PressClub Global · Article.
BMW Motorsport News – Issue 06/2020.
Mon Jul 13 12:29:58 CEST 2020 Press Release
BMW Junior Team celebrates first collective victory – Historic sport milestone on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
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Author.
Ingo Lehbrink
BMW Group
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Whether in the DTM, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar
Championship, the ABB FIA Formula E 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. ‘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.
NLS: BMW teams reach historic sport milestone.
The Nürburgring Endurance Series season continued
this weekend with a double-header on the Nordschleife (GER). BMW teams
celebrated numerous successes in the two four-hour races on Saturday
and Sunday as they reached a historic sport milestone. Eight class
wins in each race saw BMW become the first manufacturer in the history
of the race series to record more than 2,000 class wins. BMW teams
have now chalked up 2,004 victories. The BMW M6 GT3 did not achieve an
overall win this time, but the Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3
finished second and third on Saturday and Sunday to add two more
podium finishes after success in the opening race. Driving duties were
shared between Mikkel Jensen (DEN), David Pittard (GBR) and Christian
Krognes (NOR). BMW Team Schnitzer and ROWE Racing were also competing.
BMW works drivers Augusto Farfus (BRA), Martin Tomczyk (GER) and
Sheldon van der Linde (RSA) started from pole position on Saturday and
finished in fourth place. Tomczyk and van der Linde claimed sixth
place on Sunday. BMW works drivers Alexander Sims and Nick Yelloly
(both GBR) reached fifth position on Saturday in the ROWE Racing BMW
M6 GT3, while BMW DTM driver Lucas Auer (AUT) celebrated his GT3 race
debut on the Nordschleife on Sunday. Together with Yelloly, he crossed
the finish line in twelfth place.
The BMW M4 GT4 recorded an outstanding top-three lock-out in the
SP10 class on Saturday. Victory went to reigning VLN champions David
Griessner (AUT) and Yannick Fübrich (GER) and their team-mate Florian
Naumann (GER) from Pixum CFN Team Adrenalin Motorsport. On Sunday,
Team Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport and Pixum CFN Team Adrenalin
Motorsport secured another one-two result in the class. On Saturday,
BMW teams also celebrated wins in the CUP5, M2 CS, V4, V2, VT2, H4 and
SP4 classes. Further victories in the same classes on Sunday saw BMW
move past the 2,000-win mark.
BMW Junior Team: First win on the Nordschleife.
BMW Junior Team enjoyed two successful races on the
Nürburgring (GER) to take an important step towards Permit A and the
first competitive appearance in the BMW M4 GT4. Dan Harper (GBR), Max
Hesse (GER) and Neil Verhagen (USA) appeared in two BMW M240i Racings
to get an extremely high number of race kilometres under their belts
in the hard-fought CUP5 class of the BMW M240i Racing Cup. After
securing fifth and sixth places on Saturday, Harper and Verhagen saved
the best for Sunday's race. The duo moved into the lead early on,
gradually extending their advantage and then celebrating a first win
as BMW Juniors. Hesse and Verhagen finished fifth in the second car.
“I’m still really fired up and cannot believe that we have celebrated
a class win on our very first race weekend as a team,” said Verhagen.
“That was one of the toughest races of my life, as I completed plenty
of laps in both cars, but I am feeling fantastic.” Harper said: “None
of us expected this win. It is a great step forward for our project.”
Hesse agreed with that assessment: “We, as the whole BMW Junior Team,
have taken a huge step forward this weekend. Our pace with both cars
was very good on Sunday. Unfortunately, we did have a little problem
that cost us some time. Nonetheless, we now all feel ready for the
next level of our programme.”
BMW M240i Racing Cup: Wins for Team AVIA Sorg Rennsport and FK
Performance Motorsport.
This weekend, the two wins in the BMW M240i Racing
Cup class on the Nordschleife (GER) went to Team AVIA Sorg Rennsport
and FK Performance Motorsport. On Saturday, Heiko Eichenberg and
Moritz Oberheim (both GER) secured first place ahead of two cars from
Pixum CFN Team Adrenalin Motorsport in second and third positions.
Victory on Sunday went to Neil Verhagen (USA) and Dan Harper (GBR).
The two members of BMW Junior Team were driving the car for FK
Performance Motorsport. This time, second and third places went to
Pixum CFN Team Adrenalin Motorsport and Schnitzelalm Racing GmbH.
GT4/TC America: BMW customer teams dominant at VIR.
BMW customer teams enjoyed an outstanding restart to
the season in the GT4 and TC America at ‘VIRginia International
Raceway’ (USA). In the GT4 America SprintX, Bill Auberlen and James
Walker (both USA) claimed the wins in the first and second races of
the season in the BMW M4 GT4 from BimmerWorld Racing. The duo secured
second place in the third race. In the first race on Friday, Sean
Quinlan and Greg Liefooghe (both USA) from Stephen Cameron Racing
completed the one-two result for the BMW M4 GT4. Every podium spot
went to BMW M240i Racing drivers in TC America. Johan Schwartz (DEN)
from Hard Motorsport won the first two races but had to be content
with second place behind Toby Grahovec (USA) from Classic BMW in race
three. Grahovec had claimed second and third positions in the first
two races. The remaining three podium spots went to James Clay (USA)
from BimmerWorld Racing, who recorded one second place and two third places.
Sim Racing: BMW on the podium at virtual Spa-Francorchamps.
The real 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps (BEL) will take place at
the end of October this year, and putting the clocks back that weekend
means that it will be a 25-hour race. However, the sim racing schedule
featured this classic race at the weekend. The iRacing 24h
Spa-Francorchamps powered by VCO took place from Saturday to Sunday as
part of the iRacing special events. The digital BMW Z4 GT3 secured a
podium finish in a hard-fought race that delivered thrills right up to
the final minutes as the MAHLE Racing Team claimed third position. The
#3 car was driven by the Williams Esports drivers Lasse Bak (DEN),
Agustín Canapino (ARG) and Arthur Lehouck (FRA). BMW works driver
Bruno Spengler (CAN) also appeared on the virtual ‘Circuit de
Spa-Francorchamps’. Together with Nils Koch, Alexander Voß and Kay
Kaschube (both GER), he competed in the #089 BS+COMPETITION BMW Z4
GT3. After 24 turbulent hours of racing, the quartet crossed the
finish line in sixth place and the second-best BMW team in the field.
A total of four BMW Z4 GT3s made it into in the top ten. 30 out of 54
participating teams in the ‘top split’ were competing with a BMW.