[Jason]

BIMMERPOST NEWS

BMW Team RLL Qualify New M6 GTLM Racing Cars 3rd and 6th for 54th Rolex 24 At Daytona

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Woodcliff Lake, N.J. – January 28, 2016… The two new BMW Team RLL M6 GTLM racing cars will start the 54th annual Rolex 24 At Daytona, the opening round of the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, 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 10 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 qualified the No. 100 M6 GTLM in the third position, just over one second slower than the pole sitting No. 911 Porsche. Edwards will share the car with Lucas Luhr, Graham Rahal and Kuno Wittmer.

Dirk Werner qualified the No. 25 M6 GTLM machine in the sixth spot with a time of 2:03.974. Werner will co-drive with Bill Auberlen, Augusto Farfus and Bruno Spengler. The talented quartet finished second in last year’s Rolex 24, finishing only .478 seconds behind the GTLM class winner after 725 laps of battle.

In the 21-car GTD class, Markus Paltalla qualified the No. 97 Turner Motorsport M6 GT3 13th and Jens Klingmann qualified the No. 96 Turner Motorsport M6 GT3 16th.

“Those were tough conditions and I am very pleased with the job John did,” said Bobby Rahal, Team Principal. “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 M6 was competitive in the wet.”

John Edwards, driver No. 100 BMW M6 GTLM: (3rd) “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 M6 that can handle the rain better than the Z4. 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, driver No. 25 BMW M6 GTLM: (6th) “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.”

The 54th Rolex 24 at Daytona takes the green flag at 2:40 p.m. Saturday, January 30 with the first two hour hours of coverage on FOX Sports 1 beginning at 2 p.m. ET. Coverage shifts to FOX Sports 2 from 4 to 10 p.m. ET. FOX Sports 1 will pick up the broadcast from 7 - 9 a.m. ET and then finish with three hours of coverage beginning at 12 p.m. ET Follow BMW Team RLL on Twitter at @BMWUSARacing for “from-the-pit-box” updates all weekend.

BMW Team RLL Qualify New M6 GTLM Racing Cars 3rd and 6th for 54th Rolex 24 At Daytona

[3s-a-charm]

Good luck Team RLL!

[vladberca]

Good luck in the race! Hope to see the cars on the podium!

[3GFX]

Hoping to see many podiums this year.

Go Team RLL and Turner!

[deemo319]

Good luck guys!

[trustbran]

Rootin for the Bimmerz!!! Lets kick some azzz....

-Brandon

[bradleyland]

It's been a real shit show down here. I know anyone in the northeast US is probably rolling their eyes at me right now, but the weather in Florida over the last couple of days has been garbage. Let's hope it holds up over the weekend.

Good luck team RLL and Turner!

[bradleyland]

Oh, and don't forget to grab your spotter's guide!

http://www.imsa.com/sites/default/fi...rsGuide_v5.pdf

[A1PericoM3]

Be there soon

[Pig Farmer]

Originally Posted by bradleyland

It's been a real shit show down here. I know anyone in the northeast US is probably rolling their eyes at me right now, but the weather in Florida over the last couple of days has been garbage. Let's hope it holds up over the weekend.

Good luck team RLL and Turner!

Shit show is an understatement. I was quite impressed with where the M6 qualified in relationship to the Pcars seeing that the 911s have a clear grip advantage in the rain. Today's cool, dry weather should setup well for the M6.

[Chihuahua]

Not sure how it is in Daytona today (looks OK on TV) but here in Tampa it has been slightly cloudy with no precipitation at all today. Race conditions should be good other than the track not being rubbered in and the grass being super soggy.

[MiamiE93Vert]

Beautiful weather so far, light years better than last year. Bimmers running so so. Turner teams are in the back of gtd. No one out of the race so far so that's good.

[MiamiE93Vert]

BMW first atm in gtlm, on the midnight grassroots Motorsports tour, a turner Gtd was in the garage and it didn't look good.

[MiamiE93Vert]

Turner back in it. Incredible work and so fast. Car was disassembled 15 mins ago

[MiamiE93Vert]

BMW in good shape in gtlm. Hopefully I will wake up and they will still be in contention

[UntzUntzUntz]

First year watching this and I wish I haven't. I've been stuck on it the entire day! Crazy how these cars run 110% for 24 hours or how in the heck these guys race throughout the entire night.
For those of you, such as myself, that don't have Fox Sports 2, live stream is on http://www.imsa.com/camera/imsatv

All eyes on BMW #25. We lost BMW #100
GO #25 FLY LIKE THE WIND!

[MiamiE93Vert]

2 bmws still in the hunt for the podium. No complaints for first race in the m6's

[Pig Farmer]

Turner flagged for over boost. There's goes their warranty.

[Savory]

100 did well before Luhr binned it into the wall. Turner is still going in GTD tho! Really wish Ashley had a chance at the lead lap.

Also, anyone know why the GTLM M6 is noticeably faster than GTD? They have the same aero...Must be that RLL sauce lol

[613Bimmer]

First time watching the 24hrs of Daytona and, I have to say, I'm loving every second of it! Im praying for the 25 car to pass and make podium!

[bradleyland]

Originally Posted by Savory

100 did well before Luhr binned it into the wall. Turner is still going in GTD tho! Really wish Ashley had a chance at the lead lap.

Also, anyone know why the GTLM M6 is noticeably faster than GTD? They have the same aero...Must be that RLL sauce lol

The GTLM spec is more along the lines of GTE. GTD now uses GT3 spec. The GLTM cars should be faster.

What's bizarre is how the M6 seems so down on top speed. Late last night I was watching IMSA.tv, and the #911 car pulled out from behind the #100 M6 on the oval and drove away like the M6 was a GTD car. The commentators were all like, "ZOMG, such a great piece of driving!" WTF kind of skill does it take to just pull out and mat the throttle?

Later, an M6 GTLM (#25, I think) and a GT3 Huracan were on the oval together and the Huracan just drove off. A GTD car shouldn't have that kind of top end on a GTLM car.

Hopefully BMW will get a BoP bump, and they'll slow the Huracans down a bit.

[bradleyland]

Apparently the #100 car had a catastrophic rotor failure, which caused the crash.