BMW M Motorsport has collected wins and podiums across three continents in the space of two race weekends. Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg took a commanding victory in the GT World Challenge America at Road America, while Foley also stood on the IMSA podium at Virginia International Raceway. In Asia, Pacific Racing Team won the GT300 class of SUPER GT at Suzuka and Team KRC swept three class wins at Okayama.
BMW’s customer racing programme has had one of its strongest stretches of the 2026 season, with the BMW M4 GT3 EVO and BMW M4 GT4 EVO scoring on both sides of the world within a fortnight.
A double weekend in the United States
At Virginia International Raceway on 23 August, Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher finished second in the GTD class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO. The result lifts the pairing to second in the class standings with two rounds remaining, 36 points behind the leaders.
In GTD-PRO, Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen took fifth in the #1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO run by Paul Miller Racing, which was enough to keep them at the head of their category. Turner Motorsport also scored in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, where Luca Mars and Dillon Machavern brought the BMW M4 GT4 EVO home third.
The following weekend at Road America, Foley shared the #29 BMW M4 GT3 EVO with Justin Rothberg and won the three-hour GT World Challenge America powered by AWS race outright. It was the pair’s second win in their first season together in the Pro category, and they now sit second in the standings, four points off the lead.
Class results across the SRO America bill
The supporting GT4 America and GT America races brought further BMW results. Random Vandals Racing, Auto Technic Racing and Colorado Motorsport with Flying Lizard all reached the podium in their classes in GT4 America, with BMW M Racing Academy participant Josh Green third in the Silver category alongside Bruno Colombo on Saturday and fourth on Sunday. Craig Lumsden, who had already taken two Am podiums in GT4 America, won the GT4 class of GT America twice for Colorado Motorsport with Flying Lizard.
From privateer to works driver
Foley’s own career is the template the BMW M Racing Academy is built around: he first raced a BMW M Motorsport car as a privateer in 2018 and is now a works driver and a mentor on the programme, which is preparing to select its “Class of 2027”.
“I can really identify with the programme’s approach of supporting private drivers, because that’s exactly where I come from,” Foley says. “In a way, I’m the example of how you can make it from customer racing to works driver.”
He describes the season as a clear step up on 2025, with three podiums so far and only a win missing in IMSA. Competing in three championships at once means 30 to 35 weeks of travel a year, he says, helped by the two IMSA programmes running on the same weekends.
Wins in Japan
In the GT World Challenge Asia at Okayama on 28–30 August, Team KRC scored three class wins with its two BMW M4 GT3 EVOs. Maxime Oosten and Brian Lee won the Silver-Am class in both races and finished third overall in race two; Verhagen and Ruan Cunfan matched that overall result in the sister car in race one, good for a Pro-Am class win. PLUS with BMW M Team Studie took its first podium of the season with the BMW M4 GT3 EVO in its BLEACH livery.
A week earlier at Suzuka, Pacific Racing Team won the GT300 class of SUPER GT with the #9 BMW M4 GT3 EVO in the hands of Yusuke Tomibayashi and Yuta Fujiwara.
What it means
For BMW, the value of the run is that it came almost entirely from customer teams rather than a factory entry, across four separate GT3 and GT4 championships. Björn Lellmann, Head of Customer Racing at BMW M Motorsport, called the period “a great success story on both sides of the world”.
The IMSA WeatherTech title fight has two rounds left, while the GT World Challenge America championship remains open because double points are awarded at the Indianapolis 8 Hour.
Source: www.press.bmwgroup.com