\n Watkins Glen. Laguna Seca, Detroit (both USA),
\n Spa-Francorchamps (BEL), and Le Mans (FRA): four times in a row, BMW
\n M Team WRT made it onto the podium with the BMW M Hybrid V8. The
\n success streak has now come to an end at the IMSA WeatherTech
\n SportsCar Championship (IMSA Series) six-hour race at Watkins Glen
\n (USA). Sheldon van der Linde (RSA) and Dries Vanthoor (BEL) fought
\n for third place in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 until shortly before the
\n finish, but ultimately had to settle for fourth. In contrast, Connor
\n De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen (both USA) were able to celebrate on
\n the podium after taking second place in the GTD-PRO clas
\n s with the #1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO from Paul Miller Racing.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
BMW M Team WRT experienced a challenging weekend after their recent
\n successes. Neither car was able to find the optimal set-up for the
\n demanding Watkins Glen circuit. Nevertheless, car #24 managed to
\n qualify in sixth place and even moved up into the top three during the
\n race. Only a few minutes before the end, van der Linde lost the battle
\n for third place and crossed the finish line in fourth. Philipp Eng
\n (AUT) and Marco Wittmann (GER) struggled even more with balance and
\n were further set back by a tyre puncture and a drive-through penalty.
\n They finished ninth.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was reason to celebrate in the GTD-PRO class. Connor De
\n Phillippi and Neil Verhagen started third in their class and finished
\n second after six hours. As a result, the Paul Miller Racing duo now
\n leads the IMSA standings in their class. In the GTD class, Turner
\n Motorsport with Robby Foley, Patrick Gallagher, and Francis Selldorff
\n (all USA) led at times, but dropped back to seventh place after a late
\n pit stop.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Comments after the race:\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Andreas Roos (Head of BMW M Motorsport):
\n \u201cUnfortunately, our podium streak with the BMW M Hybrid V8
\n has come to an end after four races. That\u2019s a shame, but the fact that
\n we\u2019re disappointed with a fourth place says a lot about the generally
\n very positive trend of our LMDh project. At Watkins Glen, we weren\u2019t
\n able to find the optimal set-up for our two cars. Nevertheless, the
\n team and drivers fought hard. Many thanks to everyone for their
\n efforts! In just two weeks, we\u2019ll have the chance to do better at the
\n FIA WEC race in S\u00e3o Paulo. Congratulations to Paul Miller Racing,
\n Connor De Phillippi, and Neil Verhagen on their well-deserved podium
\n in the GTD-PRO class!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Dries Vanthoor (#24 BMW M Hybrid V8, BMW M Team WRT, 4th place
\n GTP): \u201cIt\u2019s a pity that we lost the podium in the last ten
\n minutes, but to be honest, a podium finish would have been a bonus
\n today. We didn\u2019t have the pace in the race to really fight at the
\n front. Hats off to Sheldon. He drove a great race. Thanks also to the
\n team, who made no mistakes at all. It was a smooth race, but our
\n package just wasn\u2019t fast enough here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Philipp Eng (#25 BMW M Hybrid V8, BMW M Team WRT, 9th place
\n GTP): \u201cThe whole weekend wasn\u2019t easy for us. We had major
\n problems with the car\u2019s balance. Still, we went into the race aiming
\n for a good result. Unfortunately, we then had the tyre puncture and
\n the penalty. On a day like this, everything comes together. The team
\n still did a great job, and together we tried everything to understand
\n the problems. I\u2019m sorry that the sister car lost third place shortly
\n before the end, but you can\u2019t always be on the podium. We\u2019ve managed
\n it so many times in a row now, and I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll be back up there soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Connor De Phillippi (#1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, Paul Miller Racing,
\n 2nd place GTD PRO): \u201cWe got the maximum out of today. The
\n strategy was spot on, and we executed our plan perfectly. We knew we
\n didn\u2019t have the fastest car, but we also knew that with a smart
\n strategy and fuel efficiency, we could stay at the front. In the end,
\n it worked out, and we\u2019re leaving Watkins Glen with the championship
\n lead. I\u2019m very happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Robby Foley (#96 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, Turner Motorsport, 7th place
\n GTD): \u201cIt looked pretty good for a while, but we were on a
\n different strategy to our competitors and knew we\u2019d need a yellow flag
\n to make it work. That did come, but unfortunately too late for us. We
\n didn\u2019t have the pace to run right at the front, so we took a bit of a
\n gamble. Unfortunately, it didn\u2019t pay off, but we still scored
\n important points for the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watkins Glen. Laguna Seca, Detroit (both USA), Spa-Francorchamps (BEL), and Le Mans (FRA): four times in a row,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20955],"tags":[6213,21879,21881,25040,27532,27531],"class_list":["post-45014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bmw","tag-bmw","tag-bmw-m-motorsport","tag-customer-racing","tag-gt-racing","tag-imsa-series","tag-lmdh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}