BMW RAHAL LETTERMAN RACING TEAM UTAH GRAND PRIX RACE SUMMARY

Tooele, Utah – May 17, 2009… The BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team soldiered to seventh and eighth place finishes in today’s American Le Mans Series Utah Grand Prix. Despite strong qualifying results, prospects for the race outcome were altered at the start.

When the green flag flew, a series of car-to-car contacts throughout the field culminated in an incident between the two BMW M3s in Turn One. As a consequence of the collision, teammates Tommy Milner and Bill Auberlen were forced to the pits for extensive repairs in the opening minutes of the race. Each M3 re-entered the race more than five laps down from the GT2 leader.

The balance of the race was without incident as Milner pitted the No. 92 M3 after 38 laps to hand over to Dirk Müller. Auberlen pitted eight laps later and Joey Hand took the wheel of the No. 90 M3. Although Müller and Auberlen made late stops for fuel, both drivers were able to regain two class positions over the course of their stints.

Martin Birkmann, BMW of North America Motorsport Manager:
“We began the race with high expectations because we tested on this track four weeks ago and achieved second-row qualifying yesterday. After a quarter-mile our hopes were dashed… if it had been a drag race we would’ve had a better outcome. We need to look carefully at what went wrong, but I am proud of the morale of the team. We fought to recover today and will look to a better result at Lime Rock in July.”

Bobby Rahal, Team Principal:
“It ruins your day when you have an incident in first corner with both team cars, but I guess they say ‘that’s racing.’ The cars ran reasonably well for the duration of the race and we moved each car forward two positions.”
The ALMS will return to competition at Lime Rock Park on July 17-18 for Round 5.

About the BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team:

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 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 centers, 335 BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 142 BMW motorcycle retailers, 83 MINI passenger car dealers, and 30 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.

BMW’s partner, Rahal Letterman Racing, based in Hilliard, Ohio and co-owned by three-time IndyCar Champion and 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal and CBS LATE SHOW host David Letterman, has been competing for more than a decade compiling 20 victories, 30 poles and one series championship (Bobby Rahal in 1992 in CART) and an Indianapolis 500 championship (Buddy Rice in 2004). In 2008 Rahal Letterman Racing again won Rookie-of-the-Year honors at the Indianapolis 500 and partnered with Andersen Racing to run two entries in the Indy Pro Series. In 2009 the team has joined BMW of North America to campaign the new BMW M3 as BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team in the American Le Mans Series and will also serve as the organizers of the Formula BMW Americas championship.

Information about BMW Group products is available to consumers via the Internet at:

www.bmwgroupna.com
www.bmwusanews.com
www.press.bmw-motorsport.com

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Journalist note: Information about the BMW Group and its products is available to journalists on-line at the BMW Group PressClub at the following address: www.press.bmwgroup.com and select “USA” from the list of National PressClubs. Broadcast quality video footage is available via The NewsMarket at www.thenewsmarket.com.

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