2005 / Virginia International Raceway

It's official! In just our second season in Grand Am Cup competition, the Compass360/Racing team finished first at the Virginia International Raceway 200 this weekend. It's an amazing accomplishment, and a testament to Ian McQuillan and the boys at Hockley Autosport, who have been able to keep our BMW Z3 Coupes (which are essentially a decade-old design) competitive against factory-backed efforts from Acura, Mazda, Honda and General Motors.

It's all the more amazing because our budget is substantially smaller than any of those teams. Formula BMW driver Daniel Herrington co-drove with Team Owner Karl Thomson in changeable, rainy conditions that demanded skill and patience to overcome. It's the best way to end the year, and you can imagine our grins (Herrington and Thomson pictured above). Click here to visit the Grand Am race page.


2005 / Mid Ohio

 

Billy Johnson held the pole position through qualifying at Mid Ohio until he was pipped by just 4/100ths of a second by the #95 Turner car on the last lap. It was great to see a Z3 back up front, and it's a testament to the development work done over the past seven races by the crew.


Compass360/Racing News

2005/08/30: Shawn Greene Update
Shawn Greene, the driver of our #36 car at Mid-Ohio was involved in a high-speed shunt in corner one that resulted in him being airlifted to Grant Hospital in Columbus, OH. He had surgery on Sunday night to repair damage to his femur and pelvis, and today has been given the clearance to return home to Scottsdale, AZ. He's already started his physiotherapy, and expects to be back in the saddle in two to three months. More details are available by visiting the Grand Am site.

2005/08/30: Race Reports for Mosport, Barber, Trois Rivieres and Mid-Ohio
The crew has been exceptionally busy over the past few months, and our reports for some of the races have fallen behind. We've decided to concentrate on our Grand Am Cup effort, and so our CASC Regional races now draw to a close. The result was a car (06) that was in first place for the first half of the Mid-Ohio race. We now have six top-ten finishes out of eight races, heading into the last two of the Grand Am Cup season, and we're well positioned for our first podium. Watch for the race reports to be posted soon!

2005/06/11: Grand Am Cup: Watkins Glen Results
Finishing 16th and 27th in class was not what we had in mind for the Glen. Especially with a good driver line up, and cars that have been developed over the past few weeks to be front-runners. Click here for the story.

2005/06/05: Ciekiewkicz Takes First Place
The third round of the CASC Championship saw Dave Ciekiewicz take two first place spots out of three races on the weekend. This puts our driver well ahead in GT-A.

2005/05/18: Sports-Car Racing's Brave New World
As a team, we made a commitment to the Grand Am Cup series by electing to field our cars in their series. GAC is a support race to the headlining Rolex Championship, but both Rolex and Cup have the same underlying philosophy: make sportscar racing affordable for the participants and you'll have a LOT of interest. With fields of nearly 70 cars in GAC, it's clear they're on the right track. Recently, Car & Driver reported on the Rolex series, which is a story you may find interesting. Click here to read the Car & Driver story.

2005/05/15: Dave and Ian Fight for GT-A Class Win
Dave Ciekiewicz and Crew Chief Ian McQuillan had good battles this weekend in Ontario Regional competition. With the cars returning just days before the event, there was time enough just for mechanical work, and the #06 car still showed scars from our team's Laguna battles. But both cars ran well, yielding Dave a 3rd and two 4ths, while Ian pedalled #36 to fifth in all three races. A rather remarkable feat considering this was Ian's first large-car (he's dominated karting for years) experience. In all, a great weekend for the team. Read the full report here.

2005/05/02: Compass360/Racing Finishes 9th At Laguna Seca
A hard-fought battle by our two young Skip Barber graduates landed the #36 car in ninth place, while the #06 car had an off-track excursion resulting in lengthy repairs during the race. With the usual Herculean effort, the team got the car running again, and it took the checkered flag in 20th. Read the full report here.

2005/05/01: Dave Ciekiewicz Has His First Run At Mosport
Dave C started his assault on the Ontario Regional Championship this past weekend, running an Integra Type R in GT-A. Dave will run the year with Compass360/Racing in our BMWs, but as the team (and our cars) were in Laguna this weekend, alternative arrangements were made. Dave did a fine job, finishing second, third and fourth in the weekend's three races. Read the full report here.

2005/04/19: Karl Thomson Wins Go Karting Championship
For the second year in a row, Karl won the Ontario Indoor Karting Championship, narrowly beating second-place Mark Russell by just one point. Crew Chief Ian McQuillan rounded out the top three. This marks a remarkable five year run on the podium for both McQuillan and Thomson. Read the full report here.

2005/04/04: A Seventh Place Finish at Fontana
A great result for the team, which celebrated a seventh place finish in the #06 car, piloted by Karl Thomson and Jeff Wallace. Read the full report here.

2005/02/04: First Race at Daytona
The first race of 2005 came quickly for the Compass360/Racing team. In the past month, we purchased and prepared two new cars for Grand Am Cup competition. That's an absolutely Herculean effort on the part of our Crew Chief and the guys at Hockley Autosport, and yet the cars came off the trailer looking great and ready to race in their BMW blue-and-white livery. Read the full report here.

Compass360/Racing fields two BMW Z3 Coupes in Grand Am Cup competition, as well as CASC Regional Racing in Ontario, Canada. We also are the promoter of a PCA-sanctioned professional Go Kart series that runs during the winter and spring. Information on the team is available by emailing racing@compass360.com or contacting Karl Thomson, Team Principal, at (416) 465-2299 x21.


2005 Sponsors

Compass360 | Hockley Autosport | mmwave | The Signature Group | Burry Signs | A1fotos.com | Inside Track | Racing Fanatics


More information on Compass360/Racing is available in our archives: 2004 | 2003