Rahal Letterman Racing has confirmed it will return for a third season in the American Le Mans Series, against representing BMW in The GT2 category. It has also been confirmed that Tommy Milner will not return as one of the four full season drivers.
Joining the team instead will be German Dirk Werner, who previously drove with the team at both the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans in 2010. He will join Dirk Muller, Joey Hand and Bill Auberlen at the team, which will be officially renamed BMW Team RLR to bring the American team in line with BMW's global racing nomenclature.
“Consistency was the key to our championships last season,” said Martin Birkmann, who in another change leaves his post of North America Motorsport Manager for BMW to move to Munich as BMW Group's Manager, Powertrain Strategy. “The four full-season drivers are a major component in our success and we are excited to have Dirk Werner join us in 2011 to maintain our strong driver line-up. Tommy Milner is truly an outstanding talent. We thank him for his years of service to BMW and wish him nothing but the best.”
Larry Koch will take over responsibility for BMW of North America's racing programs in 2011.
“We are very proud of what we have accomplished with BMW over the past two seasons and are eagerly anticipating the 2011 season where we intend to continue enhancing our efforts,” said Bobby Rahal, Team Principal. “We welcome Dirk Werner as a full-time driver with BMW Team RLR in 2011 and feel secure that he will bolster what has proven to be a very strong driver line-up. Our team is currently working on the 2011 BMW M3 and we look forward to getting it on the test track in just seven short weeks.”
The 2011 ALMS season begins on March 19 with the 12 Hours of Sebring. RLR's preparations, however, will begin with testing of the new race chassis in January.
