BMW Motorsport faces the 24 Hours of Spa with a great objective, to achieve its 25th victory in the Belgian event. And it does so in the debut of the new BMW M4 GT3 in the star round of the GT World Challenge Europe and the Intercontinental GT Challenge. For that end, the Munich firm will have up to five units of its new GT3 under the management of three trusted structures such as ROWE Racing, Walkenhorst Motorsport and ST Racing. Yes indeed, the proposal of each of the teams is very differentwhich allows BMW to cover different fronts.
ROWE Racing is the great bet of BMW Motorsport to fight for the absolute victory in the 24 Hours of Spa. The team will field two BMW M4 GT3s in the Pro class, one of them under the BMW Junior Team banner. The first of the team cars is the #98 in which Augusto Farfus, Nick Yelloly and Nicky Catsburg will compete. For its part, the BMW Junior Team competes with the #50 and a young driver line-up of Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Neil Verhagen.
As with ROWE, the Walkenhorst Motorsport team knows what it’s like to achieve overall victory in the 24 Hours of Spa. The formation conquered the victory in 2018, although on this occasion its objectives seem to be different. In fact, the two BMW M4 GT3s of the German structure will compete for victory in the Gold Cup and the Bronze Cup. #34 will fight for the victory in the new Gold Cup in which the Americans Richard Heistand, Michael Dinan, Robby Foley and the German Jens Klingmann compete. In #35, for the Bronze Cup, Henry Walkenhorst, Donald Yount, Jörg Breuer and Theo Oeverhaus will fight.
The experience will be totally different for Samantha Tan’s team, known as ST Racing. The formation faces its first participation in the 24 Hours of Spa with the fifth and last BMW M4 GT3. Samantha Tan herself will be in charge of the operations in a project in which will feature Nick Wittmer, Harry Gottsacker and Maxime Oosten as teammates. In this case, the car is framed in the Silver Cup, opening the range of action of BMW within the subcategories of the test.
Andreas Rooshead of BMW Motorsport, has pointed out: “Spa marks the next major 24-hour debut for the new BMW M4 GT3. With a participation of more than 60 GT3 cars, this race is a great challenge. We have an outstanding record in this classic. ROWE Racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport are the last two BMW teams to win there and they will be back with us. Since the 24 Hours of Nürburgring we have worked hard to improve the car and make it more stable.
Photos: GT World Challenge Europe