BMW’s customer racing teams kept the trophies coming over the July race weekends, led by a key win for Jens Klingmann and Ugo de Wilde at Mugello. In Germany, Gabriele Piana and Benjamin Sylvestersson took over the ADAC GT4 Germany points lead, while the GT4 European Series delivered three class podiums at Misano. The BMW M4 GT3 EVO and M4 GT4 EVO also scored on the podium in Australia and Spain.
BMW M Motorsport says its customer teams showed little sign of a summer slowdown, collecting wins and podium finishes across several championships with the BMW M4 GT3 EVO and BMW M4 GT4 EVO. According to the manufacturer, the standout result came in the Italian GT Championship, where a Mugello victory pushed one of its crews back to the top of the standings.
A key win at Mugello
BMW M works driver Jens Klingmann and BMW Italia Ceccato Racing continued their title push in the Italian GT Championship at the third Sprint Cup round of the season (24–26 July). Sharing the #7 BMW M4 GT3 EVO with fellow works driver Ugo de Wilde, Klingmann finished fifth on Saturday before winning Sunday’s race — enough to return BMW Italia Ceccato Racing to the championship lead.
“For us, Mugello was a very important weekend, a real key event,” Klingmann said. “On Sunday, we went all in with one clear objective: to win the race. The team did a fantastic job, and everything also went flawlessly with Ugo. Now the goal is to bring the championship home and secure the title for Ceccato Racing and BMW M Motorsport for the third time.”
Teammates Anthony McIntosh and Parker Thompson added a GT3 Pro-Am class win on Sunday in the #8 car after a third-in-class result on Saturday. In the concurrent GT4 Italy Series, Giacomo Maman and Gustavo Sandrucci of Casals Motorsport won both races in the #16 BMW M4 GT4 EVO for their third and fourth victories of the year, with further podiums for the #65 and the Promodrive #27 entry.
New championship leaders in Germany
At Oschersleben, FK Performance Motorsport’s Gabriele Piana and Benjamin Sylvestersson took third on Saturday and second on Sunday in the #51 BMW M4 GT4 EVO in the third round of ADAC GT4 Germany. The double podium moved the pair into the drivers’ standings lead at the season’s halfway point, holding a one-point advantage.
“Regaining the championship lead is a great result,” Sylvestersson said. “Our focus now shifts to the Nürburgring, where we want to build on this performance.”
FK Performance Motorsport sits second in the teams’ standings after six of twelve races. ME Motorsport also scored, with Linus Hahne and Phillip Wiskirchen narrowly missing the podium in the #77 car, while razoon – more than racing’s Michael Maniszewski and Daniel Drexel took a Pro-Am class win on Saturday and second in class on Sunday in the #10 entry.
Podiums at Misano and beyond
The GT4 European Series raced at Misano (17–19 July) in temperatures above 30°C. Thomi Rackl and Gabriele Piana narrowly missed a podium with fourth in race two aboard the Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport #12 car, but the model still scored three Pro-Am podiums: Joakim Walde and Victor Bouveng were second in race one in the #98 Schubert Motorsport entry, and Davide and Paolo Meloni took third in class in both races in the W&D Racing Team #53.
Elsewhere, Jay Murray finished third overall in race two of GT4 Australia at Darwin (24–26 July) in McElrea Racing’s #7 BMW M4 GT4 EVO, and Hubert Darmetko and Fabian Dybionka took a Pro-Am podium in the International GT Open at Le Castellet (17–18 July) with 4F PTT Racing Team’s #7 BMW M4 GT3 EVO.
What it means
With championship leads secured in both the Italian GT Championship and ADAC GT4 Germany at the season’s midpoint, BMW’s customer programme heads into the run-in well placed on multiple fronts. The Italian GT Sprint finale takes place at Monza, while the ADAC GT4 Germany season resumes at the Nürburgring.
Source: www.press.bmwgroup.com