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Petit LeMans - Results

19 September 1999

Panoz 1st, BMW 2nd & 3rd 

Munich/Atlanta. The BMW V12 Le Mans Roadster no. 43 of Bill Auberlen (USA),
Steve Soper (GB) and Joachim Winkelhock (D) brought home the best result
for BMW by finishing second at the 1.000 miles race "Petit Le Mans" in Road
Atlanta. The win went to the Panoz drivers David Brabham (GB), Eric Bernard
(F) and Andy Wallace (GB). Until just five laps before the chequered flag
dropped the BMW V12 LMR no. 42 of JJ Lehto (FIN) and Jörg Müller (D) had
been in the lead for most of the distance, but Müller spun off the track,
got stuck in the gravel and finally came third.

In the GT class BMW also celebrated second place, achieved by works driver
Hans-Joachim Stuck and Boris Said at the wheel of a BMW Team PTG's M3. 

BMW Team Manager Charly Lamm: "The race was a thriller, in which we had to
overcome a lot of difficult situations. We had the power to win today - due
to two excellent BMW cars and a strong driver team. The race of our car #42
was a real nightmare: after one hour we had no more radio contact and later
lost telemetry. This made serious strategy work impossible. Still, our
drivers fought back into the lead until Jörg spun off. About car #43 I have
to say that all three drivers showed enthusiastic performance by making no
mistakes. They closed up after they had lost a lot of time during an early
pit stop."           

Bill Auberlen #43: "I pushed like hell and I want to thank my team mates
for doing a perfect job. Also the team's strategy with changing all four
tires every second stop and only the left rubber in between, paid off."

Steve Soper #43: "I am happy with our performance and that we achieved a
good result. I drove our car for most of the time, I started and finished
the race. All of us stayed for double stints in the car, it was a very hard
and demanding race on cars and drivers."

Joachim Winkelhock #43: "With 50 cars on a four kilometre long track the
traffic was the biggest challenge. I had a few moments when I could have
crashed easily."

JJ Lehto #42: "It was a great race on a challenging circuit which we could
have won by one lap or more. But today we weren't lucky."

Jörg Müller #42: "The car ran like a Swiss clockwork until I made this
mistake. I cannot say how sorry I feel."

Hans-Joachim Stuck #6 BMW M3: "This result is a very nice late wedding
present. We had a brilliant car and a very good race day."