Struggle. That’s the word that best describes what BMW M Team RLL has experienced this IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season prior to the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks six-hour race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Not a single podium finish for either M Hybrid V8 through the first seven races.
But what a way to break that streak.
In a week that saw the RLL offices in nearby Zionsville searched by the FBI over suspected allegations of intellectual property theft on the IndyCar side of the team, the one-two finish of Philipp Eng and Jesse Krohn leading Nick Yelloly and Connor De Phillippi to the checker for the team’s first on-track victory was a welcome relief.
“I have to tell you, given all the craziness of this week, this may rank as our greatest victory as a team,” declared team owner Bobby Rahal, who said it’s perhaps only eclipsed by his own Indianapolis 500 win in 1986. “You know, I’m so pleased for these guys who have done a great job.
“Our relationship with BMW Motorsport … these people work night and day just as we do as a team to try to get us to this position that we achieved today. I’m just so thrilled for everyone in our team and at BMW Motorsport because it’s been a tough year in a lot of respects.”
In the inaugural year of the new era of Grand Touring Prototype and the LMDh formula, the team found the podium five times with the No. 25, and De Phillippi and Yelloly finished second at Watkins Glen, putting them in position to be declared winners when the first-on-track Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 was moved to the back for excessive skid plank wear. Until Sunday, the No. 24 squad had never scored a top-three finish.
“Last year, we had a number of podiums, and I don’t know, maybe we thought it’s a little easier than it is. This year, it’s been more difficult. And to do it today … none of our competitors really had any problems and yet we were able to succeed.”
BMW M Team RLL executed the ideal endurance racing strategy – survive, make sure you’re in the top five going into the final stint, and have the pace to execute. And while they may not have had the quickest cars, they were good over a long run.
The final caution period that came with 1h15m left in the race reset any strategy at play. Every team that still had a shot at victory was in a similar boat in terms of energy. There was enough to make it the end, but not going flat out. The BMWs had made their last stops with 1h6m to go, while some of the c ars behind them had made a stop later in the caution period and were in a slightly better situation. The final stint had 55m of green-flag running.
But the BMW’s had enough pace under those circumstances to get to the front after restarting second (25) and third (24). Eng in the 24 went past teammate De Phillippi shortly after the restart when De Phillippi got balked in traffic heading onto the front straight. Eng then passed Louis Delétraz in the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 in a textbook case of studying the opponent and finding a weakness. De Phillippi followed shortly thereafter.
Neither Delétraz nor Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 PPM 963 had much to attack the BMWs with, and the two M Hybrid V8s sailed jubilantly under the checker.