Munich (DE), 2nd May 2016. BMW Team RLL finished the two-hour
Continental Monterey Grand Prix, at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (US), in
California ninth and tenth in the GTLM class.
Bill Auberlen (US) and Dirk Werner (DE), driving the number 25 BMW M6
GTLM, finished ninth, 1.256 seconds ahead of the number 100 car
co-driven by John Edwards (US) and Lucas Luhr (DE) in tenth place.
Both cars completed 78 laps of the 2.238-mile, 11-turn Laguna Seca
circuit during the 120-minute contest. The race was won by the number
67 Ford GT of Ryan Briscoe (AU) and Richard Westbrook (GB).
In the GTD race, BMW works driver Jens Klingmann (DE) and his
team-mate Bret Curtis (US) drove the #96 BMW M6 GT3 from Turner
Motorsport to fifth place. The second Turner Motorsport car, driven by
Markus Palttala (FI) and Michael Marsal (US), finished the race in 12th.
While the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship now enters the
traditional Le Mans break for teams competing in the classic 24 hour
race, BMW Team RLL heads to Watkins Glen International (US) for two
tests in preparation for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen race on
3rd July.
Bobby Rahal (Team Principal BMW Team RLL):
“The race was really disappointing for everyone. We were searching
for the set up for this new tyre, but we couldn’t find it in the time
we had. Everybody deserved better, but now we have two tests at
Watkins Glen, so we can take this tyre and actually start
understanding it so we are more competitive at the next race there.”
Bill Auberlen (Number 25 BMW M6 GTLM, 9th place):
“Today was not our day, but we will be back at the front of the GTLM
field sooner than later. A race like this one just makes BMW’s next
success that much sweeter.”
Dirk Werner (Number 25 BMW M6 GTLM, 9th place):
“We had a difficult weekend. The speed gap we had from the beginning
we faced in the race as well, so we couldn’t really fight for
positions. I pitted quite early in the race and had luck that a yellow
came out. Everyone else pitted so that moved us to the front – at
least for a little while. Driving for maybe eight or ten laps in P1
was the best part of the race for me. Ultimately, we just didn’t have
the pace for better results.”
John Edwards (Number 100 BMW M6 GTLM, 10th place):
“It was a really hard race. We knew it was going to be difficult from
Friday when we first got onto the new tyre. Obviously we didn’t find a
good way to adapt to it. Fortunately we have eight weeks to the next
race and a couple of test days, so we can find our way. We tried to go
off strategy with the yellows and I saved a lot of fuel so we could go
to the end. That strategy was really a good one as we got ahead of the
cars we were racing with, but at the end we were just too slow to stay
ahead of them.”
Lucas Luhr (Number 100 BMW M6 GTLM, 10th place):
“The weekend ended as it started – disappointing. In terms of
performance, both of our cars were never able to fight or compete with
the others. I think the break over these next few weeks will do us a
lot of good and I am sure we will get it sorted out. As always in
racing time is ticking a little bit against us, but there is no point
having our heads down. We have to put our heads together, improve and
come back stronger.”