BMW Team RLL have endured another woeful weekend in the ALMS, finishing seventh and eighth at Road America.
The results for Maxime Martin, Bill Auberlen, John Edwards and Dirk Muller meant BMW failed to build on their streak of three consecutive class victories at the Wisconsin track – all of which were scored with the recently retired M3 GT.
The main problem with the new Z4 GTE is a lack of top speed as Rahal Letterman Lanigan boss Bobby Rahal explained: “We made a particularly good call to get the number 56 onto dry tyres as soon as we could. It gained us the lead but, as the track dried and the speeds picked up, great strategy was no substitute for a top speed disadvantage. As much as Road America is my favourite racetrack, I’m looking forward to tracks with shorter straights.”
Indeed, the BMW problem was seemingly limited to just the ALMS: “On Saturday we saw BMW teams in close battles with our competitors within the different GRAND-AM fields. Unfortunately on Sunday, just as we saw in Canada, BMW Team RLL struggled to keep up with the competition. It is particularly difficult to again face a result so short of our team’s potential, given our horsepower deficit to the rest of the GT field.” Said BMW North America Motorsport Manager Gordon McDonnell.
The team will be hoping that the Z4s can find some speed at the Baltimore Grand Prix, a short and twisty street circuit, with the race taking place at the end of August.