Throwback Thursday: Brumos Wins The Rolex 24 In A BMW

BMW Motorsport made its first serious American effort in 1975, following up a solid opening 12 hours in the Rolex 24 At Daytona with a victory in the Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Sharing a white BMW CSL trimmed with blue, violet and red stripes taken from BMW Motorsport’s corporate logo, Brian Redman, Hans Stuck, Sam Posey and Allan Moffat led a parade of Porsches and Ferraris to the finish line at Sebring.

That performance certainly captured the attention of Peter Gregg – who was the overall winner of the 1975 Rolex 24 in the No. 59 Brumos Porsche 911 Carrera RSR.In fact, the long-time Porsche campaigner entered the 1976 event in a new BMW CSL, and teamed with Brian Redman to co-drive the car carrying Brumos’ familiar No. 59.“What was so special is that it was only the second year that BMW Motorsport had been in operation,” Redman said. “It was a tremendous effort, and the reason they came racing here is that most Americans thought BMW stood for British Motor Works – which they eventually bought. It was interesting in that my co-driver, Peter Gregg, who was from Jacksonville – not far from Daytona – was a Porsche and Mercedes dealer and he eventually became a BMW dealer.”The car did not carry the Brumos paint scheme, though. The white car was trimmed with the tri-colored blue, violet and pink stripes from the BMW logo.Redman promptly put the car on the pole – although the next morning’s newspaper proclaimed “Gregg Wins Pole” in deference to the Jacksonville driver. Gregg and Redman dominated the race from the drop of the green flag. By midnight, BMWs were running 1-2-3, with the Gregg/Redman car followed by the factory cars of John Fitzpatrick/Tom Walkinshaw and defending Daytona 500 winner Benny Parsons and David Hobbs.During the night, Gregg took ill, with Fitzpatrick driving a stint in the car as Redman drove most of the remaining distance. In the early morning Redman – along with the other competitors – got an unexpected break when water in the fueling rigs led to many of the cars breaking down. The red flag brought a two hour, 40 minute stoppage as a new fuel truck was dispatched from Jacksonville – 90 miles north of Daytona Beach. IMSA reverted the scoring back to the 18-hour mark, putting the Gregg/Redman BMW in the lead with 500 laps completed. This was a major break for the team, as they had completed only 507 laps when the red flag waved at 10:10 a.m.“The car broke down three times, and we went from being in the lead to being well behind when they stopped the race,” Redman said. “But when they turned it back to when the water first appeared in the fuel, we were back in the lead.”The remaining two hours and 10 minutes appeared to be anticlimactic, with Redman cruising to a 14-lap victory over the Porsche 911 Carrera RSR of Al Holbert and Claude Ballot-Lena. But that was not exactly the case. “At about five in the morning, a valve broke and it went down to running on five cylinders,” Redman recalled. “But even on five cylinders, driving it hard – using 9,000 RPM – we were faster than the Porsche RSRs and even Greenwood’s Corvette. Then with about 40 minutes to go, it started raining and I spun in Turn 1. The windshield was shot-blasted, and I couldn’t see a thing. I came into the pits, and team manager Jochen Neerpasch said in an accusing tone of voice, ‘Brian, you spun in Turn 1.’ I explained what happened, they replaced the windshield, and we went on for a great win.”At that point, Redman was wiped out. He went back to the hotel and fell asleep in the bath tub, missing the team’s victory celebration.“When I apologized to Jochen Neerpasch the next morning, he said, ‘It doesn’t matter. Peter Gregg gave a fantastic speech in which he thanked all the German mechanics personally, by name, in German.’“For all of these reasons, 1976 was a major, major win,” Redman added. “The engineering and the effort that went into winning in 1976 was really fantastic. Of my three victories in the Rolex 24, it was the best one for me.”