BMW Motorsport News – Issue 31/13.

Whether in the DTM, the American Le Mans Series, or countless other championships: week after week BMW teams and drivers around the world battle for points, victories and titles. Away from the track, 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: BMW Motorsport completes extensive tests in Spielberg.
BMW Motorsport returned to the Red Bull Ring (AT), the scene of the manufacturer’s historic one-two-three in June’s DTM race, for testing. Over the course of four days, the two BMW M3 DTMs in action completed 3,158 kilometres. In unsettled weather, the BMW engineers primarily focussed on set-up work in dry, wet and mixed conditions, as well as performing numerous system and function tests. Bruno Spengler (CA) and BMW test and development driver Maxime Martin (BE) completed Monday’s roll-out and the entire first day of testing. Martin was back in action on the second test day, before heading to Baltimore (US) for the ALMS race. He was joined out on the track on Wednesday by Martin Tomczyk (DE) and Dirk Werner (DE). Tomczyk and Augusto Farfus (BR) shared testing duties on Thursday. The eighth DTM race of the season takes place on 15th September in Oschersleben (DE).

ADAC GT Masters: Schubert Motorsport claims two podiums at the Lausitzring.
Claudia Hürtgen (DE) and Dominik Baumann (AT) finished the sixth weekend of the ADAC GT Masters season at the Lausitzring (DE) after claiming second in both races. The duo, driving for PIXUM Team Schubert, was able to make up ground in the drivers' championship. With 120 points they are third, 16 points behind the leaders Diego Alessi (IT) and Daniel Keilwitz (DE). The number 20 BMW Z4 GT3 driven by Jörg Müller (DE) and Max Sandritter (DE) had a bad weekend. P21 and P16 in the two races weren’t the positions Müller and Sandritter had hoped for. DB Motorsport drivers Simon Knap (NL) and Jeroen den Boer (NL) scored valuable points finishing sixth in Saturday’s race, but didn’t see the chequered flag in the second race on Sunday.

Italian GT Championship: ROAL Motorsport triumphs in Imola.
ROAL Motorsport has won both races in the fifth weekend of the Italian GT Championship at Imola (IT). In race one the Italian squad even celebrated a one-two. Stefano Colombo (IT) and Stefano Comandini (IT) finished three seconds ahead of Michela Cerruti (IT) in their BMW Z4 GT3. In the second race it was Cerruti who claimed a commanding win, coming in more than 13 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

Superstars International Series: Podiums in both races at Donington.

BMW Team Dinamic finished both races of the Superstars International Series in Donington (GB) on the podium. Giovanni Berton (IT) came in second in the first race in his BMW M3. Max Mugelli (IT) finished race two third, ahead of Berton and two other BMW M3s. 

Two World Championship titles for Alex Zanardi on the hand bike.

The success story of long time BMW driver Alex Zanardi (IT) on the hand bike continued when he claimed two titles at the World Cycling Championships for disabled people in Baie-Comeau (CA). Forty seven-year-old Zanardi won the road race as well as the time trial. One year ago, Zanardi won Paralympic gold medals in both events in London (GB). 

VLN: Highlight of the season yields nine class wins for BMW Sports Trophy teams.
The BMW Sports Trophy teams enjoyed a magnificent Opel 6 Hours ADAC Ruhr Pokal Race on the Nordschleife. In total they claimed nine class victories at the highlight of the VLN Endurance Championship season on 24th August. BMW cars were victorious in the following classes: H1, H2, SP3, SP4, SP5, SP6, V2, V4 and V5. BMW also had two cars in the top ten, with Schubert Motorsport finishing sixth and Walkenhorst Motorsport ninth in their BMW Z4 GT3s.