By Jeff Olson
When Bill Auberlen was a boy, he followed his dad, Gerd, everywhere, including to his motorcycle races. There, Bill would imitate his dad by riding around on a 60cc Yamaha minibike.
“I was so short that my mom had to catch me and let me go when I would ride,” he said. “She would start it and let me go and I would ride around for a while and come back, and she would catch me. That was the start of it.”
And what a start it was. When his dad built a Porsche 911 RSR, Bill, then 12, worked on the car and followed his dad to the races. “I was working on this Porsche from the ground up as a kid,” he recalled. “I was sweeping the floors, cleaning the parts – whatever I could do to be around it. That was all I wanted to do.”
Four decades later, Auberlen is the most successful racer in IMSA history, breaking Scott Pruett’s career record of 60 wins by winning the GTD class Saturday with Robby Foley in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 at VIRginia International Raceway.
After the race, Auberlen thought about his start in the sport, learning about racing and race cars with his dad. Traveling the country, preparing a car for competition, and seeing it through to the finish. The foundation for the record was laid when Gerd turned the car over to his 17-year-old son at Daytona in 1986. Bill finished second, and the adventure began.
“That was my start in racing,” Auberlen said. “I was super lucky, super fortunate to have the opportunity. After that, my dad gave me a few more races. Then, after a few more races, he said, ‘Look, guys, this is very expensive. I don’t want to do this anymore. But there’s the car and there’s the truck. If you can go racing and you can make it happen, you keep going.’”
Keep going he did. Along with the 61 wins in top divisions over the various sanctioning bodies over the years, Auberlen has amassed 17 wins in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, which don’t count toward the record. Perhaps most impressive is another record – 43 pole positions in the top divisions – considering he wasn’t always the qualifying driver.
The biggest break, though, was joining legendary team owner Tom Milner with BMW Team PTG in 1996. Auberlen has been with BMW ever since – 444 races and counting – and credits Milner with his success. Milner, on the other hand, credits Auberlen.
“Bill just really wants to win,” Milner said. “No matter what, he seems to figure out how to do it. He did that in the very beginning. … I wasn’t exactly sure about him in the beginning. I didn’t know him that well. I’m a German and he’s from California, so there were big differences, but obviously for us at PTG and for BMW it was a wonderful thing. It really clicked.”
That fact that it clicked so well and for so long still hasn’t caught up to Auberlen, who’s a fan and student of the racers he passed along the way.
“I’ve been watching IMSA since I was a tiny kid, and it had been going on long before that,” Auberlen said. “Thousands and thousands of drivers have gone through it, guys that I looked up to and were my heroes. Slowly, one by one, I gathered these race wins. To be above guys like Al Holbert and Geoff Brabham and Mario Andretti is super amazing. It’s hitting home.”
Part of what makes Auberlen so successful, Milner surmises, is his ability to compartmentalize. Away from the car, he’s a polished professional and proper representative for sponsors, his team and manufacturers. Inside the car, though, he’s relentless.
“He’s a great guy outside the car at the track,” Milner said. “He’s the nicest guy ever. But once he gets in the car and has to race against other guys, he’s fierce. … If he won, he was great. But if he came in second, he was not so great. That’s what it takes, I think.”
The underlying question, then, is one Auberlen faces often. He’s 51, still fit and at the top of his game, but people want to know how much longer he’ll continue. In some ways, that question serves only to motivate.
“In my mind, it’s either physical ability, which I still have – I still have the reactions and strength and train harder than ever – or it’s the desire,” Auberlen said. “If other things become more important in life, then for sure your dedication is going to go down and you won’t be as good. At this point in my life, my desire to win is as high as it’s ever been.”
It all circles back to the early days. The minibike, sweeping garage floors, cleaning parts, traveling to races. The first time he met Auberlen, Milner saw a Mazda on an open trailer behind a rented truck. Because he didn’t have much at the start, Auberlen appreciates the accomplishment.
“I think those things helped him,” Milner said. “He realized that nobody was going to give him anything for free, so to speak. You have to work at it very hard. He would work on the car himself in those days. It was nice to see that. He’s a fierce competitor.”
When he was interviewed on TV after Saturday’s race, Auberlen thanked his parents. Quickly, the emotions emerged. His mom, Brigitte, died last year. The memories of her catching him as he rode back to her on the little Yamaha came rushing back.
“She was my biggest fan,” Auberlen said. “She was always so supportive of me. There was never a day when I was growing up that my mom wasn’t there. If I had hockey practice at 5 in the morning, she was the one trucking me to hockey practice. She was always there. You couldn’t have asked for a better mom.
“My dad is still healthy and also my biggest fan, but I wish I could’ve shared it with my mom. It was a bittersweet moment. It was such a milestone in my personal life to accomplish that. I just wanted to share it with her.”
He also wanted to share it with Milner. After Saturday’s race, Milner sent Auberlen a congratulatory email.
“He sent one back that said, ‘It’s all because of you,’” Milner said. “‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ … He always says, ‘Thank you. It’s all because of you.’ And I say, ‘Bill, shut up. It’s not just because of me. I gave you a chance and you took it and you made us look good. We’re just as appreciative of what you have done for us.’”