Spengler to make surprise Australian GT cameo

The brand new squad will debut its freshly-landed BMW M6 at this weekend’s joint Australian GT Championship/Australian Endurance Championship round at Phillip Island, and has drafted BMW DTM driver Spengler in to partner regular driver Morgan Haber across the two ‘sprint’ races and 101-lap ‘endurance’ race.

It will be the French-Canadian’s first visit down under.

“I’m very excited because it is a lot of new stuff for me,” said Spengler.

“First of all I have never been in Australia, so I’m really looking forward to that. And, of course, I have never been to any racetrack in Australia – so there are a lot of new things to learn. I have to learn the track and get to know the drivers.

“There are drivers who are very experienced over there and very experienced on this track. Because of that it will not be an easy one for me, but I’m very much looking forward to it.

“I have already been watching videos from the track on YouTube, from MotoGP of course. It seems to be an amazing track, and also there are the views we have over the ocean. It seems to be very, very special. I’m very excited about going there. It also seems to be a very technical track. It will definitely be something special for me.

“It’s fantastic to have a BMW DTM driver coming to race in Australia,” added BMW Group Australia CEO Marc Werner.

“BMW has enjoyed significant success since it has re-joined the DTM in 2012, with two titles from four seasons. It says a lot about our proud history of performance, and it’s nice to be a part of it with our motorsport programme here in Australia.

“Having two teams running the BMW M6 GT3 is excellent. It shows that there is a growing enthusiasm for GT3 racing, and that we’re very much a part of that.”

Familiar machinery

While Spengler spends most of his time in a DTM-spec M4, he says the shift to the GT3-spec M6 won’t be an issue thanks to his experience with the GTLM M6 at Daytona earlier this year.

"I don’t think it is a big problem to switch from the DTM car to the BMW M6 GT3,” explained Spengler.

“I really enjoy driving the BMW M6 GT3 and also the GTLM version, which I drove in the US at the beginning of the season. It is a great car to drive and looks very aggressive. I can adapt to it very quickly.

“What I like is that I will drive in three race weekends one after each other. For sure it will be tough and tiring with the jetlag, but I’m looking forward to it because it reminds me a little bit of my karting times. I’ve had a DTM race, now a GT race in Australia, and a DTM race again right after that. That will be fun. I like it.”