Tyler Clary's Road to Daytona
Donation protected
This is the opportunity of a lifetime for an athlete in transition.
Tyler Clary has been a professional swimmer all of his life. At the peak of his career he earned Gold in the Men's 200m Backstroke while setting the Olympic Record (a record he still owns) at the 2012 London Games. Tyler has now set his sights on a new goal - becoming a professional factory race car driver.
Tyler first fell in love with racing as a youngster while doing fund raisers for his local swim team at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California and for many years, he has planned to pursue an auto racing career when he retired from swimming.
Tyler has been driving all kinds of race cars over the last four years, including the Toyota Pro/Celebrity race at the IndyCar Long Beach Grand Prix, Trophy Trucks in the desert, Legends cars at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and Skip Barber Formula Cars at the IndyCar Academy, to name a few. In the last few months since he retired from competitive swimming, things have begun to get very exciting.
In September, Tyler had the opportunity to test a Spec E46 3 Series BMW at VIRginia International Raceway for James Clay, founder of BimmerWorld, a top BMW performance parts and accessories company and owner of BimmerWorld Racing, a top team in the IMSA Continental Tire Challenge Series. Tyler had never been to this track before, nor had he driven this car before the test day. Within hours Tyler had gotten within a second of the track record during his practice sessions.
That opportunity was enough to attract attention from Ryan Staub of Team LMR racing, and they invited Tyler to race for them at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX in an 8 hour World Racing League race. He was initially slated to race their Spec E36 (similar to what he had driven at VIR), but on the first day of racing (which Tyler was unable to attend because he was teaching a swim clinic), the car blew the engine and was parked for the remainder of the day.
As soon as Tyler finished at the clinic, he rushed to the raceway to find out what had happened. He immediately rolled up his sleeves and got to work with the technicians to help them replace the engine on the car. He stayed until 11:30 pm before the team owner sent him home to get some sleep in hopes he may be racing the next morning. When Tyler arrived at the track at 6 am, his race car was still in pieces, and was no longer being worked on. It wasn't going to be fixed in time for the race. As Tyler was calling his girlfriend and friends that were coming to watch him race, to inform them that he would no longer be racing that day, the team owner pulled him aside and informed him that pro driver and top driver coach Ross Bentley had given up his seat for Tyler! After his strong practice day, they had made the decision to have him race their Spec E90 BMW, a much faster and more advanced car.
Tyler was presented with the very challenging task of starting the race in a car he had never driven, in a field larger than he's ever raced in, and in the pouring rain. Tyler started the race in 24th, and by the time he was done with his 2 hour stint, he had gotten the team into 4th place overall. The team ended up getting third overall, with Tyler having the fastest laps in the rain.
"Tyler joined me in co-driving with the LMR team in a World Racing League event at COTA, driving an ex-bimmerworld E90. His performance in and out of the car totally blew me away. Sunday morning we informed Tyler that he was going to drive the E90, a car that he had not driven yet. And it was pouring rain, and he was going to start the race with no experience in the rain with this car.
'Despite this, he jumped in, learned the feel for the car on the two pace laps, and went to work from the drop of the green flag. By the first turn he was passing cars, but in a very calculated way. He was not over-driving, but was also not under-driving. Throughout his 2-hour stint, he was consistent, mistake-free, and quick. What more could you ask from a driver who was thrown in the deep end (okay, he’s a swimmer – he should be able to handle the deep end!)." - Ross Bentley, renowned driver performance coach and racing driver.
After learning of the results of the race in Austin along with the circumstances surrounding it, the IMSA Continental Tire Challenge Series team that he tested with at VIR extended an invitation to Tyler to join their team as the third driver at the the 4-Hour BMW Performance 240 Continental Tire Series race at Daytona International Speedway on January 29th, the same weekend as the iconic Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Before he competes in the race, Tyler will need to test the car at the “Roar Before the 24” a pre-season practice session on January 6-8.
Here’s where you come in. In this form of racing, teams generally require the drivers to provide the bulk of the funding to go racing. It may not be widely known, but that is actually the case in most forms of racing today, from Sports Cars to NASCAR, IndyCar and Formula 1. It may sound crazy but that is just the business model of modern racing. So, the drivers are beholden to find the funding through outside sponsorship, or personal backing of other kinds.
For this race, each driver will need to contribute toward the running costs of the team
for the weekend. Tyler does have some personal sponsorship to put towards the fee, but because of the short notice of this opportunity, traditional sponsorship will be very difficult to source in time, so your donation will enable Tyler to seize this once-in- a-lifetime opportunity that will open up several more doors and lead to a new and bright future as a professional racing driver.
This could really be a now or never chance for Tyler since we don’t know when and if an opportunity like this will be presented again, so if you can help, thank you very much and please spread the word! Time is of the essence!
