The Evolution of BAM Racing

Back in her college days, Beth Ann Morgenthau (Beth Ann Coulter at that time) attended her first major race - The Indianapolis 500 - and she was hooked! Her hero back then was legendary driver A.J. Foyt.

Beth Ann's father, Joseph Coulter, owned and operated Coulter Electronics - the world's "gold standard" in the manufacture of blood counting equipment. Joseph was the catalyst in Beth Ann's racing career because he was the one who brought her to those early races at Indy. A little known fact is that two time Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart's father, Nelson, worked for Coulter Electronics in Indiana.

At the time, Beth Ann never dreamed that this kernel of interest as a race fan would one day grow into a full fledged NASCAR Sprint Cup racing team and even a partnership at the Indy 500 with her hero A.J. Foyt and the #14 & #41 cars driven by Larry Foyt and Anthony Foyt IV - A.J.'s son and grandson.

Beth Ann married Tony Morgenthau in June of 1969 and as Tony built his career as an investment banker, Beth Ann worked hard supporting his career and promoting a number of charitable causes in the Baltimore, Maryland area. Years later, after building up a successful investment house, the Morgenthau's found their company funding a telecommunications business in Tampa, Florida. In the course of promoting that venture, a marketing opportunity arose that involved a sponsorship in auto racing.

The company was trying to build its clientele in the Southeastern US and had learned of the availability of the race equipment of the former McIlhenny's Tabasco team. The proposition was that the equipment be purchased and the cars sponsored by the Morgenthau's and the telecommunications company for an ARCA racing program to be run out of NASCAR superstar Bobby Allison's race shop in Alabama.

With Beth Ann's keen interest in auto racing in mind, husband Tony set about putting the deal together. His team consummated the deal on February 22nd, 1999, just two days before Beth Ann's birthday and thus began Beth Ann Morgenthau's (BAM) race team career.

The first season was limited to providing equipment and operating funds with a limited schedule in ARCA with Bobby Allison as technical advisor. Our first race was at Charlotte in May,1999 with Drew White as driver. We went on to race at Pocono twice, Michigan twice, Charlotte again in the fall. But the team was unsuccessful. It needed a more professional approach in order to grow. The relationship with White Motorsports ended and Beth Ann and Tony set about to professionalize their race program. The first issue would be creating a proper structure for the team and hiring a manager/crew chief to run the program. So, a search was initiated to find a manager for an ARCA program. In February, Eddie Jones was hired and in early March of 2000, BAM Racing, LLC was formed to run its own motorsports program taking its name from the initials of Beth Ann Morgenthau's name.

That first year, the team raced Pontiacs and competed twice at Pocono, twice at Michigan, twice at Charlotte and closed out the year at Atlanta with two cars in the race, Mullen in the #49 and former ARCA Champion Andy Hillenburg in the #11. Unfortunately, Matt Mullen crashed into the wall at 180 mph that day coming out of Turn #2 and suffered a fractured vertebra. He made a full recovery but BAM was forced to enter the 2001 season with only Andy Hillenburg on board.

But things were evolving quickly now. The team was growing in confidence and competency and in April, BAM tried qualifying for the first time for a Winston Cup (Sprint Cup) event at Talladega. We missed qualifying by an eyelash but realized we weren't that far away from the major league. Over that season, BAM raced at a number of ARCA events but also attempted to qualify for Cup events at Pocono and Indianapolis with Hillenburg behind the wheel. Again we were unsuccessful, but with a more refined effort, we felt we could "run with the big boys."

The decision was made after Indianapolis to up our game and go for a NASCAR Sprint Cup program in 2002. The first thing we needed to do was find the right driver. We wanted to have an immediate impact in NASCAR and new teams just don't draw much interest unless you have a "hook" to land the press and vital sponsorship. BAM already had one item of interest. We were the only NASCAR team with a woman owner. And through our affiliation with ARCA, we became aware of a female "hot shoe" who had proven she wasn't afraid to run with the men - Shawna Robinson.

We began negotiating with Shawna in September and had her in our car in a Winston West race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in October. Shawna drew huge crowds of supporters wherever she went that weekend and was running in the Top-5 with a great shot at winning when a belt broke in the engine and put her out of contention for the win. But we knew she could do the job. She tested our cup car at Homestead under the tutelage of veteran driver Rich Bickle. We didn't make that race but we decided that weekend to commit to a full-time Cup program in 2002 with Shawna at the wheel and Eddie Sharp as Crew Chief racing Dodges as that automaker made its return to NASCAR. We obtained our current 32,000 square foot facility in Charlotte and began building a fleet of Dodges for the 2002 season's opening race - The Daytona 500!

We would be a longshot and were certainly a huge underdog, but, low and behold, two months later this rookie team with a rookie crew chief and a rookie woman driver qualified for the Daytona 500 on its qualifying time and finished 24th that Sunday in the Florida sun and BAM Racing was officially "FOR REAL!!"