BMW.SG | BMW Singapore Owners Community The Ultimate BMW Community – Established Since 2001
It was quite a difficult debut for BMW Team RLL at the Bubba Burger Sports Car Grand Prix in Long Beach (US) last weekend. In the 3rd round of the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IWSC), the BMW M6 GTLM was able to finish at fifth and tenth place.
In the start of the 100-minute race, #25 BMW M6 GTLM driven by Bill Auberlen (US) was leading. He was able to sustain the lead for 13 laps. Unfortunately, he was given the drive through penalty on lap 28 after making contact with a Prototype Challenge car. That made the standing change to sixth place.
On lap 31, Dirk Werner (DE) took the wheel and quickly secured 7th place. Unfortunately on lap 55, the car’s right side was hit by a Prototype Challenge car. Werner was forced to make a pit stop to change tyres. In the end, he was only able to secure the 5th place. Porsche claimed victory in this round.
It was not a lucky day for John Edwards (US) and Lucas Luhr (DE) as well. Luhr was at 6th place in the beginning of the race but faced an electrical issue that forced him to do a pit stop. He was able to rejoin the race in 9th place. In lap 49, Edwards took over the driving and secured 8th place. However, the car incurred some competitor caused damage that pushed him to the wall. He was out of the race by then. In the end, the car claimed only 10th place.
Bobby Rahal, Team Principal BMW Team RLL, says that it was not a good day for the team. With damage and penalties of both participating cars, they were up against a high brick wall. Not stopping now, they have set their eyes to win the next one.
The drivers also recognized the challenges in the race and wishes they could have done better and faced less technical issues. They are also looking forward to winning the next race with the lessons from this one.
