Bathurst 12 Hour: Tough race for BMW M6 GT3 teams.
The passionate Australian fans at “Mount Panorama” were able to
check out four BMW M6 GT3s at the iconic 12-hour race in Bathurst
(AUS). Unfortunately, only one of them – the number 60 car –
finished the race. DTM champion Marco Wittmann (GER), Steve Richards
(AUS) and Mark Winterbottom (AUS) had qualified third, but technical
issues caused them to fall back through the field in the race. They
ultimately had to settle for a battling 14th place.
Despite this, BMW Team SRM did impress with fast lap times at the
challenging circuit. The second BMW Team SRM car, driven by Timo
Glock (GER), Mark Skaife (AUS), Russell Ingall (AUS) and Tony
Longhurst (AUS), was forced to retire after a crash. The same fate
befell the number 90 car, run by the MARC Cars Australia team, which
had started the race from second on the grid. The number 99 BMW M6 GT3
of Walkenhorst Motorsport was unable to start the race following a
crash in qualifying.
General: BMW works drivers go for a spin in Palm Springs.
610 hp, from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.7 seconds: over the past two
weeks, 120 national and international journalists made sure that it
is not only the technical data from the new BMW M760Li xDrive that
is impressive, but also its handling when the car was revealed in
Palm Springs, California (USA). Alongside their instructors and the
BMW works drivers Marco Wittmann, Martin Tomczyk (both GER), Bruno
Spengler (CAN) and Augusto Farfus (BRA), they put the latest, most
exclusive M Performance model from BMW M through its paces. In
addition to trips on public roads, active driving workshops at the
BMW Performance Center West premises in Thermal (USA) were also
scheduled. The Performance Center was successfully certified by a
team of inspectors from the BMW and MINI Driving Experience in
Germany and now bears the seal of quality “BMW Driving Experience,
Official Partner of BMW M.”
The latest model caused a buzz among both journalists
and racing drivers right from the start. “I’ve driven a lot of BMW
models, but this was the first time that I had been in a BMW 7
Series,” said Wittmann. “The day here in Palm Springs with the
journalists was a lot of fun. The torque and the acceleration of the
BMW M760Li xDrive are really impressive and the lateral as well as the
longitudinal dynamics and the direct response of the car surprised
me.” The BMW M760Li xDrive takes just 3.7 seconds to go from 0 to 100
km/h. That makes it the fastest accelerating BMW series-produced car
of all time. “It really is an amazing car,” said Tomczyk. “It deserves
the M in its name. The first M Performance 7 Series model is
incredibly agile and sporty – also on the racetrack. You notice
immediately that the collective expertise of M GmbH is in this car.”
The international industry professionals still have until Wednesday to
experience the combination of luxury and performance of the 610 hp BMW
M760Li xDrive with a TwinPower Turbo twelve-cylinder petrol engine.
DTM: Spengler makes sure there is plenty of action on ice and snow.
Just four days after contesting the 24 Hours of Daytona (USA) in
the BMW M6 GTLM Art Car, Bruno Spengler (CAN) has risen to another
very special challenge. This time the contest didn’t take place on
the racetrack, it was on ice and snow, but biathlon fan Spengler
feels right at home on this terrain as well. At the Winter Challenge
organised by BMW Bank, Premium Partner of BMW Motorsport in the DTM,
just like at the event’s 2016 debut, the Canadian competed against
biathlon idol Fritz Fischer and luge legend Georg Hackl (both GER),
who between them have won eight Olympic medals and been world
champion twelve times. The sports stars were each supported by a
team of fans, who were invited to the Winter Challenge after winning
a competition organised by BMW Bank. The athletes battled for the
win in three disciplines.
The competition got underway in Ruhpolding (GER) with
Fischer, where the competitors gave it their all in the biathlon camp.
Then Hackl invited everyone to experience the ice arena in Königssee
(GER). At the ARBÖ driving safety centre in Straßwalchen (AUT), Bruno
Spengler’s team challenged their rivals to prove their driving skills
in a driving challenge and although the entrants got competitive, the
focus of the BMW Bank Winter Challenge was on fun with the fans and
athletes having that in abundance. Everyone agreed on one thing when
all was said and done: It had been a long time since winter sport had
been this exciting.