derBayerische May/June 2022 - 26

T H E 2 0 2 2 R O L E X 2 4 A T D A Y T O N A
giving the car more power. Power is
what the car clearly needs.
I'm not going to try to go
■ The #25 BMW Team RLL M4 GT3 at night.
the Corvette were new to GT3. Both
cars seemed to struggle at the ROAR
and didn't qualify as well as they
would have liked. The Rahal BMWs
were 12th and 13th out of 13 in
GTDPRO with the Corvettes only
slightly better at 8th & 9th. The
Turner M4 finished the ROAR 20th
in GTD, classified as Not Running.
They had a better lap time than the
RLL cars but did not finish.
Throughout the weekend the Turner
car was slightly faster than either of
the BMW M Team RLL cars.
Qualifying for a 24-hour race is not
so important, but it does suggest
some weaknesses. The M4s and
the Corvettes were given BoP
adjustments after the ROAR. Both
had weight added. The BMWs were
given 10 additional kg (1340 kg
total weight) and the Corvette 15 kg
(for a total weight of 1335 kg). The
Corvette was given a +8.0-degree
■ It was a victory to have both cars finish the full 24 Hours.
wing angle, while the BMW a -2.2degree
wing angle. Since the BMW
had a previous 0.0-degree wing
angle, this meant that the wing
would create lift at high speed.
Talking with team people, this
should allow for an improvement in
top speed, but it would also reduce
downforce and make the car a handful
at the same time. IMSA was
searching for an adjustment to give
the M4 better top speed without
through the 24-hour race in detail.
This was the first outing for the M4
GT3. The car will need further
adjustments to be on par with the
competition. The cars seemed to
run in about the 9th to 11th place for
much of the race. The Turner
Motorsport car was in a similar
position, but eventually dropped out
due to contact with another car.
Although many testing miles were
accumulated for the M4 GT3 by
BMW Motorsport, the BMW M
Team RLL cars both encountered
diffuser failures and had to spend
extensive time in the garage being
repaired. So, true race conditions
revealed something that hadn't been
seen during any of the previous
testing miles. The cars hit the
curbing pretty hard going through
what's known as the bus stop, so
this may have caused the diffuser to
come loose.
The result was 7th and 9th
place finishes for the BMWs, many
laps down after the diffuser repairs
to both cars. They did make it to the
end of the race, so that's a positive
accomplishment, but they found
areas where they must improve, and
they were about 1 second off the
pace. Sportscar 365 quoted BMW
driver, John Edwards; " We did not
have the necessary pace, and then
came the issues with the diffuser. "
They still felt like they got good
points and they are hoping to get a
step up for Sebring.
Despite struggles for performance
on the track, the Daytona 24
Hours was a great trip. For 2022 we
had the new M4 GT3 and a great
driver lineup from BMW. BMW
CCA and BMW North America conducted
a BMW Corral which is
always excellent. The race cars did
encounter problems, but the team
pressed on regardless and made it
to the end. The weather wasn't
great; it was very cold particularly
for Florida. We knew it would be
cold before we made the trip south,
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