Formed officially in 1986 by the brother and sister team of Patty and Don Nimi, (the “P” and the “D” in PDM), they began their motor sport venture with local autoslalom competition on a regional level in Vancouver, B.C. Don had been competing with success since 1984, with several wins and overall championships in Regional events, and encouraged his sister to join in on the weekend fun of local solo competition. Later that same year, the brother sister duo also teamed with Mikel Ruegamer, who became the “M” in PDM, and future husband of Patty. The trio experienced great success in Regional and National Solo II competition…with a National Win for Don in his 1964 Austin Healey Sprite. Again, in 1987, Don placed 3rd in Canada in his class…with Mikel taking Rookie of the Year honors. The trio continued their Auto-X racing on a Regional and National level, with great success, with more National wins in 1989 for Mikel, combined with Patty taking a 2nd overall in the woman’s class, a 1st in 1990 for Mikel and a 4th overall in the open class for Patty, and in 1991 with Don placing 1st in his Nissan 240SX, and Mikel placing 2nd in his C/SP Honda CRX.

    In the meantime, as Mikel and Patty scaled down their motorsports activities to pursue family and business, Don stepped up his racing career, by building and competing in CASC and ICSC GT3 road racing series, in his GT3 Datsun 200SX.

    Racing in the Pacific Northwest Conference series….Don worked hard to build himself a tub GT3 200SX racecar, complete with a one-off fiberglass body kit that took him months to hand fabricate. Hard work, and racing as much as possible, led to a 3rd overall in the GT3 class in 1991. Also in 1991, Don came back from a 2 year hiatus from solo competition, and campaigned his newly purchased 1991 Nissan 240SX, which culminated in an overall C Stock Class win at the 1991 Canadian National Autoslalom, his 2nd National title. For his efforts, he also put a Nissan into a class win nationally for the first time.

    In the winter of 1991/1992, the purchase of a special hand built tube frame GT3 Nissan 510 built by Specialty Engineering, was the major focus for PDM Racing. The SCCA Nasport GT Sedan race series was the pursuit for the next 4 years. During this time, Don traveled up and down the West Coast, racing and competing in Nasport competition, first in GT3 for 1992,and 1993, then stepping down to GT4 for the next 2 years. Nasport GT racing has been the fore-front for leading edge technology and competition level for GT4 and GT3 cars for over 15 years in North America. Nasport Web Site Cars are full tube frame chassis, naturally aspirated American and Import sedans, with fiberglass, and carbon body work, that vaguely resemble their street versions. Power and handling of these lightweight, purpose-built race cars is phenomenal, and racing is intense with manufacturers such as Nissan, Honda, Toyota and Mazda being represented from various teams across North America. Full 510 Feature

    From the summer of 1995, until mid early 1997, Don decided to take a complete hiatus from the auto racing scene, literally burning out from cars, but continued his racing spirit by venturing into serious R/C car racing. During this time, he befriended several fellow R/C racers who also drove very nice street cars, and they persuaded him to come back to real cars, and help them to work on, and race their cars. Enthused by the increasingly popular high performance import racing scene, PDM Racing was re-kindled with a group of enthusiastic skilled street racers, who learned to Solo, Hillclimb, and eventually track race their street cars.

    With the advent of Internet based car clubs and car lists, PDM Racing is able to be introduced to the world wide web with the services, products, and stories we can offer to the world of car enthusiasts.

1999 marks the official launch of PDM Racing Automotive, which will continue to design, build and install high performance accessories for many import and domestic cars.

    The cars of PDM Racing can be seen driving the streets of Vancouver, carving lines through the cones of an Auto-X…or on the tracks of the Pacific Northwest, on organized lapping days. Catch up with one of us, and we love to chat about our cars, or what we do.