Rahal rues GTLM troubles

BMW Team RLL came within three laps of earning a breakthrough victory for the German brand’s M8 GTE model at Road America. After the Continental Road Race Showcase was over, team co-owner Bobby Rahal was left wondering how it all went wrong in the final hour.

“We had some kind of electronics problems with Jesse Krohn’s car,” he told RACER. “I don’t know what exactly it was, but he had some kind of gremlin pop up and he had to pull into the pits and take the car behind the wall. I don’t know if we could have won there, but a podium seemed like a reasonable possibility.”

The No. 24 BMW M8 GTE shared by Krohn and teammate John Edwards would be credited with 52 laps in the 69-lap contest, leaving the car an unrepresentative last in the GT Le Mans class.

Connor De Phillippi came close to saving the day in the sister No. 25 entry, but a fueling problem on the final stop left the twin-turbo V8-powered sedan three laps shy of making the finish line.

“Connor was doing a great job leading the race, and it looked like there was all kinds of fuel coming back through the vent hose on that last stop, but somehow, it looks like the car didn’t get all of the fuel into the tank and now we need to find out why. It’s a shame because everyone did such a great job. And the car was fast -- the best since Mid-Ohio -- but we don’t have anything to show for that effort.”

De Phillippi, whose car ran out of fuel while trying to make it up the hill onto pit lane, was credited with sixth in GTLM.