BMW Team RLL wins the Daytona 24 Hours race. The BMW M8 GTE has taken back-to-back Rolex 24 in Daytona GT Le Mans category victories with the No. 24 BMW M8 GTE of John Edwards, Augusto Farfus, Chaz Mostert and Jesse Krohn.
It was Krohn who went behind the wheel to finish the race ahead of the Porsche team. At the last hour of the race, Krohn made a bold pass Nick Tandy from the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR to take the lead. Over the course of the race, the No. 24 BMW M8 GTE shared the lead with the No. 911 and No. 912 Porsches.
It had been an exciting race, among the best in the past couple of years and surely an excellent one for BMW RLL and BMW Motorsport. In the last hour of the endurance race, Porsche’s Tandy directed Krohn by 4.8 seconds. The third place went to Porsche too.
Antonio Garcia attracted the debuting No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R Throughout the line in fourth.
BMW’s No. 25 M8 GTE of Colton Herta, Bruno Spengler, Philipp Eng, and Connor De Phillippi suffered technical and mechanical problems. It was also made to make a lengthy trip to the garage in the hour. As a result, the fifth position was the best that the car could achieve.
This latest triumph sees BMW Motorsport add another chapter to its success story at Daytona in which BMW first won in the ‘World Center of Racing’ back in 1976 with the BMW 3.0 CSL. Course wins were subsequently taken by the BMW M3 GTR in 1998 and 1997. Daytona prototypes using BMW engines crossed the finish line in the first position in 2013 and 2011. This was the GTLM victory in the IMSA series for the BMW M8 GTE.
