BMW Motorsport News – Issue 12/13.

Whether in the DTM, the American Le Mans Series, or countless other championships: week after week BMW teams and drivers around the world do battle for points, victories and titles. Away from the track too, members of the large BMW Motorsport family around the world are also creating headlines. The “BMW Motorsport News” allows us to regularly summarise all the action for you in a compact and informative manner. This way, you are always up to speed. 

DTM:  Flying visit of the BMW drivers to Munich.

This Friday and Saturday the eight BMW DTM drivers, as well as test and development driver Maxime Martin (BE), had a lot of appointments during their  ‘2013 Driver Days’. Among other things, they spent a lot of time at BMW Motorsport in Anton-Ditt-Bogen, Munich. There they visited the employees and went into the workshop to sign autographs. They also visited the BMW plant in Munich where the employees had the chance of getting really close to the drivers during an autograph session. Afterwards, a guided works tour gave the drivers the opportunity to have a good look at the BMW production-car operation. The highlight of the ‘Driver Days’, however, was the DTM car launch in the ‘BMW Welt’ on Saturday. For this, 13,000 fans, partners and sponsors, as well as the media, were there when BMW Motorsport presented the eight BMW M3 DTM racing cars for the 2013 season in a spectacular event. 

DTM: Bruno Spengler attends ‘Leonidas’ gala in Salzburg.

This Thursday, as a guest of the ‘Salzburger Nachrichten’, Bruno Spengler (CA) attended the ‘Leonidas awards’ ceremony.  Along with the reigning DTM Champion, his BMW Team Schnitzer Team Principal, Charly Lamm (DE), as well as team owner, Herbert Schnitzer (DE), and Dieter Lamm (DE) also made the trip to Salzburg and were there for the event held in hangar 2 of the Salzburg (AT) airport. While ski ace Marcel Hirscher (AT) could definitely be happy to receive the sportsman of the year award, Spengler was interviewed about winning the title in 2012 and the preparations for the 2013 season. 

DTM: Tim Bendzko learns from BMW Team Schnitzer driver Dirk Werner.

He couldn’t have wished for a better driving instructor: this Tuesday and Wednesday, Berlin singer, Tim Bendzko (DE), passed a motor-racing license course at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben (DE) and BMW Team Schnitzer driver Dirk Werner (DE), along with two other DTM drivers from Audi and Mercedes, showed the motorsport newcomer the best braking and turn-in points of the 3.696-kilometre circuit, as well as what is vital for perfect car control. “Having been a racing driver for 20 years, coaching somebody who is starting from scratch was a completely new experience for me,” said Werner.  

Japanese Super GT Championship: Podium at Okayama.

The ‘Okayama International Circuit’ staged the first race of the 2013 Japanese Super GT Championship – and the BMW Z4 GT3 made it onto the podium. In the GT300 category, the No 4 car, raced by Nobuteru Taniguchi (JP) and Tatsuya Kataoka (JP), finished runner-up. At the end of the 77-lap race, the BMW drivers crossed the finish line just 11.036 seconds behind the Mercedes pairing of Björn Wirdheim (SE) and Katsuyuki Hiranaka (JP), who won the first race of the season.   

FIA WTCC: Coronel celebrates best BMW result of the season.

Tom Coronel (NL) finished sixth in the second race of the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) event in Marrakech (MA) and earned the best result of the season for the BMW 320 TC. Franz Engstler (DE), Darryl O’Young (HK) and Charles Ng (HK) also scored points by finishing eighth, ninth and tenth. In race 1 it was also Coronel who finished as the best BMW driver in ninth. Victories in the two races went to Michel Nykjaer (DK) and Pepe Oriola (ES). 

GRAND-AM: All the teams relying on BMW Power make it into the top ten.

In the US-American GRAND-AM Series’ round at Birmingham’s (US) ‘Barber Motorsports Park’, all the BMW powered teams secured top-ten results in their respective categories. Chip Ganassi Racing’s BMW Riley finished fourth in the Daytona Prototype class, with Team Sahlen coming seventh. In the GT category, the Turner Motorsport BMW M3 was the best BMW by finishing fifth, and in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race the BMW teams came seventh and fourth in the GS and ST categories respectively. 

Italian Superstars Championship: Season kick-off at Monza.

The five BMW drivers starting in the Italian Superstars Championship all missed the podium at the first race of the season in Monza (IT). Giovanni Berton (IT) finished sixth in his BMW M3. Former Formula One driver Vitantonio Liuzzi (IT) won the race.