17/03/2016


BMW Team SRM - Australian GT Championship


Rnd#2 - Australian Grand Prix, Albert Park, Melbourne

17-20 March, 2016

 



After a solid debut for the new BMW Team SRM operation at the opening round of the 2016 CAMS Australian GT Championship on the streets of Adelaide just two weeks ago, Steven Richards and Max Twigg continue their campaign at home this weekend, joining the Formula 1 circus on the streets of Albert Park for four 25-minute sprint races.

 

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be able to campaign the new M6 GT3 on the streets of Melbourne this weekend,” Richards admitted. “Albert Park is one of my all-time favourite circuits, and a layout I think will suit the traits of the BMW TwinPower Turbo technology V8 and the dynamics of the M6 GT3 perfectly.”


Both Richards and Twigg have enjoyed past success on the Melbourne Grand Prix circuit, Richards as one of the most successful Carrera Cup campaigners over recent years having claimed at least one race win per weekend across the last three years, and four race wins at Albert Park during that period, the reigning Bathurst 1000 champion has only missed the podium once since 2013!

 

Twigg too has enjoyed success at the Grand Prix, and in fact comes into the second round of the 2016 Australian GT Championship at Albert Park as the reigning Grand Prix race winner for the category on the 5.027-kilometre street circuit, having claimed two race wins and the round victory the last time AGT ran at the AGP in 2010..

 

“It’s a circuit I enjoy,” Twigg admitted. “Its my home circuit, but more than that I’ve done a lot of work with driver trainers over the years and really focused on getting the most out of myself and the car there, but I’d definitely say that a fast flowing circuit like Albert Park better suits my driving style, so I’m really looking forward to it.”

 

Whilst confident of a strong showing at the Grand Prix, Richards was quick to point out that despite expecting a big step forward over their debut performance in Adelaide, the team were still very much focused on developing the car for the endurance events.

 

“We’ve got a couple of challenges ahead for the Grand Prix, one of which is the driver parity penalties which adds a ‘weighting’ to the experience of the drivers,” Richards explained. “In a normal AGT event we have a compulsory pit stop [CPS], and based on the success of the drivers and their qualifying results, they are held in pit lane for a set time (which varies from team to team) to effectively equalise the field and give each driver combination a chance to contend for the win.

 

“It’s a good system, however at the Grand Prix, because time is a premium, there will be no CPS, so the time parity penalty will be applied after the race, so added to the overall race time.

 

“Assuming no Safety Cars, it will work out okay as I’ll contest two races and Max will contest two, but in the almost inevitable situation where a Safety Car is brought into play, our extended driver parity times will almost certainly drop us down the order.

 

“It’s not the ideal scenario for us, but it’s the same for everyone, and it will certainly make things interesting for the fans as the first car across the line may not necessarily be the race winner..

 

“Regardless we’ll be fighting hard and working on developing the package, the team have learnt a lot from the German technicians and BMW Motorsport will be there to assist. We’ve already provided valuable information from Clipsal back to BMW in Munich to assist in developing the car for other markets around the world and will be in constant contact with Germany as we work through this weekend.

 

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that the layout of the circuit will suit the performance of the BMW and overall I think the dynamics of the Grand Prix circuit will be a better match to the M6 than perhaps the stop-go nature of Clipsal.”

 

For the BMW Team SRM operation Albert Park will provide another valuable opportunity to prepare for the endurance season which gets underway at Phillip Island at the end of May.

 

“We’re really looking forward to that, especially at Phillip Island, a circuit for which the BMW was almost made, I honestly expect that’s where we’ll be able to challenge for the podium and show what the car is really capable of, and that’s something to really focus on as we continue to develop the car in the sprint series.”

 

Keep up to date with further announcements from BMW Team SRM team across the Australian Grand Prix event by visiting; www.facebook.com/BMW_Team_SRM and get involved with the conversation on Twitter; www.twitter.com/BMW_Team_SRM

 

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Australian Grand Prix, Albert Park, Melbourne (17-20 March)

 

Schedule: [AEST - GMT +9]

11:50am - Qualifying #1(20-minutes)

2:45pm - Qualifying#2 (20-minutes)

6:15pm - Race#1 (25-minutes)

 

11:25am - Race#2 (25-minutes)

 

12:05pm - Race#3 (25-minutes)

 

11:35am - Race#4 (25-minutes)

 

Weather predictions suggest a warm and humid Thursday followed by thunderstorms and rain on Friday ahead of clearing conditions on Saturday (19˚C) and mostly fine conditions on Sunday(23˚C).

 

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BMW Team SRM are proudly supported by BMW Australia, BMW Financial Services Australia and President Limo Australia.