FYI: Your donations will be refunded if we cannot reach the goal and/or Tyler is unable to race.
www.tylerclaryracing.com
@tylerclary
Tyler Clary has been a professional swimmer all of his life. At the peak of his career he earned Gold in the Men's 200m Backstroke while setting the Olympic Record (a record he still owns) at the 2012 London Games. Tyler has now set his sights on a new goal - becoming a professional factory race car driver.
Tyler first fell in love with racing as a youngster while doing fund raisers for his local swim team at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California and for many years, he has planned to pursue an auto racing career when he retired from swimming.
Tyler has been driving all kinds of race cars over the last four years, including the Toyota Pro/Celebrity race at the IndyCar Long Beach Grand Prix, Trophy Trucks in the desert, Legends cars at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and Skip Barber Formula Cars at the IndyCar Academy, to name a few. In the last few months since he retired from competitive swimming, things have begun to get very exciting.
In September, Tyler had the opportunity to test a Spec E46 3 Series BMW at VIRginia International Raceway for James Clay, founder of BimmerWorld, a top BMW performance parts and accessories company and owner of BimmerWorld Racing, a top team in the IMSA Continental Tire Challenge Series. Tyler had never been to this track before, nor had he driven this car before the test day. Within hours Tyler had gotten within a second of the track record during his practice sessions.
That opportunity was enough to attract attention from Ryan Staub of Team LMR racing, and they invited Tyler to race for them at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX in an 8 hour World Racing League race. He was initially slated to race their Spec E36 (similar to what he had driven at VIR), but on the first day of racing (which Tyler was unable to attend because he was teaching a swim clinic), the car blew the engine and was parked for the remainder of the day.
As soon as Tyler finished at the clinic, he rushed to the raceway to find out what had happened. He immediately rolled up his sleeves and got to work with the technicians to help them replace the engine on the car. He stayed until 11:30 pm before the team owner sent him home to get some sleep in hopes he may be racing the next morning. When Tyler arrived at the track at 6 am, his race car was still in pieces, and was no longer being worked on. It wasn't going to be fixed in time for the race. As Tyler was calling his girlfriend and friends that were coming to watch him race, to inform them that he would no longer be racing that day, the team owner pulled him aside and informed him that pro driver and top driver coach Ross Bentley had given up his seat for Tyler! After his strong practice day, they had made the decision to have him race their Spec E90 BMW, a much faster and more advanced car.
Tyler was presented with the very challenging task of starting the race in a car he had never driven, in a field larger than he's ever raced in, and in the pouring rain. Tyler started the race in 24th, and by the time he was done with his 2 hour stint, he had gotten the team into 4th place overall. The team ended up getting third overall, with Tyler having the fastest laps in the rain.
"Tyler joined me in co-driving with the LMR team in a World Racing League event at COTA, driving an ex-bimmerworld E90. His performance in and out of the car totally blew me away. Sunday morning we informed Tyler that he was going to drive the E90, a car that he had not driven yet. And it was pouring rain, and he was going to start the race with no experience in the rain with this car.
'Despite this, he jumped in, learned the feel for the car on the two pace laps, and went to work from the drop of the green flag. By the first turn he was passing cars, but in a very calculated way. He was not over-driving, but was also not under-driving. Throughout his 2-hour stint, he was consistent, mistake-free, and quick. What more could you ask from a driver who was thrown in the deep end (okay, he’s a swimmer – he should be able to handle the deep end!)." - Ross Bentley, renowned driver performance coach and racing driver.
After learning of the results of the race in Austin along with the circumstances surrounding it, the IMSA Continental Tire Challenge Series team that he tested with at VIR extended an invitation to Tyler to join their team as the third driver at the the 4-Hour BMW Performance 240 Continental Tire Series race at Daytona International Speedway on January 29th, the same weekend as the iconic Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Before he competes in the race, Tyler will need to test the car at the “Roar Before the 24” a pre-season practice session on January 6-8.
Here’s where you come in. In this form of racing, teams generally require the drivers to provide the bulk of the funding to go racing. It may not be widely known, but that is actually the case in most forms of racing today, from Sports Cars to NASCAR, IndyCar and Formula 1. It may sound crazy but that is just the business model of modern racing. So, the drivers are beholden to find the funding through outside sponsorship, or personal backing of other kinds.
For this race, each driver will need to contribute toward the running costs of the team
for the weekend. Tyler does have some personal sponsorship to put towards the fee, but because of the short notice of this opportunity, traditional sponsorship will be very difficult to source in time, so your donation will enable Tyler to seize this once-in- a-lifetime opportunity that will open up several more doors and lead to a new and bright future as a professional racing driver.
This could really be a now or never chance for Tyler since we don’t know when and if an opportunity like this will be presented again, so if you can help, thank you very much and please spread the word! Time is of the essence!
FYI: Your donations will be refunded if we cannot reach the goal and/or Tyler is unable to race.
www.tylerclaryracing.com
@tylerclary
Organiser
Tyler Clary
Organiser
Charlotte, NC
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