Munich. With a fifth place in the GTLM class, the #24 BMW M8
GTE of John Edwards (USA) and Jesse Krohn (FIN) gifted BMW Team RLL
a conciliatory result in the third race of the IMSA WeatherTech
SportsCar Championship. In the second BMW M8 GTE (#25), Alexander
Sims (GBR) and Connor De Phillippi (USA) temporarily took the lead
in the BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach (USA) thanks
to a clever pit stop strategy, but were forced to retire after 37 laps.
Reactions to the third race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar
Championship at Long Beach.
Bobby Rahal (BMW Team RLL, Team Principal): “A fifth
place almost feels like a win. Our strategy worked out well initially,
pitting early and getting one of the cars into the lead after the
yellow. It was obvious that it would be very difficult for us to stay
in the lead, however I am disappointed for the team as everyone has
worked very hard. We will keep working hard and hope we will get back
to the pace we had at Sebring.”
Jesse Krohn (#24 BMW M8 GTE, fifth place): “We got
the best out of the car. We got to the front with the #25 through
great use of tactics but you saw the other cars driving around us. I
am very happy for what we were able to do today with what we had.”
John Edwards (#24 BMW M8 GTE, fifth place): “We
executed a good race even though we knew we did not have the pace from
qualifying. We planned to have one car do a non-traditional strategy
and it worked when Alex got the lead under yellow. Unfortunately it
did not go as planned when the #25 car was pushed wide and hit the
wall. We were able to run a clean race in the #24 car and I think we
executed well.”
Connor De Phillippi (#25 BMW M8 GTE, DNF): “The team
made a perfect strategy call to come in early. We played it relatively
smart in the beginning to get out with the lead under yellow. We ran
as hard as we could, as we have the whole weekend, but it simply
wasn’t quite enough. Alex was fighting hard out there for us. Some
days aren’t your days and today wasn’t ours. We will analyse and move
on to the next event and try to get back into the fight for the podium.”
Alexander Sims (#25 BMW M8 GTE, DNF): “In the
beginning, the team made a great call on strategy putting us ahead of
everyone else. If the car and I had had more pace we would have been
able to make it stick and would have got a great result from it.”