BMW Motorsport News – Issue 24/2018.

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.

DTM: Mid-season in 2018 for BMW M Motorsport.

Sunday’s race at Zandvoort (NED) marked the end of the first half of the 2018 DTM season. The six BMW drivers won three of the first ten races of the year and achieved ten podiums. They have a total of 358 points and 35 top-ten results. The drivers have covered a combined total of 8,721 race kilometres, 297 of which were at the front of the pack. The two BMW teams completed 75 pit stops.

The attached infographic contains the most important data from the first half of the DTM season.

Italian GT Championship: BMW Padova team wins at Mugello.

The BMW Padova team brought home its first win of the season with the BMW M6 GT3 in the Italian GT Championship on Saturday. After securing pole position, BMW works driver Jesse Krohn (FIN) and Stefano Comandini (ITA) finished the race in first place. After 31 laps at the “Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello”, the #15 had a lead of 0.449 seconds over the car in second place. “Pole position, victory and the fastest race lap – it was a perfect day,” said Krohn after the win. “The whole team did a fantastic job.” On Sunday, team principal Roberto Ravaglia’s (ITA) crew followed this up with fourth place in the second race of the weekend.

Pirelli World Challenge: Successful weekend for BMW teams.

The Pirelli World Challenge was at the “Portland International Raceway” at the weekend. In the GTS-SprintX race on Saturday, the Epic Motorsports BMW M4 GT4 – with drivers Randy Mueller and James Clay (both USA) – celebrated victory in the Am class. Third place went to Aurora Straus and Jon Miller (both USA) in the ST Racing #36 BMW M4 GT4. In the Pro-Am category, the Classic BMW Americans Justin Raphael and Stevan McCaleer, in the #17 BMW M4 GT4, were the best BMW representatives, finishing in sixth place. A total of seven BMW M4 GT4s contested the race. In the TC race, there were a total of eight BMW M235i Racings in the field. Johan Schwartz (DEN) finished in third place and on the podium for Rooster Hall Racing. Sunday’s races had not yet been held at the time of the editorial deadline.

GT4 France: Podium for BMW Team France.

Seven BMW cars were in action in the GT4 France (Championnat de France FFSA GT) races at Dijon (FRA) at the weekend. On Saturday, BMW Team France finished in third place in the Am class with the Ekris M4 GT4 and drivers Elie Dubelly and Laurent Fresnais (both FRA). The team also had the most successful BMW M4 GT4 in the Pro-Am category, with driver duo Laurent Hurgon and Julien Piguet (both FRA) finishing in eighth place. In the second race on Sunday, Ronald Basso and Romain Monti (both FRA) of 3Y Technology were the best-placed BMW M4 GT4 drivers in the Pro-Am class in tenth place. In the Am category, the driver pairing of Alain Grand and Didier Moureu (both FRA) narrowly missed out on finishing on the podium in fourth place.

BMW Customer Racing: Special weekend for Euser.

The DTM weekend at Zandvoort (NED) also included the Dutch Supercar Challenge. Local hero Cor Euser (NED) made a very special appearance, taking to the track for the 1000^th race of his career. “I wasn’t really aware of it until someone came up to me before the weekend and pointed out that there wasn’t far to go to reach this record,” said Euser. “I can still remember my first race back in 1981 as if it were yesterday. The time goes so quickly in racing. It all feels like it only just happened, but it’s a lifetime ago.” Euser took to the track in Zandvoort in the historic BMW M3 Race Taxi. In 1991, Euser was the first Dutchman to contest an entire DTM season in the BMW M3. Dutch racing driver Jan Lammers was also on site at Zandvoort and drove the historic BMW M1 Procar.

Goodwood Festival of Speed: BMW M8 GTE heads BMW squad.

BMW was represented by numerous spectacular cars from the past and present at the iconic “Goodwood Festival of Speed”. The most recent BMW race car, which drove up the famous hill of Goodwood (GBR) at the weekend, was the BMW M8 GTE. BMW works driver Alexander Sims (GBR) delighted fans with the new GT sports car. In addition to the BMW V12 LMR, the 1999 Le-Mans winner, BMW Group Classic also fielded a BMW 3.0 CSL touring car and the “Wirtshaus” BMW M1. Dieter Quester (AUT) and Toine Hezemans (NED) had celebrated a class win in the BMW 3.0 CSL in the 1973 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans (FRA). The BMW M1 was in action at Le Mans in 1981. HRH Prince Leopold of Bavaria (GER) was at the wheel then and now: alongside Prince Leopold of Bavaria and Quester (at the wheel of the BMW 3.0 CSL), Pier Luigi Martini (ITA) was in action in the historic BMW V12 LMR. This saw BMW Group Classic field the original driver/car combination at the legendary hill climb once again.

Williams Heritage added the WilliamsF1 BMW FW26, powered by the BMW P84 V10 engine, to this elite range of race cars. BMW Group Classic had put the engine back into action successfully. In collaboration with Williams Heritage, the 2004 season car was brought back to life. At Goodwood, Karun Chandhok (IND) sat in the cockpit of the FW26. Colin Turkington (NIR), two-time winner of the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), Rob Collard (GBR) and Paul O’Neill (GBR) presented the new BMW 8 Series Coupe and the BMW i8 Roadster (combined fuel consumption: 2.0l/100 km*; combined energy consumption 14.5 kWh/100 km*; combined CO₂ emissions: 46g/km*) to the spectators in Goodwood. The BMW M2 M Performance Concept was also in action at Goodwood. BMW Motorsport Junior Ricky Collard (GBR) provided a preview of the upcoming DTM races at Brands Hatch (GBR); he was behind the wheel of the BMW M4 DTM Race Taxi in the grounds of Goodwood House. The DTM will be in action on the Grand Prix layout of the Brands Hatch circuit on 11^th/12^th August 2018.

* 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.