BMW and Mini return to competition after a slow month
February, a very quiet month for motorsports, is even longer than normal this year because of Leap Day. But don’t despair, the action will pick up in March, with Rally Mexico beginning on March 8, the 12 Hours of Sebring to be run on March 17, and the Grand-Am Barber Motorsports event run on March 29-31.
What can we expect in these events?
At Rally Mexico, WRC Team Mini Portugal, Mini’s new official pro rally team, will be on hand with cars for Armindo Araujo and Paulo Nobre. Minimotorsport.com says, “As things stand at present Armindo and team-mate Paulo Nobre will be the only MINI WRC drivers scheduled to contest the full WRC season.” Prodrive, the team that preceded Team Portugal as the factory Mini entrant is still the official constructor of the Mini WRC. But it is a privateer team in WRC competition now, and is not on the entry list for Mexico.
At Sebring BMW Team RLL will be on hand with their two GT class M3s, with a car for defending Sebring and season champs Joey Hand and Dirk Müller, and another for Bill Auberlen and Jörg Müller. Uwe Alzen has been named as a fifth driver; one more driver is yet to be announced. The team ran in ALMS test days at Sebring in February, where it experimented with new tire compounds. The M3s finished well back in the pack, but this was only a test.
Both the Ganassi and Turner teams will be at the Barber Grand-Am event, looking to improve on their finishes in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January, while the usual suspects from Turner, Fall-Line, Rum Bum, and other teams will be back to run their M3s in Continental Challenge. It’s early; complete entry lists have not yet been posted for the event.
Stay tuned; the flow of racing news will pick up soon.—Brian S. Morgan, motorsports editor, bmwcca.org
