BMW Team RLL Finishes 7th and 8th at Road America

Woodcliff Lake, N.J. – Aug. 11, 2013 . . . BMW Team RLL suffered its second consecutive uncompetitive race, finishing seventh and eighth in today’s 2.45-hour American Le Mans Series Orion Energy Systems 245 at Road America, in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

Bill Auberlen and Maxime Martin finished seventh in the No. 55 Z4 GTE after starting from the seventh grid position. John Edwards and Dirk Müller started from the ninth spot and finished eighth in the No. 56 machine. The result dropped Müller from the lead to a three-way tie for second place in the driver’s championship.

Today’s finish was disappointing for BMW Team RLL following fifth and sixth place finishes in the last round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (formally Mosport) and having won the GT class at Road America in three of the previous four ALMS seasons.

“We made a particularly good call to get the No. 56 on dry tires as soon as we could,” said Bobby Rahal, Team Principal. “It gained us the lead, but as the track dried and the speeds picked up, great strategy was no substitute for a 10 kph top speed disadvantage. As much as Road America is my favorite racetrack, I’m looking forward to tracks with shorter straights.”

“Yesterday we saw BMW teams in close battles with our competitors within the different GRAND-AM fields,” said Gordon McDonnell, BMWNA Motorsport Manager. “Unfortunately, today, just as we saw in Canada, BMW Team RLL struggled to keep up with the competition. It is particularly difficult to again face a result so short of our team’s potential, given our horsepower deficit to the rest of the GT field.”

Round Seven of the 2013 ALMS season, the 2.45-hour Baltimore Grand Prix will be held on Saturday, August 31th in the city streets of Baltimore, Maryland. The race will be broadcast on ABC television at 12:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 1.

BMW Group In America

BMW of North America, LLC has been present in the United States since 1975.  Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC began distributing vehicles in 2003.  The BMW Group in the United States has grown to include marketing, sales, and financial service organizations for the BMW brand of motor vehicles, including motorcycles, the MINI brand, and the Rolls-Royce brand of Motor Cars; DesignworksUSA, a strategic design consultancy in California; a technology office in Silicon Valley and various other operations throughout the country.  BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC in South Carolina is part of BMW Group’s global manufacturing network and is the exclusive manufacturing plant for all X5 and X3 Sports Activity Vehicles and X6 Sports Activity Coupes.  The BMW Group sales organization is represented in the U.S. through networks of 338 BMW passenger car and BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 139 BMW motorcycle retailers, 119 MINI passenger car dealers, and 34 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers.  BMW (US) Holding Corp., the BMW Group’s sales headquarters for North America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

Information about BMW Group products is available to consumers via the Internet at:  www.bmwgroupna.com

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

BMW’s partner, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, based in Hilliard, Ohio and co-owned by three-time IndyCar Champion and 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal, Mi-Jack co-owner Mike Lanigan and CBS LATE SHOW host David Letterman, has been competing for over two decades, compiling 28 victories, 42 poles and three series championships (1992, 2010, 2011) as well as claiming an Indianapolis 500 victory (Buddy Rice in 2004). In 2009 the team joined BMW of North America to campaign the new BMW M3 in the American Le Mans Series. In 2010 the team won both the Manufacturer and Team Championships in the GT category. In 2011 the team swept all three GT titles - Manufacturer, Team and Driver.

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Journalist note: Photography for editorial purposes as well as information about BMW Group and its products in the USA is available to journalists on-line at www.bmwgroupusanews.com and www.press.bmwna.com. 

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