IMSA: Luhr right at home with BMW at Watkins Glen

Coming off a second-place finish in last weekend’s 24-hour race at the legendary Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit in Germany, Lucas Luhr felt right at home at Watkins Glen International during a private this this week for BMW Team RLL.

Luhr was at the wheel of the No. 24 IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4 GTLM, preparing for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen on Sunday, June 28.The German driver enjoyed his visit to the New York Finger Lakes – which reminds him of the scenic Eifel Mountains, site of the Nurburgring circuit.“It’s no secret that the Nordschleife is my favorite circuit in the world, and Watkins Glen is like a mini version of it,” said the German driver. “Probably my favorite part is going up the Esses and the approach to the [Inner Loop]. It’s very, very quick and the highest part of the track. From there, you go down to the Boot. It has very beautiful surrounding countryside, kind of like the Eifel in Germany.”Luhr is coming off his first TUDOR Championship GT Le Mans victory as a BMW factory driver, winning the GTLM class at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with co-driver Dirk Werner. That was the second consecutive victory for the team, with Bill Auberlen and John Edwards winning at Long Beach in the team’s No. 25 IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4 GTLM.“The last win [at Mazda Raceway] was very special for me because it was my first as a BMW factory driver,” Luhr said. “But for me the most beautiful win is the next one – that’s what I’m aiming for.”Luhr is a former overall victor at The Glen, winning a 2012 Grand-Am Rolex Series race with Ryan Dalziel in a Starworks Motorsport Daytona Prototype. Due to concentrating on the ALMS – where he won six championships – he ran limited races at The Glen in Grand-Am competition, finishing second in GTU for Kelly Moss Racing in the 2000 Six Hours in his lone GT race. He also ran in five DP races for Brumos Racing and Starworks. Luhr has 52 career victories in major North American sports car competition, trailing only Scott Pruett (59) and Auberlen (54).“This is going to be my first time racing a BMW at Watkins Glen,” Luhr said. “I know we’re going to have a pretty strong car here, and hopefully have a strong finish like we did in the last two races.”Also testing for BMW Team RLL were Auberlen and Edwards in the No. 25 BMW Z4 GTLM. Both drivers are two-time class winners at The Glen.“It’s been a much better start to the season for BMW than 2014, so I think the work we did in the off-season paid off a lot,” Edwards said. “We have a lot of momentum, and we’re coming back to a track where we qualified well last year – although we had some problems in the race with various issues. We had good pace last year, and the car is going to be even stronger this year. We have all the pieces in place, and we just need to execute the race. “But that’s easier said than done at Watkins Glen, even though it’s only a six-hour race – not 12 or 24,” Edwards added. “It’s still takes a lot of preparation and perfect execution and pit stops. Unlike the Rolex 24, you never really have a real chance to come back from any big mistakes.  So it’s definitely a difficult race, but I think we should have a good car to pull it off.”Also at the private Watkins Glen test were the Porsche North America GTLM two-car team and GT Daytona (GTD) competitor Magnus Racing.Frederic Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet drove at the session in the No. 911 and 912 Porsche 911 RSRs, although the team has yet to announce its driver pairings for the event.Andy Lally, John Potter and Marco Seefried tested in the No. 44 Flex-Box Porsche 911 GT America for Magnus Racing.“Watkins Glen is always awesome to drive,” said Lally, a native New Yorker now living in Atlanta. “The test went very well. We saw gains similar to what we’ve seen at other racetracks with the 2015 rules. We logged a lot of miles. The guys prepared a real good car, and we were able to stick to the plan of doing things that we wanted to try at the test.”

Source: IMSA