derBayerische July /August 2022 - 25

S E B R I N G 1 2 H O U R S 2 0 2 2
Drivers for BMW were, BMW M Team
RLL #24: Nick Yelloly, Philip Eng &
Marco Wittmann, #25: #Augusto
Farfus, Connor De Phillippi & John
Edwards all familiar names and a
very strong lineup.
At Turner Motorsports, in car
#96, the drivers were Bill Auberlen,
Robby Foley and Michael Dinan.
Of special note was the fact that Bill
Auberlen started his 500th race for
BMW, another special accolade in his
career with BMW. We are also
ran the factory program for the E46
M3. Madison Snow has been codriving
with Bryan Sellers and Paul
Miller Racing on and off for some
time. After IMSA planned to raise his
drivers rating to gold, which would
have meant that he would have been
unable to team with Sellers in GTD,
Snow chose to end his racing career
and sat out the 2019 season. When
IMSA moved his rating back to silver,
Snow returned to Paul Miller Racing.
Erik Johansson came from the BMW
Remember, the GTD & GTD Pro cars
are identical. The only difference is
the drivers.
In qualifying, a red flag brought
on by the stalled on-track #44 Aston
Martin, meant that the 15-minute
session would become just a fiveminute
session. In the rush to qualify,
the Turner #96, driven by Robby
Foley, ended up second in the grid in
GTD with a time of just under two
minutes. The Paul Miller #1 car and
Madison Snow wound up 4th in GTD
also just under two minutes. Both
BMW M Team RLL cars found themselves
gridded in seventh and eighth
places in GTD Pro with lap times at
just over two2 minutes, with the #24
each class. Weather was looking to
be hot and sunny with temperatures
around 90 degrees and always the
chance of Florida rain showers.
At the start, Robby Foley took
the lead from the #16 Zach Robichon
Porsche getting the pass completed
before turn one with Madison Snow
in third. The two RLL BMWs began
to move up the order towards the
front in GTD Pro with the #62 Ferrari
leading. Before the race had spanned
15 minutes, the #16 Porsche had
gone to the pits and behind the wall
leaving the two M4s in first and second
place,with the Paul Miller car just
behind the Turner car. It's obviously a
long race but it was special to see
■ (Left and Below) Paul Miller M4 GT3 GTD entry. It showed good speed.
pleased to welcome Paul Miller
Racing to the BMW racing community
with drivers of the #1 car: Bryan
Sellers, Madison Snow and Erik
Johansson. The Paul Miller Racing
team has been fielding Lamborghinis
the last few years finishing second in
the GTD championship in 2021.
They know how to compete.
Bryan Sellers has BMW on his
resume having driven for BMW
previously with the Prototype
Technology Group (PTG) when they
July I August
Junior Driver program in 2019 to be
named a BMW Works Driver in 2020.
After the strong practice sessions,
qualifying was expected to be
positive for the BMWs. The BMWs
and Ferraris had dominated the practices
causing IMSA to give Corvette a
" mid-event BoP change " 40 minutes
prior to the last practice session to
" maintain competitive equivalency. "
The adjustment was a 1mm restrictor
enlargement which was estimated to
give them 20 additional horsepower.
ahead of the #25. Nick Yelloly felt he
would have also gotten below two
minutes with some additional time.
For a 12-hour race, qualifying is not
especially important and the drivers
were still very optimistic.
The entry for the Sebring 12
Hours was a good one with 53 cars
spread across the three prototype
classes and the two GT classes. In
GT there were 28 cars, 11 in GTD Pro
and 17 in GTD. We were pleased to
have four BMWs to follow, a pair in
them running well. Before the race
was 30 minutes old both RLL cars
had come into the top five from
seventh and eighth.
The M4s continued to move
towards the front as we got to the
one-hour mark. Of significance was
the Corvette with its 20 HP power
increase at the front of GT and was
showing a speed improvement.
As we got to two-hour mark, the #25
car unfortunately developed a power
steering problem dropping them back
25
derBayerische July /August 2022

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