Month: October 2020

BMW:Three BMW M6 GT3s in action at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

Munich. Roughly four weeks after the highly-acclaimed victory
at the Nürburgring 24 Hours (GER), the BMW M6 GT3 is now set for the
second major endurance highlight of the season this weekend: the 24
Hours of Spa-Francorchamps (BEL). Walkenhorst Motorsport travels to
Belgium with bags of confidence, following the one-two at the 8
Hours of Indianapolis (USA). After winning the Spa classic in 2018,
the team now has its sights set firmly on another podium finish. A
host of top-class GT drivers will be at the wheel of the two cars.
In the Pro-Am class, the Boutsen Ginion BMW M6 GT3, sporting a
design by artist Peter Halley, promises to be a real eye-catcher.

Regular drivers and Indianapolis winners Nick Catsburg (NED) and
Augusto Farfus (BRA) will compete in the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport
BMW M6 GT3. They will be joined by BMW works driver Philipp Eng (AUT),
who already has two victories at Spa to his name – in 2016 with ROWE
Racing and 2018 with Walkenhorst Motorsport. Alternating at the wheel
of the #35 car will be regular drivers David Pittard (GBR) and Martin
Tomczyk (GER), as well as Nürburgring 24 Hours winner Nick Yelloly (GBR).

“It is one GT highlight after another at the moment, and it is
fantastic to see that we are challenging for podiums and race wins
wherever we race with the BMW M6 GT3,” said BMW Group Motorsport
Director Jens Marquardt, for whom the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
will be the last major endurance race in his current role. “We
recently celebrated the long-awaited win at the Nürburgring 24 Hours,
but have also shown at Indianapolis, in the GTD class of the IMSA
series, in the ADAC GT Masters, and in the Italian GT Championship
that the BMW M6 GT3 is capable of winning virtually every race. We
obviously want to carry that momentum to Spa-Francorchamps, where we
have had three overall victories since 2015. Personally, I would
obviously be delighted to be able to celebrate one last time with the
team at my last big race as BMW Group Motorsport Director.”

For Walkenhorst Motorsport, the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps is not
only a prestigious individual event, but also forms the third of four
races in this season’s Intercontinental GT Challenge. Catsburg and
Farfus are currently second in the Drivers’ Championship, just one
point off the lead. Pittard, Tomczyk and Yelloly are third. BMW leads
the GT3 manufacturer competition.

In the Pro-Am class, Boutsen Ginion will field a third BMW M6 GT3 –
and a very special one at that. The car’s colourful livery was
designed by American artist Peter Halley, who took his inspiration
from the tradition of the famous BMW Art Cars. As a result, the #10
BMW M6 GT3 will be a real eye-catcher out on the track. Karim Ojjeh
(KSA), Gilles Vannelet (FRA), Benjamin Lessennes (BEL) and BMW works
driver Jens Klingmann (GER) will share the driving duties.

The race begins this Saturday at 15:30 and, with the clocks going
forward an hour overnight, ends 24 hours later at 14:30 on Sunday.

Quotes ahead of the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps:

Nick Catsburg (#34 BMW M6 GT3, Walkenhorst
Motorsport): “The next highlight of my season is just around
the corner and I cannot wait to get going. I hope I can continue my
run at Spa, having tasted victory at the Nürburgring and Indianapolis.
I think we have a very good chance. We have almost always performed
well at Spa in recent years, while Walkenhorst Motorsport has often
shown that the team is capable of winning the really big events. With
Augusto and Philipp, I have two fantastic drivers at my side. Both
have had a lot of big wins in GT racing, so it is a privilege for me
to share a BMW M6 GT3 with them.”

Nick Yelloly (#35 BMW M6 GT3, Walkenhorst
Motorsport): “This will be my first start at the 24 Hours of
Spa-Francorchamps, and I am really looking forward to working with
Martin and David again. Our goal is to improve on the second place we
achieved with Walkenhorst Motorsport at Indianapolis. The weather
could obviously play a major role at Spa at the end of October.
Similar to our victory at the Nürburgring, it will be crucial to avoid
making any mistakes and get the maximum out of the BMW M6 GT3.”

