PRIVATEER BMW TEAMS BRING BMW POWER TO NEW JERSEY MOTORSPORTS PARK

Woodcliff Lake, NJ - April 24, 2009... The first weekend in May will see New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP), in Millville, N.J., host 17 BMWs from seven privateer teams racing in two different series on the undercard of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series event.

BMW M3 and BMW 3 Series race cars will make up more than 30 percent of the KONI Challenge Grand Sport (GS) and Street Tuner (ST) fields for Saturday’s two-and-one-half-hour endurance race. A win at Daytona and a fifth place finish at Miami-Homestead Speedway has raced BMW to second in GS class Manufacturer points, only one point from first.

Ten GS class BMW M3s are entered in the NJMP KONI Challenge race including the No. 96 and No. 97 Turner Motorsport entries driven by BMW of North America drivers Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand. Auberlen and co-driver Matt Bell won the season-opening contest at Daytona. Despite problems at Homestead-Miami that also struck Hand and co-driver Chris Gleason, Auberlen and Bell stand ninth in Driver points. Hand and Gleason are fifth.

Turner Motorsport continues to race the tried and true third-generation BMW M3 (E46) that Auberlen and co-driver Matt Alhadeff raced to a third place finish in last year’s race at NJMP. Kinetic Motorsports and Fall-Line Motorsports have added the V8-powered, fourth-generation BMW M3 to their lineups this season.

In the ST class BMW is represented by one Z4 and six 3 Series, including two current generation 328i Coupes. BMW drivers have scored two top-10 finishes in the first two races of the season.

As recently as 2007 BMW teams won five of six KONI Challenge titles with a sweep of the GS Manufacturer, Drivers and Team Championships, as well as the ST Drivers and Team Championships.

Making its debut at NJMP the SPEED World Challenge Touring Car (TC) class features three BimmerWorld BMWs in World Challenge’s sprint racing format. The team had an outstanding season-opening race at Sebring in March with Seth Thomas winning his first career Touring Car race in his 328i. Teammate Nick Esayian finished fifth while team owner/driver James Clay secured sixth place. BMW leads all SPEED Touring Car point standings.

“BMW drivers have certainly started the season off properly,” said Martin Birkmann, BMW of North America Motorsports Manager. “BMW of North America congratulates Bill and Matt, as well as Seth in winning their respective season-opening races. Privateer teams are an important part of BMW’s racing heritage in the United States and around the world, and their commitment and diligence demonstrate that the soul of BMW is more vibrant than ever.”

The KONI Challenge race is scheduled to start at 3:10 p.m. ET Saturday, May 1 and will broadcast on SPEED television at 12:00 p.m. ET on May 9. The SPEED World Challenge Touring race is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. Saturday and will be televised on SPEED on May 22 at 2:00 p.m. ET. The broadcast of the Sebring SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge races has been delayed, and will now air on SPEED Monday, May 11.

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 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.

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

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

# # #

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.

# # #