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BMW Motorsport to race in LMDh Class

BMW Motorsport has announced that it is to race in the LMDh Class in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship from the 2023 season. This means it will be racing at the top of the GT tree for outright race wins at the Daytona 24H Race and similar events in the USA. BMW Motorsport recently announced that the chassis for the two prototype vehicles that will race in the IMSA series will be developed in close partnership with the world-renowned and successful motorsport manufacturer Dallara. The contract was signed in mid-September at Dallara’s headquarters in Varano de Melegari, Italy.

Markus Flasch, Managing Director of BMW M GmbH said “We are very pleased to have found a partner for our LMDh project in Dallara who share our passion, professionalism and great ambition in motorsport and who, together with us, is fully committed to the goal of writing a new success story in the history of BMW M Motorsport from 2023.” He went on to add: “After talking to all the chassis partners, it was crucial for our choice that Dallara, with all their expertise and experience, absolutely wanted to work with BMW M Motorsport. The chemistry between us was right from the start. We see our relationship as a real partnership in which we fight for a common goal: success on the racetrack.”

Exciting times indeed. It’s great to see a BMW racing at the pinnacle of GT racing, once again. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see this car be adapted for running in Europe at Le Mans and emulating the LMR V12 victory in 1999?

Wittmann so close at Spielberg

At the 5th Round of the new DTM series (now run with GT3 cars), Marco Wittmann came so close to adding a win to his weekend’s results; in the first race he finished 7th. For the second round of the weekend on Sunday, Wittmann was the star in qualifying and placed his Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 on pole with an immaculate lap. He was closely followed by the Ferrari 488 GT3 of New Zealand driver Liam Lawson. At the start of Sunday’s race, Wittmann made a perfect start and easily held the lead going into the pit stops. Unfortunately, without a level playing field, issues arise. It seems that, in this season of DTM, some of the race teams’ cars have new wheel nuts that are attached to the hub of the wheel and are, therefore, much quicker to change during a pit stop. By comparison, traditional single nut wheels have to be detached from each wheel as you change tyres, which takes longer. This wheel nut debacle lost Wittmann the race, basically. Lawson’s Ferrari has the new wheel nut system and the M6 GT3 doesn’t, so the Ferrari team were able to bring Lawson in for his pit stop right behind Wittmann knowing their stop would be shorter. Wittmann tried gallantly to pass the Ferrari on the remaining laps, but had to settle for 2nd place in the end.

This is another issue that has been brewing up since the first race of the season, with the teams and DTM officials in crisis talks to solve this problem. It’s actually quite easy, make everyone use the same wheel nuts.

Turkington shines in the Kingdom of Fife!

The BTCC circus headed north to the Knockhill circuit, in Dunfermline. Ciceley Motorsport hoped to build on their Oulton Park success, with another big points haul at the tight and technical Knockhill circuit. WSR were also hoping for success and to claim their 100th victory in the series.

Qualifying

It was a bit of a disaster for Ciceley Motorsport. Adam Morgan hit a kerb too hard on the entry to the chicane, sending the 330i into the gravel and bringing out the red flags. Rules state that, if you are the cause of the stoppage, you are excluded. Early bath for the Lancashire ace, then. No problems for WSR, though. Colin Turkington snathced pole with a superb lap, possibly helped by his team mates ahead. This set the scene for that century of WSR wins. Next was Tom Oliphant in 10th, Adam Morgan 13th, Stephen Jelley 14th, and Tom Chilton 16th.

Race 1

From the off, Colin Turkington made a great start and immediately pulled a gap on second placed Senna Proctor’s Honda. Turkington was up to three seconds ahead by lap five. Then the safety car came out after Dan Lloyd’s Astra went off and hit the fence as repairs to the circuit were needed. Further down the field, Tom Oliphant had dropped a place to 11th, Stephen Jelley was up to 13th, Adam Morgan down two to 15th, Tom Chilton one down also. As racing resumed it was Turkington who remained ahead, building up a lead. Going into the final turn, Tom Oliphant got tagged by local Rory Butcher’s Toyota which sent the WSR BMW spinning out of contention. But at the flag, it was Colin Turkington taking the win by four seconds and securing WSR’s 100th win in the series, only the 3rd team to ever achieve this result. The team’s first victory was at Silverstone in 1998. It was also the 75th win for the team in BMWs. Team Principal Dick Bennett was absolutely delighted. Other BMW finishers were; Stephen Jelly 11th, Tom Chilton 12th, Adam Morgan 13th, and an unlucky Tom Oliphant in 28th.

Race 2

Colin Turkington got the hole shot again, but the racing was short lived. Chris Smiley stalled on the line, causing many cars to take avoiding action. Nick Hamilton’s Cupra collided with the pit wall, I don’t think he even crossed the line. The safety car was dispatched again while the debris was cleared. Further down, Tom Chilton was having a great race and was up to 8th position. His teammate Adam Morgan did have the same luck, he spun at the chicane, his nemesis in qualifying. Morgan rejoined way down in 26th. Stephen Jelley was 10th and fighting with Rory Butcher’s Toyota. On lap 11, Tom Chilton was having a great scrap for 6th place with Aiden Moffatt in his Infiniti and Tom Ingram in his Hyundai. Going through the chicane, there was contact from one of the cars, rotating the Car Gods-backed 330i of Chilton into the gravel. Chilton rejoined in 28th, which was a real shame as 6th place would have been Tom’s best finish so far this season. Up front, Turkington was coming under pressure from Josh Cook in the Norlin Honda Civic and reigning champ Ash Sutton in the Infiniti. By lap 16 now and Ash Sutton had fought his way to the back bumper of the heavy 330i of Turkington, who had to drive defensively to keep the flying Infiniti at bay. Turkington did a great job of it too, Sutton trying everything in his armoury to create an opportunity. The safety car came out on lap 23 as Rory Butcher went off at turn one. When the racing was back on, Sutton was right on the tail of Turkington, could he hang on? On the final lap, and under-pressure Turkington over does his entry speed to the chicane putting the BMW in the gravel, Sutton gets past. At the finish line it was Sutton first, Turkington recovered to finish second. Stephen Jelly was 9th, Morgan 16th, Oliphant 17th and Chilton 25th.

Race 3

The draw for the reverse grid gave pole position to Stephen Jelly in the WSR BMW. He had Jason Plato next to him.

Colin Turkington flies through the chicane on his way to that historic win

WSR team principal Dick Bennett joins Colin Turkington on the podium to celebrate 100 wins.

The stalwart of the series would give his all in the Adrian Flux Astra. Jelly’s teammate, Colin Turkington, was shuffled down the pack to 8th.

Jelly got a great start and led the pack for the 24-lap race. He was under attack immediately from Plato. Lap two and the safety car was sent out after a collision involving Josh Cook’s Honda and Jack Goff’s Cupra. Jelley led until the end of lap 18 when Tom Ingram nipped up the inside at the final corner, sending Jelly wide and allowing Senna Proctor through in the Honda, too. With Jelly now in 3rd, he came under pressure from home boy Gordon Shedden, his Honda was all over the back of Jelley’s 330i. At the line it was Tom Ingram first, Stephen Jelly managed to hang on for a brilliant 3rd place. Colin Turkington held position in 8th. Adam Morgan finished 13th, the best of the Ciceley cars. It was a challenging weekend for Lancashire based Ciceley Motorsport, wanting results and having a really tough weekend. Scoring just a few points out of a possible 75 was not in the script and drops Adam from 5th to 10th in the title race. Hats off to WSR, though, 100 wins and Colin Turkington right back in it for the championship.