Jens Klingmann (#10 BMW M6 GT3, Boutsen Ginion):
“Last weekend’s victory in the ADAC GT Masters really did me some good
and has made me even more determined to get a good result at
Spa-Francorchamps with my team-mates at Boutsen Ginion. Personally, I
have very fond memories of this race, having finished runner-up in
2018. This is the absolute highlight of the season for the team. As
such, it is very appropriate that we line up with a very special
livery, and will also add some colour with our race overalls. I think
I am allowed to reveal that much. Our goal is to challenge for the
podium in the Pro-Am class. Hopefully, I can help my amateur
colleagues achieve that.”           

Original Press Release

BMW:Estoril Finale: BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team fighting with blunt weapons on Saturday.

Estoril. The 2020 season in the FIM Superbike World
Championship (WorldSBK) is approaching its conclusion and the first
race of the final weekend at Estoril (POR) is over. The two BMW
Motorrad WorldSBK Team riders, Tom Sykes (GBR) and Eugene Laverty
(IRL), finished race one on Saturday in tenth and twelfth positions.

The ‘Circuito do Estoril’ is hosting WorldSBK for the first time
since 1993. Friday was all about getting to know the idiosyncrasies of
the circuit, while Saturday featured another practice session,
Superpole qualification and race one.

In Superpole, Sykes and Laverty qualified in tenth and
14^th with their BMW S 1000 RRs. Both riders lost places at
the start of the race. As the race progressed, they both defended
their positions but found it impossible to mount any attacks. Sykes
and Laverty both move up after riders ahead of them retired from the
race and after 21 laps, Sykes took the chequered flag line in tenth,
with Laverty in twelfth.

Quotes after race one at Estoril.

Marc Bongers, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director:
“Firstly, congratulations to Johnny Rea. He has seemed untouchable on
the way to his sixth consecutive world championship title – very well
done! Up to now, our performance has not been satisfactory. Since the
first practice session, we have been struggling to adjust to the new
circuit. We seem to be unable to leverage our experience from the
current season, with most of the familiar circuits providing little
grip. We are simply not adjusting to new conditions and new circuits
quickly enough at the moment. We will have to work on that for the
future, but we have already developed the necessary methodology ahead
of this finale. A positive aspect for us is that our lap times were
stable throughout the race, however they were too slow to allow us to
get involved in the battle for the top places. Not least because of
that, we are looking forward to seeing what we can learn from testing
on Monday. As part of the preparations for 2021, we will already be
using some components for the BMW M 1000 RR to get an idea of the
potential. But now we are focusing on Sunday: we are analysing the
data from today to put on a better performance in the Superpole race
and in race two.”

Shaun Muir, Team Principal BMW Motorrad WorldSBK
Team: “Today’s Superpole was a bit disappointing. Tom was a
few tenths away from a second row start but he could not get the full
use out of the qualifying tyre. Eugene struggled getting grip from the
rear tyre and ultimately could not post a strong lap time. The race
was quite exciting at one point; we got into a good rhythm with Tom
and he was bunched up in a group from 5^th to around
12^th, which was covered by a few seconds, which we felt we
could have bagged a top six from that. Generally, we are not happy
with a tenth position, but I felt his overall pace was promising and
we took some good information away from that. Eugene continued his
free practice and qualifying pace and circulated the race relative to
those times, which was P12.”

Tom Sykes: “We got a good start to today’s race one
but I just got caught on the outside at T1. We then settled into a
good rhythm and it was a shame as P5 was only a few seconds away, but
I was at the wrong end of a big group. It’s clear to see that our bike
is working really well in some areas, but I was just lacking a little
bit today with mechanical grip and engine performance. But it is what
is, the game is over for this year and now for me the aim is to get
the best results possible and gather the information, blend that
together going into the winter test and get to where we need to be
next year.”

Eugene Laverty: “This track is tough for us in
general. These slow first gear corners are just not suited to our
bike, but I did what I could today. We were slow but at least we were
consistent and kept within three tenths of my lap time from the start.
Regardless of that we gained some good information, I played around
with my body position to try give the guys some direction to work in
so again we will try something else for tomorrow’s final two races.
Our problem is that we are struggling to get the bike stopped and have
that punch out of the corners. But we have some ideas, it’s not going
to be a miracle overnight but we must make progress.”

Original Press Release