Edwards Stepping Away from Racing; Focuses on Pilot Career

John Edwards will step away from racing after decade-long tenure of competing in BMW machinery to focus on a career in aviation.

The 32-year-old Kentucky native already held a keen interest in flying outside of his racing career and often flew his own plane to IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship events.

“I started flying just because I loved it, and once I moved to the East Coast, I’ve been flying myself to races for the past eight years or so and really enjoyed it,” Edwards told Bimmer Life.

“I originally thought I’ll take racing as far as I can take it, but once I’m done driving, I’ll make the switch.

“Over the past couple years as travel ramped back up after COVID, there’s been a huge pilot shortage, so I started thinking now would be the right time.

“As I looked at what could be the last half of my driving career, I thought there’s not a driver shortage and there is a pilot shortage, so it was a good time to transition.”

After coming up through the European and U.S. single seater ranks, Edwards debuted in North American sports car racing in the 2010 Grand-Am series, sharing a SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 with future Mercedes-AMG factory racer Adam Christodoulou.

He then began his relationship with BMW in 2013, joining Dirk Mueller for a six-race schedule in the American Le Mans Series before moving into a full season role for the inaugural WeatherTech Championship season in 2014.

In a nine-year stint in the championship, in which he almost exclusively competed with Team RLL, Edwards picked up two race victories and a further 21 podium finishes.

His most high-profile win came in January 2020, when he joined Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn and Chaz Mostert to take a GTLM class victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Outside of the U.S. Edwards also frequently competed in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, as well as at the Nürburgring 24.

For the 2023 season, he was set to combine a full season in Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS with ST Racing with a Michelin Endurance Cup role with Turner Motorsport.

However, he was replaced by Neil Verhagen ahead of the fourth Fanatec GT round at VIR as he scaled back his racing program due to family commitments.

His last start with BMW to date was at June’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, where he shared a Turner BMW M4 GT3 with Bill Auberlen and Chandler Hull in the GTD Pro class.