Whether in the DTM, the FIA World Endurance Championship, the
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, or countless other
championships: Week after week BMW teams and drivers around the
world do battle for points, victories and titles. Away from the
track too, members of the large BMW Motorsport family around the
world are also creating headlines. The “BMW Motorsport News” allows
us to regularly summarise all the action for you in a compact and
informative manner. This way, you are always up to speed
.
GT4 European Series: First win for the BMW M4
GT4.
A total of ten BMW M4 GT4s were in action when the
GT4 European Series visited Misano (ITA) – with a successful end
result. In Saturday’s race, Gabriele Piana (ITA) and Razvan Umbrarescu
(ROM) celebrated victory for the RN Vision STS team. After 32 laps,
the #111 BMW M4 GT4 crossed the line 1.398 seconds ahead of the
nearest challenger. It was also the first win in this series for the
newly developed BMW M4 GT4. “We got a bit unlucky in the first two
weekends, but now things are cleared up and we got a bit of luck on
top of it,” said Umbrarescu. “The performance was there. I am really
happy.” On Sunday, the duo finished second to reach the podium again.
Victory went to RN Vision STS in the Pro-Am class as well; Pavel
Lefterov (BUL) and Miguel Cristovao (POR) secured the win in the #112
BMW M4 GT4, thanks to an overtaking manoeuvre on the final lap.
The two BMW Motorsport Juniors Beitske Visser (NED) and Nico Menzel
(GER) were also competing at Misano. They were forced to retire from
the first race due to technical problems. The two young drivers did
better on Sunday when after 34 laps, the #110 BMW M4 GT4 crossed the
finishing line in seventh. The GT4 European Series continues from
20th to 22nd July, when the seventh and eighth
races of the season will take place at Spa-Francorchamps (BEL).
VLN: Three BMW M6 GT3s in the top-ten – Class win for BMW M4
GT4.
Successful race weekend at the Nordschleife: Three
BMW M6 GT3s reached the top-ten at the 60th ADAC ACAS
HR Cup, the third round of the 2018 VLN Endurance Championship
Nürburgring. Alexandre Imperatori (SUI) and Jens Klingmann (GER) just
missed out on the podium with the #3 BMW M6 GT3 of Falken Motorsports.
Jonathan Hirschi (SUI), Hunter Abbott (GBR) and Jordan Tresson (FRA)
drove the #35 BMW M6 GT3 to sixth place for Walkenhorst Motorsport.
The second Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 also finished in the
top-ten. Henry Walkenhorst, Andreas Ziegler and Rudi Adams (all GER)
had shared driving duties for four hours in the #36 GT3 car. Ninth
place overall also meant that the trio claimed victory in the SP9
Masters class. The Securtal Sorg Rennsport team also enjoyed a class
victory. The team prevailed over strong competition in the SP10 class
with the BMW M4 GT4 and celebrated a double podium finish. Heiko
Eichenberg and Yannick Mettler (both GER) claimed victory in the #828
BMW M4 GT4, while third place went to the #180 BMW M4 GT4 and the
Torsten Kratz (AUT), Stefan Beyer and Emin Akata (both GER) trio of drivers.
Spectators also enjoyed a thrilling race in the V4 class, where
around 20 BMW 325i cars fought a great battle. It was Christopher
Rink, Danny Brink and Philipp Leisen (all GER) from the Pixum Team
Adrenalin Motorsport who celebrated at the finish. More than 50 BMW
cars competed at the third race of the VLN Endurance Championship
Nürburgring season, recording five class wins. The fourth event takes
place in two weeks, on 7th July. The teams will then be
competing for points and positions in the 49th Adenauer
ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy in “Green Hell”.
BMW M235i Racing Cup: Schrey and Ehret in first
place.
Michael Schrey and Marc Ehret (both GER) of Hofor
Racing powered by Bonk Motorsport claimed victory in the BMW M235i
Racing Cup class at the third race in the VLN Endurance Championship
Nürburgring. It was also the first win of the season for the #1 BMW
M235i Racing. Securtal Sorg Rennsport’s Tristan Viidas (EST) and Inge
Hansesaetre (NOR) and Team Scheid – Honert Motorsport’s Tobias Müller,
Nico Otto and Lars Peucker (all GER) claimed second and third places
behind the winning duo. It was actually David Griessner (AUT) and
Yannick Fübrich (GER) who crossed the finishing line first in their
#650 BMW M235i Racing after 26 laps, but they were later removed from
the standings due to a technical infringement. A total of 16 BMW M235i
Racing cars competed in the “Green Hell”.
Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup: 3Y Technology at
Misano.
The 3Y Technology team competed in the third
race weekend of the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup at Misano (ITA). In
Saturday’s qualifying race, Andrew Watson (GBR) and Lukas Moraes (BRA)
secured sixth place in the “Silver” category in the #37 BMW M6 GT3.
The duo then reached the same position in the main race on Sunday.
Blancpain GT Sports Club: Next podium for
Ojjeh.
The Blancpain GT Sports Club was also present at
the “Misano World Circuit” (ITA) at the weekend. Karim Ojjeh (RSA) was
the overall leader ahead of the two races and celebrated good results
once again. On Saturday, the Boutsen Ginion Racing driver crossed the
line in fourth place in the BMW M6 GT3. In Sunday’s race, Ojjeh
finished in second behind the victorious Ferrari. This also meant that
he was the winner in the “Titanium Cup”. In the overall standings,
Ojjeh remains in first place with 76 points.
Pirelli World Challenge: Second place for BMW M4
GT4.
Two BMW M4 GT4s were competing at the seventh race
weekend of the Pirelli World Challenge in Road America (USA) – and one
reached the podium. James Clay (USA) fought off tough competition in
the GTSA class in the BimmerWorld team #83 BMW M4 GT4 and finished in
second place after 20 laps of the historic circuit at Elkhart Lake
(USA). Driving the second BMW M4 GT4, Marko Radisic (SRB) only just
missed out on the top-ten. The Precision Driving team driver crossed
the finish line in eleventh place in the #22 BMW M4 GT4. The second
race had not finished before the editorial deadline. The next race
weekend in the Pirelli World Challenge takes place from
13th to 15th July at the “Portland International
Raceway” (USA).
British Touring Car Championship: another podium for
Turkington.
The success streak continues for Colin
Turkington (GBR) in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC). On
the sixth race weekend, the West Surrey Racing driver claimed another
podium finish in the second race. At Croft (GBR), he finished in third
place in the #2 BMW 125i M Sport. Team-mate Andrew Jordan (GBR) in the
#77 BMW 125i M Sport was two places behind him and also celebrated a
top five result. In the first race of the weekend, Turkington had just
missed out on the podium in fifth, and the British driver repeated
that result in the third and final race. Driving the third car for
West Surrey Racing Team, the #5 BMW 125i M Sport, Rob Collard (GBR),
secured sixth place in the first race but he was outside the top-ten
in the remaining two races. Jordan recorded two further top-ten
results, finishing tenth in the first race and seventh in the third.
The seventh race weekend in the BTCC will take place at Snetterton
(GBR) on 28th and 29th July.
DTM: Tomczyk and Eng now racing in the BMW
M5.
Last weekend, BMW works drivers Martin Tomczyk (GER)
and Philipp Eng (AUT) were competing together with the BMW M8 GTE at
the 24-hour race at Le Mans (FRA). Some bad luck in the race meant
that the weekend did not go quite according to plan, but both drivers
had something to celebrate on Monday nonetheless. Immediately after
returning from Le Mans, they were in Munich (GER) to take possession
of their special new company cars: the new BMW M5 (combined fuel
consumption: 10,5 l/100 km*; combined CO2 emissions:
241 g/km*) with a comprehensive BMW M Performance Parts package. The
two brand ambassadors for BMW M Performance Parts will now be driving
just as sportily when they are away from the racetrack. The two
drivers also had the chance to take a look at a special BMW – the
black BMW M2 Competition (combined fuel consumption: 10,0–9,9 l/100
km*; combined CO2 emissions: 228–225 g/km*) with M
Performance Parts, sporting the black, red and gold design.
* You can find further information about official fuel consumption,
official specific CO2 emissions and power consumption for
new cars in the “Guideline for fuel consumption, CO2
emissions and power consumption for new passenger cars“, at retail
outlets, from the Deutschen Automobil Treuhand GmbH (DAT),
Hellmuth-Hirth-Str. 1, 73760 Ostfildern-Scharnhausen and at http://www.dat.de/angebote/verlagsprodukte/leitfaden-kraftstoffverbrauch.html.