Do you need help? Please contact our support team from 9 to 17 CET via support.pressclub@bmwgroup.com.

To the extent that historical press releases reference BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC as the manufacturer of certain X model vehicles, the referenced vehicles are manufactured in South Carolina with a combination of U.S. origin and imported parts and components.

PressClub USA · Article.

BMW Team RLL Finishes 6th and 7th at Circuit of the Americas

Woodcliff Lake, N.J. – Sept. 20, 2014 . . . BMW Team RLL finished sixth and seventh in today’s 2.75-hour Lone Star Le Mans race at Circuit of the Americas, in Austin, Texas, the penultimate round of the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

Sport
·
National Motorsports
 

Press Contact.

Kenn Sparks
BMW Group

Tel: +1-201-307-4467

send an e-mail

Related Links.

Woodcliff Lake, N.J. – Sept. 20, 2014 . . . BMW Team RLL finished sixth and seventh in today’s 2.75-hour Lone Star Le Mans race at Circuit of the Americas, in Austin, Texas, the penultimate round of the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

 

Bill Auberlen and Andy Priaulx finished sixth in the No. 55 BMW Z4, completing 75 laps of the 3.4-mile, 20-turn circuit at the checkered flag. John Edwards and Dirk Müller finished seventh in the No. 56 BMW Z4.

 

The cars qualified sixth and seventh, but Edwards started the race from fifth and Priaulx from sixth after the GTLM class polesitter was disqualified following technical inspection.

Edwards brought out the race’s only yellow flag on lap 21, some 47 minutes into the race, after running wide in turn 19. Contact with waves of rolled Astroturf that line the outer edge of the circuit caught the underside of the car, leaving the car’s rear fascia on the track.

 

Both BMWs made their first pitstops as the green flag waved with Auberlen replacing Priaulx and Müller taking over for Edwards. At the one hour mark, Müller held the fourth position with Auberlen in eighth. They made their second stop at the 1:45 hour mark with 46 laps complete. Müller continued in the No. 56 machine and Priaulx got back behind the wheel of the No. 55 car. At the 2.00 hour mark, Müller held the sixth position. Priaulx was two spots back in eighth, but passed his teammate with two laps remaining to take the checkered flag in sixth, with Müller seventh.

 

Separately, in the GTD class, the Turner Motorsport BMW Z4 GTD, driven by Dane Cameron and Markus Palttala, racing in the team’s 300 professional race with BMW, finished third.

 

“It was definitely a difficult fight here in Austin,” said Gordon McDonnell, BMWNA Motorsport Manager. “I think the weekend proved a little bit harder than we thought it would be as, given the balance of performance changes, we knew we would be behind a little bit. We did the best we could and fought hard for this result. Congratulations to Turner Motorsport on scoring a podium finish in its 300th race with BMW.”

 

“This was the race we expected and I was afraid might happen,” said Bobby Rahal, Team Principal . “The Porsches were almost two seconds a lap faster on the fastest laps, the Vipers not much worse. We just cannot maintain the pace with the way the rules are. I hope things are better at Petit Le Mans as they are very unfair right now. There is no balance of performance.”

 

Bill Auberlen, driver No. 55 Z4 GTLM – (6th) – “I had just a tough little run there in the middle. That is why you have a second guy you can rely on. When it was a struggle for me they put Andy in, they put him on a different tire than I had run and he did a fantastic job, exactly what you would expect from a world champion. You lean back and you just let him do it. The crew got us out of the pits over and over in front of other cars all day long. The two BMWs raced to the end and we finished pretty much nose to tail. We need a little bit of help to get to the front. The series has let it get out of hand with the Balance of Performance as we are nowhere and they need to fix this before the last race.”

 

Andy Priaulx, driver No. 55 Z4 GTLM – (6th) – “It has been a tough weekend, but we knew it was going to be really hard. Bill and I had two really tough first stints. The tire we chose clearly wasn’t right for the conditions. Bill was up to speed nicely and brought the car back in a really good position. He helped the team with feed back to give me the right tire for the last run, and that’s what made the difference.”

John Edwards, driver No. 56 Z4 GTLM – (7th) – “We expected a hard day at the office, and it really was. It is really tough to keep pushing in such hot conditions when you are sweating like crazy and you don’t have the pace, but that is what we have to do. By the time Dirk got in there was very little rear downforce and that made it pretty tough to drive on cold tires.”

Dirk Müller, driver No. 56 Z4 GTLM – (7th) – “That was an exciting drive doing a double stint with no rear bumper. I had lost all the downforce at the rear of the car and had to drive like a rally driver. I was fighting like crazy. I knew Andy’s car he was coming hard at the end. It reminded me of the good old touring car times. We raced clean and I think that is how you should make it between team mates.”

 

The final race of the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, the 1000-mile Petit Le Mans, will take place at Road Atlanta, in Braselton, Georgia on October 4th. Follow BMW Team RLL on Twitter at @BMWUSARacing for “from-the-pit-box” updates all weekend. More information on the program can be found at www.bmwusa.com and www.imsa.com.

 

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 and X4 Sports Activity Coupes.  The BMW Group sales organization is represented in the U.S. through networks of 339 BMW passenger car and BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 140 BMW motorcycle retailers, 121 MINI passenger car dealers, and 35 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.

 

#      #      #

 

Journalist note: 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

 

#      #      #

Article Offline Attachments.

Article Media Material.

My.PressClub Login
 

PressClub Information

ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2024.

Munich. Here you can see the on demand webcast of the BMW Group Annual Conference 2024, with the world premiere of the next BMW vision vehicle on the "Road to Neue Klasse".

Open Streaming Page

Add your filter tags.

Press Release
Press Kit
Speech
Fact & Figures
Updates
Top-Topic
Submit filter
Clear all
 
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
 
Login