Los Angeles – April 17, 2010… The BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team M3 GT Coupes finished 3rd and 5th in Saturday’s American Le Mans at Long Beach event. In a 100-minute action-packed sprint slowed by three caution periods, BMW drivers Bill Auberlen and Tommy Milner brought the No. 92 M3 home in 3rd place with 65 laps completed, 5.4 seconds behind the GT class leader. Dirk Mϋller and Joey Hand finished the race with the No. 90 M3 in 5th position.

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Sebring , Fla. – March 21, 2010, 1:00 AM Eastern Time… The BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team proved JOY IS BMW with a double-podium class finish for the BMW M3 GT Coupes in yesterday’s 58th annual American Le Mans Series 12 Hours of Sebring.

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Well, I’m sitting here at gate C11 at Dulles Airport on my way to Sebring for the Round 1 of the 2010 ALMS season. I’ve spent the last few days rewatching races from 2009. With the racing seasons starting up around the world now, this last week has gotten me more and more amped for my season to start.

In reality, my season started back in January when RLR loaded up two of our ALMS BMW M3 GT cars to put the car through a 12 Hour sim in preparation for the season and for Sebring. That was Sebring part 1 for me. I’ve been back to Sebring two more times since then and am en route to visit number four. IAD – MCO. I’ve perfected the art of falling asleep on take off and waking up on descent for this flight at this point.

Sebring round 2 was for the Winter Test with the other ALMS cars. A successful test on all counts. I’m codriving with Bill Auberlen this year, a guy I watched dominate US sports car racing for a number of years with my dad’s PTG team. Really, any of the three teammates I have on this team would make great driving partners. The test was spent playing with setups and getting a feel for the new tires from Dunlop we have this year. I think the 92 car with Bill, Dirk Werner, and myself ended the two day test 2nd quickest behind the new 2010 Risi Ferrari.

Round 3 was a quick trip down to the HSR event to coach a great guy, Mickey Mills, who has a beast of an E46 M3. Big 3.4l S54 with 480 some horsepower from Chris Fletcher, a former PTG employee. The car has an XTrac sequential gearbox, traction control, abs, weighs 2600lbs. It’s fast and a lot of fun to drive.

Mickey's Beast

I got to watch the last bit of the F1 race on my laptop at the airport here thanks to the internet connection on my phone.

F1 back in action!

Anyways, looking forward to 2010. I’ve got some fun stuff scheduled for this year racing and some other balls in the air to make 2010 as busy as possible. Plus, Summit Point has a kart track now and my aging shifter got a nice refresher this off season.

Later…

Woodcliff Lake , N.J. – February 22, 2010… Today, the BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team began the 2010 American Le Mans season with a new livery on both BMW M3 racing cars, helping to tell BMW’s worldwide Story of Joy.  The 2010 BMW M3 GT debuted at the traditional pre-season ALMS Winter Test in Sebring, Florida. The new livery features words and phrases emblematic of the spirit of the campaign, which was launched in North America on February 12th during coverage of the Opening Ceremony of the XXI Winter Olympic Games.

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Woodcliff Lake , N.J. – December 3, 2009… BMW of North America announced today that it has signed Bill Auberlen, Joey Hand, Tommy Milner and Dirk Müller to drive for the BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team in the 2010 American Le Mans Series. This will be the second season of competition for the Hilliard, Ohio-based team.

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Eddie Money’s – Gimme Some Water doesn’t necessarily apply in this case.

In this Le Mans break, I’ve been looking for anything and everything to keep me occupied while I wait for the next ALMS round at Lime Rock Park on July 16-17-18. When I was offered media passes to go check out the Formula Drift guys from Rod at EA and SpeedHunters.com, I couldn’t turn them down. I know what drifting is, I’m a car guy, and my experience is limited to watching videos on the internet (like SpeedHunters) and some local events at Hyperfest at Summit Point. The drivers and cars at this event were at another level. I can imagine it would be the same experience for someone who has only seen local club racing and then goes to an American Le Mans Series race.

The on track activities were canceled due to weather on Friday. Normally, they run in the wet but because the nature of the track at Wall Speedway, which is normally a short track oval, there were some huge puddles on the infield. I was surprised to hear they run in the wet since I would expect there wouldn’t be nearly as much smoke as normal, which is all part of the show. It’s cool to hear that they run in the wet. Adds that extra dimension for the drivers.

495's Parking Lot

This is what I drove with on my helmet for Thursday practice. Why? Keep an eye out for Need for Speed SHIFT which comes out in September. I had a lot of fun with the guys and girls from EA, trying to give a little glimpse into how little I have to work, I mean how hard I work, during a race weekend…

Also went down to Huntington Beach with some buddies from BBI Autosport and I’m second guessing my choice of home at the moment. The weather, the beach, and the babes make it pretty much heaven.

Another street race, another podium! I’ll take it every time. We had a strong race. I started the race, ran 3rd half of my stint and 2nd for the last bit. I drove a little over an hour of the race and then pitted at the end of our window to get Dirk in and let him finish the last 30 minutes. The 62 Ferrari had gotten by in the last two laps of my stint after having qualified on pole and then getting sent to the back of the pack and that’s how it finished. 45, 62, 92. A few hairy moments in traffic, a few bumps from a Porsche from behind who felt it necessary to hit me in T1 which is not where you want to hit someone. The brakes on his Porsche clearly not as good as those on my BMW. It wouldn’t be a street race if you didn’t have a few pucker moments.

At any other track, I’d almost say that this one was boring, but Long Beach – Street Track – Awesome Atmosphere, I still had an awesome time. Finishing 3rd helps but this year Long Beach was even more of an event. The crowds were heavy on Friday in the ALMS paddock and it was even bigger on Saturday.

I’m sitting in a hotel in Tooele, Utah at the moment getting ready for some testing here at Miller in advance of the race in a few weeks.

Here is a little recap of some of the action from my first World-Challenge GT race last year in the RLR Aston Martin DBRS9 in it’s debut race. Not only was it the best qualifying spot for Aston Martin in WCGT, it was also the best finish. I’ll upload some more in-car in the future.