ROWE RACING finished on the podium at its debut in the Blancpain Sprint Series. BMW works drivers Philipp Eng (Austria) and Alexander Sims (Great Britain) battled hard in the BMW M6 GT3 at the season-opener in Misano to present the team from St. Ingbert with its first trophy of the season on its very first outing at the 4.2-kilometre Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, not far from Rimini on the Italian Adriatic coast.
The pair fought back brilliantly in Saturday’s qualifying race to land the BMW M6 GT3 on second place on the grid. Eng then wasted little time in taking the race lead in the #99 car. Despite coming under a lot of pressure, he was able to hang onto the lead until lap twelve, but then dropped back into third place. Following the pit stop and driver changeover, team-mate Sims returned to the track in third place. He defended this position until just seven minutes before the end of the one-hour race, when he was passed with an aggressive manoeuvre by Felix Rosenqvist. The Swede rolled to a stop just a few laps later to present Eng and Sims with the final spot on the podium.
The #98 car was less fortunate. Dutch duo Nick Catsburg and Stef Dusseldorp enjoyed a fine start to the race in their BMW M6 GT3, but then dropped well down the field following a spin. They ultimately came home 29th.
Philipp Eng: “I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved so far with ROWE RACING and BMW Motorsport, as the preparation time was extremely short. The fact that we finished on the podium at the first attempt in what is the most fiercely-contested GT Series in the world is really impressive.”
Alexander Sims: “The race was very close, but was great fun. It was good, hard racing. It was a bit of a shame that Felix rammed me, but we finished in front in the end, so it is not important.”
The team is back in action next weekend. The six-hour qualifying race for the 24-hour race takes place on Sunday 17th April at the Nürburgring. The next round of the Blancpain GT Series is on 24th April, when Monza hosts the first endurance race of the season.”