BMW Team RLL qualifies 4th and 5th at Motorsport Park

Woodcliff Lake, N.J. – With a 1:15.672 minute lap around the 2.46-mile, 10-turn Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (formally Mosport) circuit, GT class points leader Dirk Müller qualified the No. 56 BMW Z4 GTE in the fourth position for today’s American Le Mans Series Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix. His time was only .210 seconds from the class pole. Just .054 seconds behind Müller, Bill Auberlen qualified the No. 55 BMW Z4 GTE fifth with a 1:15.726 minute lap.

BMW stands three points behind Chevrolet in Manufacturer points and is tied with Corvette Racing in Team points. Dirk Müller leads the Driver standings by a 16-point margin. To date, Müller has scored a seventh at Sebring co-driving with Joey Hand and John Edwards, a second with Hand at Long Beach, a third with Edwards at Laguna Seca and the most recent win with Edwards at Lime Rock Park. Joey Hand, returning stateside from his DTM duties, will co-drive the No. 56 machine in tomorrow’s 2.45-hour race.

Bill Auberlen and Maxime Martin scored the first victory for the Z4 GTE at Long Beach in the No. 55 car, but a broken differential at the next round at Laguna Seca saw them finish out of the points. They began the season with a fourth (along with Jörg Müller) at Sebring and scored another fourth place finish most recently at Lime Rock Park. Without the disappointment of Laguna Seca the duo would certainly be standing higher than fifth in Driver points, 18 markers in arrears of Müller.

Dirk Müller, driver No. 56 Z4 GTE – (4th) – “I was really, really happy that I was chosen to qualify here. It is definitely a man’s track! I’m pretty sure that I had that two tenths left in my pocket, but honestly I was afraid to pull it out. We are so quick in turns 1, 2, and 8 that I could maybe have risked it a little more to get the pole. On the other hand, we also saw what can happen if you risk too much. Nevertheless, I’m very happy with P4. The car was good, the team did a great job with set-up and it was fun qualifying.”

Bill Auberlen, driver No. 55 Z4 GTE – (5th) – “I left the last practice session in P1 and in qualifying everyone showed their hands. We have the handling, but don’t quite have enough straight line speed. The car is great, the team is great and the Michelin tires are great. We are a session behind in set-up because we had some electrical problems during Thursday’s test so we still have a few more adjustments to make before the race tomorrow.”

BMW Group