BMW Team RLL – Road America ALMS Qualifying

Woodcliff Lake, N.J. – August 17, 2012… BMW Team RLL qualified its two BMW M3 GT racing cars in the fourth and seventh starting positions for tomorrow’s four-hour American Le Mans Series Road America Road Race Showcase. The defending ALMS GT class champions have taken the race win at the classic Road America circuit twice in the past three seasons.

Bill Auberlen qualified the No. 55 M3 GT fourth with a time of 2:04.913 minutes around the 4.048-mile Road America circuit, .498 seconds from the polesitter. Auberlen and his co-driver Jörg Müller finished third at the most recent ALMS race at Mid-Ohio and stand sixth in GT class driver points.

Dirk Müller will share the No. 56 M3 GT with Jonathan Summerton in tomorrow’s race as Joey Hand is racing in Germany with BMW’s DTM program. Müller, last year’s polesitter at this race, qualified the car in the seventh starting spot with a time of 2:05.098 minutes. Müller and Hand stand second in GT driver points.

Bill Auberlen, driver No. 55 M3 GT – “This morning in Practice, we were quite far down in the field, but our engineers came up with a setup that at least puts us up in the second row. We are in the hunt. We split the Corvettes and have some others ahead that we will try to dispatch. We qualified on a harder-compound set of Dunlops and we are hoping that will pay dividends in the race.”

Dirk M ü ller, driver No. 56 M3 GT – “We have been running behind all week. I cannot believe how much we came back from the second practice, but we are not quite there yet.”

The Road America Road Race Showcase will take the green flag at 2:30 p.m. CT on Saturday, August 18th. Live streaming coverage is available starting at 3:45 p.m. ET on ESPN3.com. ESPN2 will broadcast the race at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 19th.

The Series’ website offers additional content such as live in-car cameras, and timing and scoring for all users around the world. Viewers outside the U.S. can watch all ALMS races live on ALMS.com.

About BMW Team RLL:

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, 114 MINI passenger car dealers, and 32 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.

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 nearly two decades, compiling 22 victories, 31 poles and two series championships (1992, 2010) 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:

Information about the BMW and its products is available to journalists on-line at www.bmwusanews.com.  

Video interviews and on-board clips are available at www.youtube.com/BMWNAMotorsport.

Follow BMW Team RLL on Twitter at @BMWUSARacing and on Facebook at BMWUSA.

Information about Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is available via at: www.rahal.com.

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