BMW Motorsport News – Issue 21/2018.

Whether in the DTM, the FIA World Endurance Championship, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, or countless other championships: Week after week BMW teams and drivers around the world do battle for points, victories and titles. Away from the track too, members of the large BMW Motorsport family around the world are also creating headlines. The “BMW Motorsport News” allows us to regularly summarise all the action for you in a compact and informative manner. This way, you are always up to speed .

GT4 European Series: First win for the BMW M4 GT4.
A total of ten BMW M4 GT4s were in action when the GT4 European Series visited Misano (ITA) – with a successful end result. In Saturday's race, Gabriele Piana (ITA) and Razvan Umbrarescu (ROM) celebrated victory for the RN Vision STS team. After 32 laps, the #111 BMW M4 GT4 crossed the line 1.398 seconds ahead of the nearest challenger. It was also the first win in this series for the newly developed BMW M4 GT4. “We got a bit unlucky in the first two weekends, but now things are cleared up and we got a bit of luck on top of it,” said Umbrarescu. “The performance was there. I am really happy.” On Sunday, the duo finished second to reach the podium again. Victory went to RN Vision STS in the Pro-Am class as well; Pavel Lefterov (BUL) and Miguel Cristovao (POR) secured the win in the #112 BMW M4 GT4, thanks to an overtaking manoeuvre on the final lap.

The two BMW Motorsport Juniors Beitske Visser (NED) and Nico Menzel (GER) were also competing at Misano. They were forced to retire from the first race due to technical problems. The two young drivers did better on Sunday when after 34 laps, the #110 BMW M4 GT4 crossed the finishing line in seventh. The GT4 European Series continues from 20^th to 22^nd July, when the seventh and eighth races of the season will take place at Spa-Francorchamps (BEL).

VLN: Three BMW M6 GT3s in the top-ten – Class win for BMW M4 GT4.
Successful race weekend at the Nordschleife: Three BMW M6 GT3s reached the top-ten at the 60^th ADAC ACAS H&R Cup, the third round of the 2018 VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring. Alexandre Imperatori (SUI) and Jens Klingmann (GER) just missed out on the podium with the #3 BMW M6 GT3 of Falken Motorsports. Jonathan Hirschi (SUI), Hunter Abbott (GBR) and Jordan Tresson (FRA) drove the #35 BMW M6 GT3 to sixth place for Walkenhorst Motorsport. The second Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 also finished in the top-ten. Henry Walkenhorst, Andreas Ziegler and Rudi Adams (all GER) had shared driving duties for four hours in the #36 GT3 car. Ninth place overall also meant that the trio claimed victory in the SP9 Masters class. The Securtal Sorg Rennsport team also enjoyed a class victory. The team prevailed over strong competition in the SP10 class with the BMW M4 GT4 and celebrated a double podium finish. Heiko Eichenberg and Yannick Mettler (both GER) claimed victory in the #828 BMW M4 GT4, while third place went to the #180 BMW M4 GT4 and the Torsten Kratz (AUT), Stefan Beyer and Emin Akata (both GER) trio of drivers.

Spectators also enjoyed a thrilling race in the V4 class, where around 20 BMW 325i cars fought a great battle. It was Christopher Rink, Danny Brink and Philipp Leisen (all GER) from the Pixum Team Adrenalin Motorsport who celebrated at the finish. More than 50 BMW cars competed at the third race of the VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring season, recording five class wins. The fourth event takes place in two weeks, on 7^th July. The teams will then be competing for points and positions in the 49^th Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy in “Green Hell”.

BMW M235i Racing Cup: Schrey and Ehret in first place.
Michael Schrey and Marc Ehret (both GER) of Hofor Racing powered by Bonk Motorsport claimed victory in the BMW M235i Racing Cup class at the third race in the VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring. It was also the first win of the season for the #1 BMW M235i Racing. Securtal Sorg Rennsport’s Tristan Viidas (EST) and Inge Hansesaetre (NOR) and Team Scheid – Honert Motorsport’s Tobias Müller, Nico Otto and Lars Peucker (all GER) claimed second and third places behind the winning duo. It was actually David Griessner (AUT) and Yannick Fübrich (GER) who crossed the finishing line first in their #650 BMW M235i Racing after 26 laps, but they were later removed from the standings due to a technical infringement. A total of 16 BMW M235i Racing cars competed in the “Green Hell”.

Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup: 3Y Technology at Misano.
The 3Y Technology team competed in the third race weekend of the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup at Misano (ITA). In Saturday’s qualifying race, Andrew Watson (GBR) and Lukas Moraes (BRA) secured sixth place in the “Silver” category in the #37 BMW M6 GT3. The duo then reached the same position in the main race on Sunday.

Blancpain GT Sports Club: Next podium for Ojjeh.
The Blancpain GT Sports Club was also present at the “Misano World Circuit” (ITA) at the weekend. Karim Ojjeh (RSA) was the overall leader ahead of the two races and celebrated good results once again. On Saturday, the Boutsen Ginion Racing driver crossed the line in fourth place in the BMW M6 GT3. In Sunday’s race, Ojjeh finished in second behind the victorious Ferrari. This also meant that he was the winner in the “Titanium Cup”. In the overall standings, Ojjeh remains in first place with 76 points.

Pirelli World Challenge: Second place for BMW M4 GT4.
Two BMW M4 GT4s were competing at the seventh race weekend of the Pirelli World Challenge in Road America (USA) – and one reached the podium. James Clay (USA) fought off tough competition in the GTSA class in the BimmerWorld team #83 BMW M4 GT4 and finished in second place after 20 laps of the historic circuit at Elkhart Lake (USA). Driving the second BMW M4 GT4, Marko Radisic (SRB) only just missed out on the top-ten. The Precision Driving team driver crossed the finish line in eleventh place in the #22 BMW M4 GT4. The second race had not finished before the editorial deadline. The next race weekend in the Pirelli World Challenge takes place from 13^th to 15^th July at the “Portland International Raceway” (USA).

British Touring Car Championship: another podium for Turkington.
The success streak continues for Colin Turkington (GBR) in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC). On the sixth race weekend, the West Surrey Racing driver claimed another podium finish in the second race. At Croft (GBR), he finished in third place in the #2 BMW 125i M Sport. Team-mate Andrew Jordan (GBR) in the #77 BMW 125i M Sport was two places behind him and also celebrated a top five result. In the first race of the weekend, Turkington had just missed out on the podium in fifth, and the British driver repeated that result in the third and final race. Driving the third car for West Surrey Racing Team, the #5 BMW 125i M Sport, Rob Collard (GBR), secured sixth place in the first race but he was outside the top-ten in the remaining two races. Jordan recorded two further top-ten results, finishing tenth in the first race and seventh in the third. The seventh race weekend in the BTCC will take place at Snetterton (GBR) on 28th and 29th July.

DTM: Tomczyk and Eng now racing in the BMW M5.
Last weekend, BMW works drivers Martin Tomczyk (GER) and Philipp Eng (AUT) were competing together with the BMW M8 GTE at the 24-hour race at Le Mans (FRA). Some bad luck in the race meant that the weekend did not go quite according to plan, but both drivers had something to celebrate on Monday nonetheless. Immediately after returning from Le Mans, they were in Munich (GER) to take possession of their special new company cars: the new BMW M5 (combined fuel consumption: 10,5 l/100 km*; combined CO₂ emissions: 241 g/km*) with a comprehensive BMW M Performance Parts package. The two brand ambassadors for BMW M Performance Parts will now be driving just as sportily when they are away from the racetrack. The two drivers also had the chance to take a look at a special BMW – the black BMW M2 Competition (combined fuel consumption: 10,0–9,9 l/100 km*; combined CO₂ emissions: 228–225 g/km*) with M Performance Parts, sporting the black, red and gold design.

* You can find further information about official fuel consumption, official specific CO₂ emissions and power consumption for new cars in the “Guideline for fuel consumption, CO₂ emissions and power consumption for new passenger cars“, at retail outlets, from the  Deutschen Automobil Treuhand GmbH (DAT), Hellmuth-Hirth-Str. 1, 73760 Ostfildern-Scharnhausen and at http://www.dat.de/angebote/verlagsprodukte/leitfaden-kraftstoffverbrauch.html.