It’s that time of year again – time for the Rolex 24 at Daytona! 2013 marks the 51st running of the event with BMW playing a big role as a sponsor to the Continental Tire Challenge Series and represented via the Turner Motorsport M3’s and Ganassi prototypes running BMW’s potent S62 V8’s to name a few.
While the 24 hour enduro kicks off on Saturday afternoon – there’s plenty going on prior to the flag drop for BMW enthusiasts. Our friends from the BMW Performance Center will be bringing down a handful freshly minted F10 M5’s to give guests the ride of their lives around the full race circuit. For those of you who might not remember, two years ago we were lucky enough to sneak ride in an E90 M3 Competition Package courtesy of Performance School instructor Matt Mullins. You can find a quick video below of how exciting it can be to jet through the steep banking of Daytona, in the shadow of the top of the track at 155MPH.
While the E90 M3 was a blast to ride in around the Daytona circuit – I’m thinking that the latest M5 with its bonkers 560HP turbocharged V8 might be an even more thrilling! The BMW Performance Driving Center team will be providing rides to VIPs at 8:45AM and 12:45PM this Saturday prior to the start of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. For more information be sure to check out the press release below or the BMW Performance Center’s site and don’t forget about my post or Misha’s post about much fun we had pushing the limits of BMW’s finest offers at the two day M School last spring!
Official Release:
For the third successive year the BMW Performance Center Driving School Team will be heading to Daytona for the first major race of the year; The Rolex 24 At Daytona. They will provide guests of Grand Am and Rolex hot laps around the 24 hour course. In previous years the team used the BMW M3’s but with production coming to an end later this year; the new BMW M5 will be the vehicle of choice.
The totally stock BMW M5’s sourced from the BMW Performance Center in Spartanburg, South Carolina will be piloted by Matt Mullins, Mike Renner, and Tommy Van Cleef. The cars will be on track Friday for one session at 12:40pm before the BMW Performance 200 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Race, and for two sessions at 8:45am and 12:45pm on Saturday prior to the start of the Rolex 24.
When not on track the cars will be on display in the Grand Am paddock and the drivers will be available to answer questions about the cars and driving programs at the BMW Performance Center.
For information about the programs offered at the BMW Performance Center visit the BMW Performance Driving School website.
