Driver with a self-built BMW and no maintenance crew tackles Rally Mexico, takes third in class

I found this link on a site I frequent, and thought people here might like it. Bill Caswell, an American racing nut, built his own rally car out of a 1991 BMW chassis he bought for $500 off Craigslist, brought it to Rally Mexico this year with a co-driver he'd never met and no maintenance crew, and took third place in his class.

http://jalopnik.com/5497042/how-a-50...k-rally-racers

The article headline is a little misleading; the chassis was $500, but it sounds like all the performance parts were replaced, and the engine was from an E30 M3. I don't know much about car parts yet, but I'm guessing those cost a little more than $500. :D Still, pretty impressive that he built his own car, did his own repairs, and managed to be competitive.

This is an mazing story, I saw that car twice on the stages (and yes it was sideways all the time!) and once in the service park, it looked just out of place next to the WRC cars, cant believe they made it all the way!

congratulations to them!

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Originally Posted by jonas_mcrae

This is an mazing story, I saw that car twice on the stages (and yes it was sideways all the time!) and once in the service park, it looked just out of place next to the WRC cars, cant believe they made it all the way!

congratulations to them!

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But there wsnt eny BMW on starting list of rally of Mexico!!!! :confused:

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Originally Posted by jonas_mcrae

This is an mazing story, I saw that car twice on the stages (and yes it was sideways all the time!) and once in the service park, it looked just out of place next to the WRC cars, cant believe they made it all the way!

congratulations to them!

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But there wsnt any BMW on starting list of rally of Mexico!!!! :confused:

Cool story!!!!

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Originally Posted by DIMI44

But there wsnt any BMW on starting list of rally of Mexico!!!! :confused:

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Very nice and healthy story. Thanks for the link.

He drove in Rally America class, that's why his name isn't on WRC lists. Actually Ricardo Triviño whose Pug 206 WRC was originally on WRC list appeared on Rally America too.

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Originally Posted by Hartusvuori

Very nice and healthy story. Thanks for the link.

He drove in Rally America class, that's why his name isn't on WRC lists. Actually Ricardo Triviño whose Pug 206 WRC was originally on WRC list appeared on Rally America too.

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True they were in a special category, along with a few evos, triviño and the 206 cup cars.

I was looking at the times (available in PDF at rallymexico.com) and on stage 22 Caswell was 8.6 seconds faster than Triviño who drove a WRC car! I know its a super special and all, and maybe Triviño had problems, but still I think that is a great achievement!

In the overall standings Caswell was 4th, behind Triviño, Jassan and Name (last two in Evos) however without the penalties he would've been 2 minutes ahead of Jassan! 2 minutes ahead of an Evo IX! IMO he should be the star of the rally. What a great effort, and considering he was driving with notes in spanish, with a codriver he didnt know, no service crew, limited amount of tyres and no reconaisance, its an outstanding thing what he did.

congratulations!


I just have one question, what is the loophole he used to enter the rally? I guess its because the chasis of the BMW had been homologated long ago... but what else? there is no "OPEN" class in wrc is there?

here is more about the same story, written by Caswell's codriver Ben Slocum, amazing story.

http://jalopnik.com/5500013/i-co+dro...yline=true&s=i

Wow, impressive... are there videos on youtube ?

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Originally Posted by jonas_mcrae

no reconaisance

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Uh O_o; ? So did he use some other people notes ?

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Originally Posted by jonas_mcrae

I just have one question, what is the loophole he used to enter the rally? I guess its because the chasis of the BMW had been homologated long ago... but what else? there is no "OPEN" class in wrc is there?

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I don't know how the whole process works, but what I gather is that because the WRC rally and the Mexican national rally/Rally America are technically separate events running together, he was able to enter a car qualified for Rally America even if it wasn't qualified for the WRC.

I'm guessing the "OPEN" class shown in the stage result PDFs is a Rally America classification, not a WRC one.

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Originally Posted by Helstar

Wow, impressive... are there videos on youtube ?

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The driver has a YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/Chaosmotorsport

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Originally Posted by Helstar

Uh O_o; ? So did he use some other people notes ?

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Yes, they ran into Nicholas Fuchs (a PWRC driver) and got a copy of his notes -- which were in Spanish, which neither Caswell nor Slocum (his co-driver) speak. :D Slocum talks about it in Jonas_mcrae's link.

Put this guy in a group N car and lets see what he can do. Looks like he can drive a car! =)

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Originally Posted by jonas_mcrae

T
I just have one question, what is the loophole he used to enter the rally??

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There was no loop hole.

He didn't enter a WRC event, he entered a follow on event, similar to that which many events run.

The WRC format is very prescriptive, and it excludes anything that doesn't comply with the regulations.

Organisers cater for their other competitors with events than run immediately after the WRC event.

Makes a good story line, but it isn't correct.

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Originally Posted by bowler

There was no loop hole.

He didn't enter a WRC event, he entered a follow on event, similar to that which many events run.

The WRC format is very prescriptive, and it excludes anything that doesn't comply with the regulations.

Organisers cater for their other competitors with events than run immediately after the WRC event.

Makes a good story line, but it isn't correct.

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Well, actually from this year, so called 'National cars' can run in WRC under specific conditions. One is that their results do not appear on the official WRC results. In fact, this new regulation just sanctions what many WRC organisers have been doing for several years, that is running piggy-back rallies to boost entry numbers.

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Originally Posted by Rally Hokkaido

Well, actually from this year, so called 'National cars' can run in WRC under specific conditions. One is that their results do not appear on the official WRC results. In fact, this new regulation just sanctions what many WRC organisers have been doing for several years, that is running piggy-back rallies to boost entry numbers.

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I agree with you RH. There was no "loophole". He did what anyone could have done, and looks like he had a real good time doing it.

yeah I've been reading a little bit more and there was no loophole, its just that drivers in Rally America (the mexican rally america, following wrc) could enter cars that correspond to Rally America regulations (the US championship) as long as the covered the OPEN class specifications. As the BMW had passed a Rally America (US) inspection and had run the 100 Acre wood rally, it was fine to run the mexican rally america.

I knows is kindda confusing with all the "Rally America"s ....

I heard during the rally that Rally Mexico organiser were thinking about running a joint event next year WRC/MEXICAN CHAMPIONSHIP/RALLY AMERICA (US), so S drivers could get points towards the american championship. I guess that would be a good idea, bigger entry and we could see how the open class US cars do against WRC/group N/s2000 in the same stages!