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BMW V12 on Podium and 2001 M3 Debut at Sebring

19 March 2000

          SEBRING, Fla. (March 19, 2000) -- BMW continued its
streak of podium appearances in the American Le Mans Series,
when J.J. Lehto and Jorg Muller drove the No. 42 BMW V12 LMR
to a third-place finish in the Superflo 12 Hours at Sebring.  The
1999 race-winning car started fifth and moved up to lead the race
five times for a total of 45 laps.  The No. 43 BMW, driven by Bill
Auberlen, Jean-Marc Gounon and Steve Soper, started sixth and
finished fourth.
          BMW Team PTG had a challenging race week after
introducing its 2001 BMW M3 at Sebring, but gained valuable
track data that indicates a bright future for the car.  The new No. 6
M3, driven by Boris Said of Carlsbad, Calif., Hans Stuck of Austria
and Johannes van Overbeek of Danville, Calif., started eighth in
the GT class and finished 14th.  The team's updated No. 10 M3,
driven by Brian Cunningham of Danville, Ky., Peter Cunningham of
West Bend, Wis., and Darren Law of Phoenix, started fifth and
finished 15th.
          Both cars experienced mechanical difficulties during the
grueling 12-hour race on the 3.7-mile Sebring road course.  After
a strong early performance, the No. 10 M3 retired after five hours
of the race when the engine failed.  The No. 6 car was hampered
by rear-axle problems, and ultimately retired after 7.5 hours.
          Tom Salkowsky, motorsport manager for BMW of North
America, Inc., acknowledged the strength of the rival Porsche
teams.  "You've got to give credit to the competitors in the group. 
The wind was blowing in their direction," he said.
          But despite a frustrating race, he was excited about the
BMW M3's potential.  "We still have some development work on
the [No.] 6 car, but on the bright side of things, it really gave us an
opportunity to run it for over seven hours on a course like Sebring
that really beats up the team and the cars," he said.  "Many teams
take three, six months or a year to develop a car before they bring
it to the race track.  This is a car that we developed very quickly
and it's out many, many months before the production M3."
          BMW Team PTG owner Tom Milner agreed:  "This obviously
wasn't one of our best Sebring races; we won this race in 1997
and 1998.  I think this new car performed well.  We still have some
teething problems with it, which we have to sort out, but in general
it was a good test for us."
          Peter Cunningham noted the major improvement in the No.
10 M3's performance.  "The BMW Team PTG M3 has never
performed better, never handled better or worked this consistently
throughout a tank of gas," he said.  "It's a tribute to the guys who
put in a lot of effort to update this car and have it here.  It's just a
huge disappointment for our whole team to have this happen.  But
for sure, that's racing, and this is Sebring."
          Team-mate Stuck is also optimistic.  "The last [driving] stint
was a pretty interesting one," he said.  "We had some not-
expected changes with the chassis which, in my opinion, made
the car a little bit better than it was all week long.  We have learned
a lot about the car, we made progress and now let's look forward
for the next race."
          BMW Team PTG's next race will be the American Le Mans
Series Grand Prix of Charlotte at Lowe's Motor Speedway on
Saturday, April 1.  The race is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET.  It
will be telecast live on NBC from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET.