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BMW Team RLL qualifies new BMW M6 GTLM cars third and sixth for 54th Daytona 24 Hours.
Thu Jan 28 23:59:00 CET 2016 Press Release
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The two new BMW M6 GTLM racing cars will start the 54th annual 24 Hours of Daytona (US), the opening round of the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IWSC), from the third and sixth positions in the GTLM field.
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Ingo Lehbrink
BMW Group
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Author.
Ingo Lehbrink
BMW Group
Daytona (US), 28th January 2016. The two new BMW M6 GTLM racing
cars will start the 54th annual 24 Hours of Daytona (US), the
opening round of the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship
(IWSC), from the third and sixth positions in the GTLM field.
This afternoon’s 15-minute qualifying session was held under
rainy skies making for the wettest track of the day and very
difficult conditions. A red flag for a competitor’s crash halted
the action after only four cars completed two timed laps, but, as
a minimum of ten minutes of green flag time is required by the
rules, the session became a slippery two-lap shootout.
With a 2:02.497-minute lap around the 3.56-mile Daytona
International Speedway road course, John Edwards (US) qualified
the number 100 BMW M6 GTLM in third position, just over one second
slower than the pole sitting number 911 Porsche. Edwards will
share the car with Lucas Luhr (DE), Graham Rahal (US) and Kuno
Wittmer (CA).
Dirk Werner (DE) qualified the number 25 BMW M6 GTLM in sixth
spot with a time of 2:03.974 minutes. Werner will co-drive with
Bill Auberlen (US), Augusto Farfus (BR) and Bruno Spengler (CA).
The talented quartet finished second in last year’s Daytona
24-hour race, finishing only 0.478 seconds behind the GTLM class
winner after 725 laps of battle.
In the 21-car GTD class, Markus Paltalla (FI) qualified the
number 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 13th, while Jens Klingmann
came 16th in the number 96 car.
Bobby Rahal (Team Principal, BMW Team RLL):
“Those were tough conditions and I am very pleased with the
job John did. He really did not have much time in the car. I
thought we were going to be P2. Third is a good place to start the
race and Dirk isn’t that far behind. Really, where you qualify for
this race makes no difference but it is just nice to see that the
BMW M6 GTLM was competitive in the wet.”
John Edwards (Number 100 BMW M6 GTLM, 3rd place):
“In a brand new car it would have been cool to go out and get
pole position, but that didn’t happen. Those were really poor
conditions. We knew it would be tough, but I think we have a car
in the BMW M6 GTLM that can handle the rain better than the BMW Z4
GTLM. Even with a little mistake in turn six on my best lap, we
weren’t that far off the Porsches. I look at this as progress and
right now we have a safe starting position for the long 24 hour race.”
Dirk Werner (Number 25 BMW M6 GTLM, 6th place):
“Every corner was an adventure, as there was a lot of water on
the track and it was easy to go off. I am just happy we had a
clean qualifying. P6 is all right, we are in the middle of the
field and I think we have a good car for the race.”