Season finale at Road Atlanta.
The 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IWSC) will come to an end this weekend at Road Atlanta.
BMW Team RLL will finish its eighth consecutive year racing for BMW and the first season for the all-new BMW M6 GTLM at Petit Le Mans, near Braselton, Georgia.
The traditional ten-hour season-ender will see BMW Motorsport DTM driver Augusto Farfus rejoin Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner in the number 25 BMW M6 GTLM. Farfus, along with fellow DTM team-mate Bruno Spengler, drove to a fifth place finish in the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona, the inaugural race for the BMW M6 GTLM. Farfus also co-drove with Auberlen and Werner at last year’s Petit Le Mans to a fourth place finish. Kuno Wittmer will co-drive the number 100 BMW M6 GTLM with John Edwards and Lucas Luhr. Wittmer participated at Daytona and Sebring this season, joining the team for the balance of the races as reserve driver. Edwards, Luhr and Wittmer drove to a second place finish in last season’s Petit race.
The development year for the BMW M6 GTLM has resulted in three podium finishes to-date; a second at the 12 Hours of Sebring, a third at Watkins Glen and Road America to record the 60th podium finish for the team since 2009. Because of this, the team is out of the competition for any GTLM class titles, but Auberlen and Werner are currently tied for second place in the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup, the four-endurance race championship within the championship. The number 25 BMW M6 GTLM finished fifth at Daytona, second at Sebring and third at Watkins Glen. A strong finish at Petit could win Auberlen and Werner the TPEC drivers’ title.
The final race of this year’s IWSC season at Road Atlanta takes the green flag at 11:10hrs ET Saturday, 1st October.