June 6th 2023 – Austin, TX.
Kenny Schmied and the AOA Racing #14 BMW M2 CS Racing traveled to New Orleans Motorsports Park in April and Circuit of the Americas in May for rounds 3 through 6 of the 2023 Touring Car America season. After being just 0.001 away from topping the charts during Free Practice 2 at NOLA, Schmied took the wheel for Race 1 having qualified P5. After some solid battles, Schmied got deep into the brakes at turn 1 late in the race, and made contact with the #21 BMW of Adam Gleason, retiring both vehicles from contention. Unfortunately the team were unable to repair the #14 BMW for Race 2 on Sunday.
Arriving to Circuit of the Americas for the next two rounds of the championship, Schmied was quickly finding pace throughout the practice sessions. Schmied would qualify P4 for Race 1, would move briefly up to P3 before falling back to P4 after the start, but just a handful of laps into the race an electrical problem caused Schmied’s car to lose power. Schmied quickly fell back the ranks while he tried to reset the car and sort the issues, but the issue persisted. Schmied would limp the #14 around the circuit for half-distance to ensure he received points for the day’s efforts, but would ultimately finish P8 in class.
Failing to set a fast lap on Saturday due to the electrical issue, Schmied would start P8 for Race 2. The field were closely matched for the whole race, and the positions ebbed and flowed while Schmied tried to claw his way up the standings. With the electrical issues resolved, Schmied pushed hard and was battling for P3 on the final lap.
A rough run through turn 2 had Schmied out of rhythm through the esses, allowing the #73 Honda Civic of Kyle Loh some breathing room for the final lap of the race. Schmied would ultimately come home P4, having picked up the Crowdstrike Fast Lap of the Race on lap 15 of 17, and earning the EBOOST Hard Charger Award for his efforts of climbing to P4 from P8 on the grid.
“NOLA was tough. I’m still struggling to learn the brakes on this BMW, and I just got too deep into the ABS when trying to pass an out of class car, and unfortunately I collected Adam Gleason in the process. The Porsche I’m used to driving always has just a little bit more stopping power on the table if you really need it, unfortunately the BMW’s ABS just isn’t as smart as the ABS in the Porsche, so I thought there was some extra stopping power that wasn’t actually there. I’ll make sure to put that lesson in my permanent memory. Sadly we weren’t able to get things sorted for Race 2” Schmied said of the race at NOLA.
“COTA had it’s ups and downs but it was definitely a bit of long needed relief and redemption. Despite the unfortunate electrical issue during Race 1, we showed we have great pace during Race 2 and are now slowly clawing our way up the leaderboards. Hopefully we can look back on this race as a turning point in our season. We have so much more pace than our position in the championship standings would lead you to believe, so hopefully as we move into the second half of the season and get through the summer break we can continue to improve” said Schmied about the races at COTA.
Schmied and AOA Racing head to ViRginia International Raceway in mid-June for rounds 7 and 8 of the 2023 Touring Car America season. Tickets for GT World Challenge America @ ViR can be bought here.
Photos from TC America at NOLA can be found below or at the photo gallery page here.
Photos from TC America at COTA can be found below or at the photo gallery page here.
