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2001 American Lemans Series Summary Posted Wednesday, January 2, 2002 by Frank
BMW M3 GTR - a winning type from the word go.


Seven victories, seven pole positions and three titles in the GT class.


Munich. It was a resounding triumph for the ultimate driving machine: the new BMW M3 GTR took the GT class of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) by storm. The new coupé scooped seven victories in ten races, as well as six pole positions. BMW works driver Jörg Müller won the drivers’ championship in the GT class, BMW Motorsport won the team classifications, and BMW emerged as the winning manufacturer in the company’s key export market.


Change of class in 2001.



The third year of BMW’s involvement in the ALMS began on a different footing. After the successes of the previous years with the open-topped BMW V12 LMR prototype, 2001 saw the deployment of a newly developed model, the BMW M3 GTR powered by a
450 bhp V8 engine. The most powerful M3 ever built, sets bench-marks for the GT class and appeared fourfold: two cars were fielded by Team BMW Motorsport under the direction of Charly Lamm
and two more by the American BMW Team PTG led by Tom Milner, who is of German background.



First the M3 GTR presented both teams with the challenge of having to get the cars race-ready while the season was already running. The decision for this project hadn’t been made until September of the previous season, and the BMW M3 GTR was developed in Munich in a record time of six months.



“The technicians, the teams and the drivers did a great job”, stressed BMW Motorsport Director Dr. Mario Theissen. “The late launch of the project along with the logistical requirements
for the American races made incredible demands on everybody.



”The triumphs secured on the other side of the Atlantic were highly rated in Munich. The United States isn’t just BMW’s most important marketplace outside Germany, it also boasts the highest M sales worldwide. “The sports-oriented BMW clientele”, continued Theissen, “are organized into numerous clubs across America and were delighted to see us move from the prototype class to the GT-class M3.”


Texas - season opens with previous year’s M3.



When the curtain went up on the ALMS on the fourth of March in Fort Worth, Texas, both the German and the American BMW Team still had to resort to the BMW M3 of the previous year. The best result was a third place for Hans-Joachim Stuck and Boris Said in the PTG-fielded M3.


The new BMW M3 GTR made its debut in the 12 Hour race at Sebring in Florida which took place on the 17th of March. “It was the first test drive under racing conditions”, recalled Team Manager Charly Lamm. Before the car was loaded for transportation, there was just time for a brief functional test on the BMW track at Ismaning outside of Munich. But the GT sports car managed to stay the course around the clock on the extremely uneven Sebring race track. The seasoned driving duo of JJ Lehto (FIN)/Jörg Müller (D) took third place, claiming the first podium position in the career of the BMW M3 GTR. “However”, said Lamm of the subsequent inspection, “it would barely have lasted another mile.”


Jarama - first one-two victory for the BMW M3 GTR.


Team BMW Motorsport then made two appearances in the European ALMS, repectively the European Le Mans Series.
These races, which last 2.45 hours like the other ALMS events,
took place at Donington Park in England and at Jarama, Spain.
They weren’t directly part of the ALMS, but afforded the possibility of swapping good results in Europe for inferior race results in America.


At Donington, however, where the second of Team BMW Motorsport’s driver duos - Fredrik Ekblom of Sweden and reigning GT champion Dirk Müller - entered in a BMW M3 GTR, the team suffered a double retirement. At Jarama this was recompensed with a first one-two victory, with Ekblom/D. Müller winning ahead of Lehto/J. Müller.


The ALMS race at Sears Point in California saw BMW out in full force with the new sports car, with BMW Team PTG now also fielding two M3 GTRs. This first joint appearance ended in a fourfold victory at the end of just under three hours. Lehto/J. Müller won the Sears Point event ahead of Said/Stuck, Ekblom/D. Müller and Bill Auberlen (USA)/Niclas Jönsson (S), who were sharing the second PTG car.



In the following race at Portland, Said/Stuck beat a Porsche to take first place. The BMW drivers of the German team finished third and fourth.


Four one-twos in a row to end the season.


In the meantime the BMW M3 GTR had also made progress on the reliability front. With four double victories in succession, it remained unbeaten for the remainder of the season. At Mosport (Canada), Mid-Ohio and Laguna Seca (California) the winners were Lehto/J. Müller with Ekblom/D. Müller runners-up. In the final event, the 1,000-mile Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, the threesome of Auberlen/Said/Stuck celebrated the seventh victory for the M3 GTR, winning ahead of Dirk and Jörg Müller.


Second place was enough for 31-year-old Jörg Müller to secure his first championship title outside Formula racing. In the course of his career he has picked up titles in Formula Ford, Formula Opel, Formula 3 and in the Formula 3000 European Championship.


But despite victory in the drivers’, team and manufacturers’ championship, there was just one fly in the ointment - Jörg would have liked to share the title with JJ Lehto after claiming every success in tandem with the Finn, up until the final race. In order to double the chances of winning the drivers’ championship, the team had decided to split the two title contenders up into two cars. Lehto ended the season as runner-up. For the final he shared the wheel of Team BMW Motorsport’s second M3 GTR with Ekblom and Karl Wendlinger (A), who was supporting the team in a
one-off involvement. The three of them ended the race in fourth place following two minor collisions.

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