after losing four laps following a collision with another competitor just past the one-hour mark. Today’s finish moves BMW to fourth in GT2 Manufacturer points. Milner and Müller now stand fifth in GT2 Driver points. The race began under a bright Southern California sun with Tommy Milner starting the No. 92 M3 from third and Bill Auberlen behind the wheel of the No. 90 M3 in fourth. At the 30-minute mark, with 21 laps completed, Milner held onto the third position in a great battle with the fourth and fifth place competitors scant seconds behind. Auberlen had fallen back to sixth, eight seconds behind his teammate. Fifteen minutes later the GT2 leader fell out with a broken suspension and everyone moved up one position, Milner now 23 seconds from the new leader. Milner lost the second spot on lap 38 as the battle for the podium got even hotter. With one hour gone, Auberlen pitted having completed 40 laps. Hand returned to the race with a full tank of fuel and new Dunlop tires on the No. 90 M3. Milner pitted five laps later, handing the No. 92 M3 to Dirk Müller. With all the GT2 class pit stops complete and some 30 minutes left in the race the two M3s were back where they started with the No. 92 in third and the No. 90 in fourth. On lap 52, bad luck stuck the No. 90 M3 as Hand got together with another competitor. Damage to the front splitter forced him to the pits. With only some 20 minutes remaining, Hand returned his bruised and bandaged M3 to the race in tenth place. With five minutes left the races only yellow flag of the race flew and ended the race with the field behind the pace car. On May 15 – 17 the American Le Mans Series travels to Miller Motorsports Park, in Tooele, Utah, for the Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix.

Tommy Milner, driver No. 92 M3 (third):
“Our second podium proves how strong this team is. The tires were consistent and the team called a great pit strategy. No one could beat us in the corners, but there at least three competitors that were quicker on overall pace. We’re executing, but need a little more for the long straights.”

Dirk Müller, driver No. 92 M3 (third):
“I am thrilled to be on the podium for a second time in a row. Tommy did a fantastic first stint and Dunlop gave us excellent tires. It was quite difficult with all the traffic and the lowering sun became an issue for me late in the race. We had an awesome pit stop. It was really, really, quick. The M3 had me driving to the limit and I was closing the gap to P2. Unfortunately, a slow LMP1 car held me off for five laps and I lost 12 to 14 seconds. We certainly had the potential for a better result.”

Bobby Rahal, Team Principal:
“We are certainly happy to be on the podium for a second time. It is the best evidence of progress. It looked like we could have finished even better, but on a tight track like this it is very easy to lose time to slower traffic, even slower prototype class cars.”

Martin Birkmann, BMW of North America, LLC Motorsports Manager:
“Our target was to get both cars to the checkered flag so we can say mission accomplished. We captured a second consecutive podium, but again we did not have the luck with the No. 90 M3. This time however it was racing luck as Joey tangled with another competitor.”

Sebring International Raceway had the best of the BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team in its debut race today as both BMW M3s were forced to retire before half-distance of the 57th annual 12 Hours of Sebring. Teething problems for the new cars began early. Despite exhaustive pre-race preparations and a trouble-free morning warm-up session, electrical problems struck the No. 90 M3 on the grid and Bill Auberlen was forced to relinquish his sixth starting position. (He had qualified seventh, but a competitor was moved to the rear of the field following an infraction in Thursday’s night practice.) The team rolled the car to paddock to affect repairs as the field took the green flag.

Dirk Müller started the No. 92 M3 from 13th in the GT2 field. By lap 17 and some 37 minutes into the 12-hour contest Muller was in sixth. He pitted for fuel and tires 20 minutes later and began a second stint.

Following diagnosis and yeoman’s work by the BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team crew to the No. 90 machine, just before the one hour mark both M3s were on the track with Müller moving up to fifth and chasing after the fourth place car. The first caution period of the race came at the 1:30 mark and both M3s came to the pits for fuel and tires. Milner replaced Müller and Hand took over for Auberlen. As the green flag flew again Milner moved into third and at the two-hour mark had moved the No. 92 M3 into second, one lap behind the leader.

After a total of 27 laps, Sebring stuck a fatal blow and Hand pitted the No. 90 M3 with an oil leak. The leak was unable to be repaired and the car was retired from the race. Sebring was proving to be especially difficult this year, taking its toll on many of the top GT2 class cars.

With some three hours of the race complete, the team took advantage of the second caution period of the race to pit Milner and send Müller out with a full tank of fuel and new tires. 30 minutes later he had the No. 92 M3 back into second position. Another pit stop saw Milner back behind the wheel and consolidating the No. 92’s hold on second place with 139 laps complete. Pitting just past the five-hour mark Müller took over, but as he launched something broke and the car had to be retired.

“Sebring bettered us today, but it will definitely make us better,” said Martin Birkmann, BMW of North America Motorsports Manager. “Strategy, consistency and reliability are the keys to success here and it’s hard for a new car to be perfectly reliable. We know all BMW fans share our disappointment and we thank everyone who came out to cheer us on and be part of our return to the ALMS. Sebring is a big race, but BMW did not return for only one race. We came back for the season and are looking forward to Round Two.”

