Turbulent weekend ends with fifth and sixth places for BMW M Team RLL.

Watkins Glen. On the scene of its first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory a year ago, the BMW M Team RLL #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 was once again in the spotlight – this time, however, for a different reason. After a practice crash on Saturday, the team pulled off a great feat by completely rebuilding the car overnight and sending it into the 6-hour race at ‘Watkins Glen International’ (USA). After a hectic race with numerous yellow phases, rain showers and a race interruption, car no. 25 finished sixth – just behind BMW M Hybrid V8 no. 24, which reached fifth place.
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Connor De Phillippi (USA) lost control of his car during practice and crashed into the track barrier. The BMW M Hybrid V8 was so badly damaged that BMW M Team RLL had to resort to another chassis and completely rebuild it overnight. Just a few minutes before the start, the car rolled to the end of the pit lane, where the race began. Despite a drive-through penalty as a result of the formation lap rate, De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly (GBR) staged an impressive comeback to finish sixth. Philipp Eng (AUT) and Jesse Krohn (FIN) started from eighth and worked their way up to fifth.

In the GTD class, Robby Foley, Patrick Gallagher and Jake Walker (all USA) led the Turner Motorsport #96 BMW M4 GT3 to fifth place. In the GTD-PRO category, the Paul Miller Racing #1 BMW M4 GT3 with Madison Snow, Bryan Sellers and Neil Verhagen (all USA) raced well for a long time but dropped to eighth due to penalties. in the restart phase just before the end.

Comments after the race:

Andreas Roos (Head of BMW M Motorsport): “The Herculean effort of BMW M Team RLL and the BMW M Motorsport crew in rebuilding the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 was outstanding and deserves great recognition. Thanks to everyone involved for their fantastic commitment! From a sporting point of view, however, the course of the weekend at Watkins Glen is disappointing as, after last year’s win, we had high hopes for another good result. We need to improve significantly to be able to compete at the front at this high level. We continue to show the potential of the BMW M Hybrid V8, but we are not able to get the corresponding results. We will continue to work hard to turn things around – hopefully already at the next Road America race.”

Philipp Eng (#24 BMW M Hybrid V8, 5th place): “Fifth place is not the result we wanted, but apart from qualifying where we had balance issues, I was pretty happy with our pace over the weekend. I had the fastest time in practice and was also able to keep up with the pace of the Cadillacs in the race. After a pit stop, I actually led the race for a few laps. Our focus is now on Road America. Biggest credit today definitely goes to crew number 25. That repair was a fantastic performance!”

Connor De Phillippi (#25 BMW M Hybrid V8, 6th place):
“Thanks to the whole team for the incredible effort to get the car to the start after my crash on Saturday! This applies not only to our number 25 crew, but to everyone, because the number 24 crew also helped. For everyone it was like a 24-hour race. The car was only finished before the start, so for us it was just about finishing a clean race. But the balance improved over the course of the six hours, and if we hadn’t been stuck behind the Acura at the end, we could have even run with the lead trio.”