Racing News

     

    BMW Team RLL’s Bill Auberlen and Maxime Martin won the GT class in the two-hour American Le Mans Series race in Long Beach, and their teammates, Joey Hand and Dirk Müller, finished second. It was the first win for new BMW Z4 GTE, coming in the cars’ second-ever race. It was also the first Long Beach win for Auberlen, who lives just up the road from the circuit in Redondo Beach.
     
    Maxime Martin, who had never run on a street circuit before, misjudged Turn One on the second lap of the race and went off course, setting the #55 Z4 back temporarily. But he recovered to run several very quick laps before he and Joey Hand (in Car #56) came in for fuel and tires during a yellow-flag period 25 minutes into the race.

    Then, Team RLL elected to pit #55 for fuel only under another yellow at the 38 minute mark. He pitted again just five minutes later, under the same yellow, for more fuel. When the GT leaders pitted 57 minutes into the race under yet another yellow for fuel, tires, and driver changes, Auberlen stayed out; #55 moved up to second. Then, with fifteen minutes left in the race, Auberlen took the lead when Dominic Farnbacher in the class leading SRT Viper went wide in turn one. Auberlen held on for the win. Müller battled with Farnbacher for second, getting by on the penultimate lap to make it a BMW one-two.

    Auberlen said “Unbelievable. This thing was a rocket all day. We had some bad luck; that bad luck turned to good luck. Our pit strategy worked out perfect. Everybody here in Long Beach, I’m from Redondo Beach, I’m your neighbor and I love you guys. I’ve wanted to win this thing forever and never have. What a great day for BMW.”

    The overall win at Long Beach went to Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr in the Muscle Milk HPD ARX-03C prototype.

    ALMS runs again at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on May 11.—Brian S. Morgan