ALMS Petit Le Mans final - BMW Motorsport

Race Saturday, final
Round 8, American Le Mans Series
6 October 2001, Braselton, Ga.


BMW triple championships in ALMS

Munich/Braselton.   BMW won three American Le Mans Series GT-class 
championships after collecting its seventh-consecutive Le Mans Series victory 
at the Petit Le Mans on the 2.54-mile Road Atlanta road course.  The win, 
sixth in North America, went to BMW Team PTG's trio of Hans Stuck (D), Boris 
Said (USA) and Bill Auberlen (USA) in the No. 6 BMW M3 GTR.  BMW Motorsport 
finished second with the No. 43 GTR driven by Jörg Müller (D) and Dirk Müller 
(D), and fourth with the No. 42 car of JJ Lehto (FIN), Fredrik Ekblom (S) and 
Karl Wendlinger (A).  One year after the announcement of the GTR at the 2000 
Petit Le Mans, the results gave BMW the ALMS GT manufacturer championship, 
BMW Motorsport the GT team title and Jörg Müller the class driver 
championship.

The No. 43 GTR led most of the second half of the 1000-mile race, but 
relinquished the lead after eight of the nine hours when a penalty was 
assessed for too many crew members working on the car during a pitstop.  The 
No. 42 car lost two laps during a pitstop after the seven-hour mark when the 
crew had to remove bodywork damaged by contact with a Porsche.

BMW Motorsport team manager Charly Lamm:  "It was a fantastic end to a 
fantastic year.  One year ago the decision was made to build and develop the 
BMW M3 GTR.  To think that one year after the project was decided, winning 
the manufacturer's title, the team title and the driver's title, you can 
imagine how happy we are.  Congratulations to Jörg for the driver 
championship, but there should be two drivers up there - JJ and Jörg drove 
nearly all the season together and they together scored most of the points, 
so congratulations also to JJ who also deserved the championship.  Thanks to 
Dirk and Fredrik and Karl who helped us to achieve this and to the crew who 
worked so hard for the year.  It's a fantastic reward for them."
 
JJ Lehto #42:  "At least one of us won the championship!  Jörg and Dirk did a 
good job.  They ran well, but unfortunately they got the penalty and didn't 
win the race but at least the championship was there.  Our race was so 
difficult, it just didn't go our way.  Even D-Day wouldn't be so difficult."
 
Fredrik Ekblom #42:  "It felt good until the steering was bent when we had a 
little get-together with the Porsche.  It was unfortunate that we had some 
things happen, and it wasn't our day, but you do what you can.  It was a good 
day for BMW and great for Jörg to win the championship, which was important." 

Karl Wendlinger #42:  "A lot of things happened in the race.  We touched the 
Porsche once and lost a little bit, and we had a misunderstanding when I went 
by the pits one time instead of coming in.  I think it was lack of 
experience, a little bit, that we lost some time."

Jörg Müller #43:  "We came here to win the championship.  We saved our car, 
we drove quite good on fuel consumption, we didn't have any contact the whole 
race.  I'm happy for the team, especially.  We had quite hard work at the 
beginning of the season with a brand-new car.  Atlanta doesn't seem to want 
me to win this race, but for sure I'm going to come back and try it again."
 
Dirk Müller #43:  "We were really ready to win this race and we had the car 
to win.  Unluckily, we got the penalty and that was really frustrating, 
waiting for 60 seconds in the pit lane and knowing the competitors were going 
by.  I'm disappointed because I wanted to give the victory to the team.  But 
BMW won, so congratulations to the team and to Jörg - at least a Müller won!"