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BMW Team RLL Ready for 2014 12 Hours of Sebring

Over the years, the 12 Hours of Sebring race saw some pretty amazing BMW cars write history over and over again. Starting back in the 1970s with the Batmobile (BMW 3.0CSL) and to more recent years with the E92 M3 GT and Z4 GTE, Bimmers have been known to dominate the track in more than one way.
BMW Z4 GTE 1 photo
Photo: BMW Motorsport
This year’s race will be marking the 62nd time teams and drivers from all over the world gather for this endurance run, BMW Team RLL included, of course. However, some teams had the privilege to run in other competitions so far, like the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship that merged the GRAND-AM and ALMS championships.

The RLL Z4 cars managed to claim the second and fourth position at the Rolex 24 in Daytona in the aforementioned competition, giving the drivers a confidence boost before Sebring.

Before the 12hr marathon can start, the team ran a couple of test days on the famous 3.74 mile, 17-turn famous track to allow drivers Andy Priaulx and Dirk Werner to get to know it and make adjustments to the vehicle.

The data recorded and the regulations said that the new racer has to add 15 kilograms of weight and remove 10 liters of fuel for the endurance classic, hoping to get the sixth podium finish in the BMW Team RLL history, out of which 2 were back to back wins in 2011 and 2012.

“Last year, even though we didn’t finish well we were relatively competitive. Obviously we know a lot more about the Z4 one year later so my hope is that we will be back on the podium” said Bobby Rahal, Team Principal.

“We have great drivers -- as good as or better than anybody else and, as was seen last year, we were right there from the start but it’s always a tough race. From a reliability stand point, we learned some things at Daytona that will help us at Sebring. Sebring is all about reliability,” he added.

Of course, the focus will be on Andy Priaulx, the Brit joining the team after competing in the DTM last year and having a disappointing run. Adjusting to the Z4 GTE instead of the DTM M3 shouldn’t be a big problem for the experienced, triple WTCC champion as the two are pretty similar overall. The fact that he got to race in Daytona before this race is definitely a plus.

“Sebring will be a different challenge for us compared to Daytona. I imagine the race to be more intense, with at least 60 cars on track. I am very happy with our testing preparations and the car set up is in the ball park. We just need to see how competitive we are compared to the others. I hope we can have a faultless race and be in with a chance,” Andy said.

The race will start on Saturday, March 15, at exactly 10:15 ET and you can watch it on twitter, following @BMWUSARacing or on Fox Sports 1.
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