Woodcliff Lake, N.J. – September 16, 2023 . . . Tomorrow’s TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will see the BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 racing cars start from the sixth and seventh GTP class positions. Philipp Eng qualified the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 in the sixth starting position with a 1:14.170-minute lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course. Eng will co-drive with Augusto Farfus. Only 0.003 seconds behind his teammate, Nick Yelloly qualified the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 in the seventh starting spot. He will co-drive with Connor De Phillippi. Both BMWs qualified within one-half second of the pole winning Porsche 963 and the entire 10-car GTP field set times within one second of the pole. The two-hour-and-forty-minute race, the first IMSA event at the Speedway since 2014, is the penultimate round of the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Yesterdays’ practice session saw the two BMW M Hybrid V8 cars finish the in the fourth (No. 25, De Phillippi, 1:15.629) and fifth (No. 24, Eng, 1:15.702) positions. This morning’s practice ended with Eng third (1:14.550) and Yelloly fourth (1:14.562), both BMWs less than one-half second behind the class leader. So far this year the team has scored a win (Watkins Glen), two runner-up finishes (Sebring and Long Beach), and a third-place finish (CTMP) with the No. 25 car of Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly (co-driven at Sebring with Sheldon van der Linde.) De Phillippi and Yelloly stand third in GTP driver point standings. Augusto Farfus and Philipp Eng stand eighth in driver points, with a season’s-best fourth-place finish (Long Beach) in the No. 24 car. Philipp Eng, driver No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 (P6): “This is my first time racing at Indy and it has been very exciting. Qualifying was tight. It is crazy that Nick and I are within three-thousands of a second. A tenth-of-a-second faster would have been a top-five spot. The car behaved well, and I am optimistic for a good result tomorrow. That will be up to traffic management with all the other GTD, LMP3, and LMP2 cars on track. A large field is cool for the spectators, but very demanding for the drivers.” Nick Yelloly, driver No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 (P7): “We maximized what we had today, but we were aiming for better than sixth and seventh. We didn’t have quite enough pace today, but we’ll see what we can find this evening with the engineers. For tomorrow’s race, it’s all about staying in the game and being clever with traffic.” In the GT Daytona class, Madison Snow qualified the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 in a very familiar position – first. His 1:23.075-minute lap will lead the 17-car GTD field to the green tomorrow as Snow and co-driver Bryan Sellers, the GTD championship point leaders, look for the duo’s sixth victory of the season. Patrick Gallagher also had a good qualifying session, driving the No. 96 LIQUI-MOLY BMW, he will co-drive with Robby Foley from the third starting spot (1:23.657). Chandler Hull qualified the No. 97 McIntosh BMW M4 GT3 in the 11th position (1:24.264). He will co-drive with Bill Auberlen. The two-hour-and-forty-minute TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks race will be televised live on NBC beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET on Sept. 17th.BMW Group in America BMW of North America, LLC has been present in the United States since 1975. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC began distributing vehicles in 2003. The BMW Group in the United States has grown to include marketing, sales, and financial service organizations for the BMW brand of motor vehicles, including motorcycles, the MINI brand, and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars; Designworks, a strategic design consultancy based in California; a technology office in Silicon Valley and various other operations throughout the country. BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC in South Carolina is the BMW Group global center of competence for BMW X models and manufactures the X3, X4, X5, X6 and X7 Sports Activity Vehicles as well as the BMW XM. The BMW Group sales organization is represented in the U.S. through networks of 350 BMW passenger car and BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers,146 BMW motorcycle retailers, 104 MINI passenger car dealers, and 38 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers. BMW (US) Holding Corp., the BMW Group’s sales headquarters for North America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. Rahal Letterman Lanigan RacingBMW’s partner, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, based in Zionsville, Indiana and co-owned by three-time INDYCAR Champion and 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal, former CBS Late Show host David Letterman and Mi-Jack co-owner Mike Lanigan, has been competing for over three decades. Prior to the start of their 32nd season of competition in 2023 and their 15th with BMW, the team had compiled 54 victories, 67 poles, 225 podium finishes, three series championships (1992, 2010, 2011), claimed two Indianapolis 500 victories (Buddy Rice in 2004, Takuma Sato in 2020) and two Rolex 24 at Daytona victories. In 2009 the team joined BMW of North America to campaign the new BMW M3 in the American Le Mans Series. The following year the team won both the Manufacturer and Team Championships in the GT category and swept all three GT titles – Manufacturer, Team, and Driver – in 2011. In 2012, the team finished second in the Team Championship and third in the Manufacturer Championship and in 2013, the team finished second in the Driver, Team, and Manufacturer Championship. From 2014 to 2021, BMW Team RLL competed in the GTLM class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with a two-car program. In 2022, BMW M Team RLL competed in the GTD PRO class in IMSA while simultaneously ramping up for a two-car program in the much-anticipated GTP class in IMSA for 2023. In total, the team has earned 22 wins – including the 2019 and 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona endurance races, 30 poles and 96 podium finishes prior to the start of the 2023 season. BMW M Team RLL highlights also include second place finishes in the Manufacturer, Team, and Driver championships in 2015 and 2017 and being named the 2020 Michelin North American Endurance Champions. Journalist note: Information about BMW Group and its products in the USA is available to journalists on-line at www.bmwusanews.com and www.press.bmwgroup.com/usa. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BMWUSARacing and https://twitter.com/BMWMotorsportInstagram: www.instagram.com/bmwmotorsportFacebook: www.facebook.com/BMWMotorsport/
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