Conciliatory result for BMW M8 GTE in Long Beach.

Munich. With a fifth place in the GTLM class, the #24 BMW M8 GTE of John Edwards (USA) and Jesse Krohn (FIN) gifted BMW Team RLL a conciliatory result in the third race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. In the second BMW M8 GTE (#25), Alexander Sims (GBR) and Connor De Phillippi (USA) temporarily took the lead in the BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach (USA) thanks to a clever pit stop strategy, but were forced to retire after 37 laps.

Reactions to the third race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Long Beach.

Bobby Rahal (BMW Team RLL, Team Principal): “A fifth place almost feels like a win. Our strategy worked out well initially, pitting early and getting one of the cars into the lead after the yellow. It was obvious that it would be very difficult for us to stay in the lead, however I am disappointed for the team as everyone has worked very hard. We will keep working hard and hope we will get back to the pace we had at Sebring.”

Jesse Krohn (#24 BMW M8 GTE, fifth place): “We got the best out of the car. We got to the front with the #25 through great use of tactics but you saw the other cars driving around us. I am very happy for what we were able to do today with what we had.”

John Edwards (#24 BMW M8 GTE, fifth place): “We executed a good race even though we knew we did not have the pace from qualifying. We planned to have one car do a non-traditional strategy and it worked when Alex got the lead under yellow. Unfortunately it did not go as planned when the #25 car was pushed wide and hit the wall. We were able to run a clean race in the #24 car and I think we executed well.”

Connor De Phillippi (#25 BMW M8 GTE, DNF): “The team made a perfect strategy call to come in early. We played it relatively smart in the beginning to get out with the lead under yellow. We ran as hard as we could, as we have the whole weekend, but it simply wasn’t quite enough. Alex was fighting hard out there for us. Some days aren’t your days and today wasn’t ours. We will analyse and move on to the next event and try to get back into the fight for the podium.”

Alexander Sims (#25 BMW M8 GTE, DNF): “In the beginning, the team made a great call on strategy putting us ahead of everyone else. If the car and I had had more pace we would have been able to make it stick and would have got a great result from it.”