Chris Walsh: From Military to Motorsport (Part 2)

Few drivers have had a career ascent that has looked anything like Chris Walsh’s. After all, it’s not often that you’ll see an active-duty member of the United States Air Force balance his military commitments with a professional racing career, but that’s exactly what Walsh has been doing. 2024 was his finest season yet, as he didn’t just win a TC America championship in the BMW M2 CS Racing—he also got to celebrate his season with BMW in Munich, and he helped bring his car to hundreds of thousands of iRacers worldwide as our newest Rookie-level Sports Car machine.

In part two of our two-part interview, Chris looks back on his visit to Munich for BMW’s Night of Trophies, compares the M2 CS Racing to the M4 GT4 that serves as the next step up the ladder, and sheds some light on his plans for the coming season:

For your performance this year, you got the invitation to Munich to be part of the Night of Trophies with BMW and top drivers from around the world in that car. What was it like to be able to go to Munich and celebrate with those drivers and BMW? Was it somewhere you’d been before and did you kind of get to make a week of it, or were you really just there for the ceremony?

It was kind of surreal. I just didn’t expect to have something like that. during the season, the team was also running a GT4 program. And one of the drivers there, Nick Shanny, made a co-driver change because I was having such a good year with the M2. I got given the drive, I  spent three quarters of that season in that car as well, and I think we picked up six podiums in GT4 America. And so those extra points helped kind of push me into the top, I think I finished 14th in the rankings for the BMW drivers, but it was just cool. I was like, hey, I didn’t expect to be invited to a factory type event. I mean, that’s pretty wild.

And yeah, we made a week out of it. We vacationed a bit on the way in and did some Christmas markets and all the cool stuff that you can do in Germany in the winter. So it was a really cool experience. And it just made me even more hungry to get after it and start prepping for the next season.

Let’s talk about the jump from the M2 to the M4 for a second. BMW has talked about using some of the work that they did on the M4 to help create the M2 as an entry level car. So what was that transition like for you, hopping between both of those race cars, and how does the M2 set you up for success in the M4?

I mean, it was hard at first, only because the M4 is just so much more capable in a lot of ways. In terms of the chassis, obviously the wheelbase is much longer than the M2 I was driving. At first I thought it was like a limousine compared to where the M2 was! Then, suspension wise, electronics, power, aerodynamics, it’s just another whole step up in a good way. That was the biggest thing, just in having to switch between them.

But they’re two great options, and a lot of the principles and the way you approach the corner is pretty much the same. (It’s still) the dynamics of a front engine, rear wheel drive car, but you can carry a bit more speed here, or you have this much more braking capability, or you’ve got to be a bit more careful on the power here, so I was learning those intricacies.

iRacing coincidentally was working on the G82 as well, so when that came out, that was nice because I could really prep for both things and have a pretty solid understanding going into the race weekend of the differences between the cars. Make sure you switch your gears and your head when you get between the cars. And really, it was harder to go for the G82 back down to the M2 than the other way, because it’s easier to take everything up a notch. The M2 doesn’t have the grip that the M4 has, and reminding myself of that, it was easier to go over the limit as I went back and forth.

Coming back to your active military service for a second. What you do has a clear influence on both your racing and your eSports programs. You support a lot of initiatives, like Wear Blue on your race car. What does it mean to you be in the position that you’re in, where you’re balancing active duty with pursuing this professional racing dream? And what does it mean to be able to pay it forward with all of the initiatives you support?

I would say my military service, especially Special Operations, has done a lot to prepare me for anything. ifit was preparing to try to go to the Olympics or to do motorsport and just how to have a professional ‘no-quit’ approach. I’ve got an objective or a goal that I want to accomplish, how do I plan backwards from getting there? What do those steps look like? How do you prepare for things that may not go right and have that grit and determination to see things through to the end and not give up when you meet resistance. I’d say that all those skill sets have come from my experiences and training in the military, and that’s been really, really positive.

Motorsport carries a lot of the connections. It’s very similar—I compare it to the Air Force a lot, because we’ve got a bunch of people that are training to fly the jets, or one of our special operators preparing for deployment. All these things have to happen in the background. There’s a team, there’s all this support in the background that allows this individual or airplane to go out to do missions or run a race. And so those things just felt like home in a lot of ways. They were things that I had been doing for a long time, so it felt pretty natural.

And then I was like, hey, I’m incredibly blessed to have an opportunity to do something like this, and it’s pretty surreal. I wanted to take advantage of that in a positive way, hopefully, and elevate some causes that I care a lot about because of the people that they support and help. Whether it’s Operation Motorsport with our veterans that are transitioning out and trying to find that home and purpose again—which motorsport can provide, like I just mentioned, really has a lot of the same things they had in the military— or wear blue: run to remember, which is leaning into supporting our Gold Star families and those that lost loved ones through military service, through active remembrance and support programs. That was something special to me because I had been a volunteer mentor with their Gold Star youth program. I care a lot about these people, and I know what they struggle with and what they’ve lost. And if there’s a way to help elevate that organization and bring them more support, then I want to use this opportunity to do that.

Last one for you. In one of your last Instagram posts, you alluded to,news about your 2025 plans coming. Is there anything you can tell us about? You gave people the little wink wink that they may be starting in January this year…

Right now the game plan is to go to VP Challenge in IMSA and run the BMW M4 in that series. We’re also trying to have an SRO program in GT4.  the current focus is to get into the IMSA paddock and then prep for a bigger step, hopefully in 2026.

I’d like to go to GT3s or prototypes, but I’ve got a bit more work to do just from a development standpoint, so another season in GT4 will be key to really find the pace I need. To build on our success and attract more partners and sponsorship is important to make the step. But there is always a game plan!

Images via Chris Walsh

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