Winning BMW Le Mans Team @ Mosport
24 June 1999
BMW RESUMES ENGAGEMENT IN THE AMERICAN LE MANS SERIES ON JUNE 27 Le Mans winner on the starting grid in Canada The winners of Le Mans will have no time to rest on their well-earned laurels: the next race in the program is already set to take place on 27 June. BMW Motorsport is entering two BMW V12 LMR in the third round of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) in Mosport Park, Canada. The race on the 3.957 kilometer long track in the province of Ontario, lasts two hours and 45 minutes. Bill Auberlen (USA) and Joachim Winkelhock (Germany) as well as JJ Lehto (FIN) and Jörg Müller will share the cockpits of the two BMW V12 LMR. Gerhard Berger: "We are off to do it again in America" The race in Mosport will be the second BMW engagement in the ALMS. The first round of the new series was the 12-Hour Race in Sebring in Florida in March, where Tom Kristensen /JJ Lehto/Jörg Müller took the victory in the new BMW V12 LMR, marking an impressive debut for the car. "The win in Sebring motivated us tremendously for Le Mans", says Motorsport Director Gerhard Berger. "The 24-Hours of Le Mans have further perfected the way the team and the technology work together. We know what we can achieve and we want to prove that again in America." The preparation of the two BMW V12 LMR for the race in Canada had already begun in Le Mans. Team Manager Charly Lamm comments: "The winning car was effectively still warm, as we began getting it ready for the trip." BMW driver Stuck: "One needs guts on this track" Hans-Joachim Stuck will also be meeting his next ALMS challenge at Mosport Park, following his GT victory at Lime Rock. He will be driving a BMW M3 in the GT category and will share the car with a new partner in Canada: the German driver Christian Menzel, who was a BMW works driver in 1997 and 1998, will be substituting for Boris Said. Hans-Joachim Stuck set a lap record, unbroken to date, in Mosport in 1985 at the wheel of a Porsche 962 and knows his way around there. "It is an uneven circuit in the old American style," he explains. "You need guts, especially for the fast corners, because you often can't see the apex or the end of the curve."