Bobby Rahal, Team Principal, added, “For almost half the race we put on a good show for all the BMW fans here at Sebring. To run as high as second, and for a number of hours, in our debut race is a very good sign and a testament to the team we have put together. Yes, we are disappointed, but on to St. Pete. Focus forward.” “Sebring demands perfection”, said Tommy Milner. “We are a new team in a new car and everybody is working very hard. We aren’t perfect. We will figure this out. We’ve proven we have a good team.”

Dirk Müller said, “The M3 was running really great - the best all week - which is a big compliment to everyone’s efforts. We were running trouble-free in second place, no incidents, no scratches, nothing. I made it from the back to fourth place in two stints. Then we got a drive train issue that ultimately made us stop. It’s a new car and we need to investigate this problem, but I have no doubt St. Pete will be a better race for us.” Round Two of the 2009 American Le Mans Series, The Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg, is scheduled for April 3 – 5.

After leading the first 4 laps, Dino Crescentini experienced some rear grip issues and knew his race was going to be a battle and decided to settle into 4th to buy some time until the latter part of the race. James, who had a miserable start, dropped all the way back to 12th (after starting 4th) on the first lap worked his way back up to 5th at mid point in the race and then Dino and James ran together until Dino pointed James by to charge up to the front with Dino right behind him. Meanwhile Bill Ziegler was running a very consistent race as this was his first WC race ever and he was looking to stay out of trouble and finish a clean race. Not only did he do that but he worked his way up to an 8th place finish as the highest placing rookie and Sunoco Hard Charger winner! While Bill’s race was fairly drama free, the same couldn’t be said for both James and Dino. While James and Dino ran 4-5, a full course caution came out with 4 laps to go and this was the break they were looking for. James had a car to run to the front and Dino was hoping his car would come alive after the tires were cooled off so when the green flag dropped, off they went. James shot ahead of the Mustang of Davis and into 3rd and latched onto the bumper of Curran. While James had a great restart, Dino was balked when the Mustang didn’t get a run and had to get out of the throttle, allowing several cars to get alongside him and subsequently squeezing Dino into turn 3 and cutting 2 of his tires down ending his race. With James more fortunate, he set his sights on Curran with only 4 laps to go. It was quite apparent that James’ Porsche was better in the tight corners and under braking but the power of the Corvette would pull away on both of Sebring’s long straights. With 2 laps to go and James a car length off Curran’s bumper, the two of them entered the tight turn 3 when they hit an oil patch. Curran got sideways but managed to hold on but James was deep in the throttle and once he hit the oil there was no time to correct and he spun off the track but managed to keep it going. With the spin, James lost 3 more spots back to 8th but managed to pass 2 more cars on the final lap to finish 5th and salvage a tough weekend with no official practice, a fever of over 100 degrees and a rolled ankle in the paddock. All in all, GMG showed that they are a team to contend with for the 2009 Speed GT Championship and they will be back in form for the next race in GMG’s backyard, the Grand Prix of Long Beach!

Lars is no stranger to custom helmet paint. This is his third helmet he has had painted, the first one was back in the day when Troy Lee was just getting popular. The second helmet (seen in pics) was painted by Blowsion. For his new one he came to Censport, he has had the same basic layout for all helmets and he wanted to keep it that way. He wanted to keep the Queensryche logo and actually make it bigger than last time. For the blue areas instead of a plaid like look we went with 3-D style blocks, creating an optical illusion. The helmet looks like it is chiseled out. It might not look like a crazy design, but this helmet took a long time! It is fun to see the progression between styles of today and those of just a few years ago.

New projects up in the gallery. Lawrence Loshak helmet, Tom Milner helmets, Ducati 848 race bike, Porsche Cup car wrap for Brent Holden. Check the various galleries to see more details.

Just finished this striking helmet for the recent WCGT winner James Sofronas president and driver for GMG motorsports. See him on SPEED Channel for the 24hrs of Daytona. He will have an in car camera so you hopefully will get to see this bad boy on T.V. Look for more of this helmet in the gallery shortly.

Rob had his Bell Dominator painted by me this summer and now wanted me to design his race car livery using the color scheme his helmet has. I drew the car from three angles by scratch and put the design down using a computer program. Now he has three great designs to choose from. The biggest task was to design the graphics so they would be as easy as possible to apply to the cars 3-D surface. The graphics themselves will be cut out of vinyl and stuck to the car, rather than having the design painted on.

Hydro-Dip, a water transfer printing company has been working with High Desert Harley-Davidson in creating some unique looking bikes with the Buell brand. Their ever popular carbon fiber dipped bikes have given way to an even cooler idea, doing custom paint on top of the already eye catching carbon fiber looking body pieces. Hydro-Dip came to Censport when they wanted a one off design and paint scheme that would drop jaws on the showroom floor. They had already had the body pieces of a Buell 1125R painted in a special burgundy metallic paint and dipped in a black carbon fiber print. They wanted me to design something that was simple yet tasteful and that would compliment their maroon pieces. The goal for this project is to get the owner of the dealership salivating and wanting our services applied to the more exotic Harley-Davidson line of choppers and cruisers. This is a great opportunity for someone in the Buell or Harley market to get a custom finish that no one else will have.

My brother and business partner needed a eye catching, classic, professional looking logo for their new interior and exterior home painting business. This is what I whipped up for them. I also installed the graphics on their trailer.

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