BMW Motorsport has delivered the first M4 GT4s to customers. The delivery in Europe was part of a customer event at BMW Welt in Munich. The cars for North American teams were delivered to Bobby Rahal’s shop in Ohio and are being distributed from there.
Four North American teams are listed in BMW’s press release as initial recipients of the car. They are: Turner Motorsport; BimmerWorld; Samantha Tan Racing, the team that ran two M235iRs under the ST Racing banner in Pirelli World Challenge in 2017; and Fast Track Racing, a name used by Classic BMW Motorsports, the Texas-based team that has run a team of M235iRs in PWC, winning the TC team championship and the drivers’ title for Toby Grahovec in 2016.
More North American teams may be added to the list before the IMSA season begins at Daytona in January. While teams have not yet announced where they plan to run the cars, they are expected in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series and are also likely to run in Pirelli World Challenge.
BMW Motorsport director Jens Marquardt said, “Today is a very special day for us. After intensive months of testing and development, the BMW M4 GT4 is now officially ready to race. I’m particularly pleased that we were able to deliver the first models to our customer teams at such an early stage. This means that our customers are now able to test the BMW M4 GT4 thoroughly and familiarize themselves with the car. This has laid the foundations to successful customer racing outings. We are pleased with the GT4 car in every respect so far. The interest and demand from customer teams around the world has been incredibly high from the start. This acclaim makes us feel very positive. The production model BMW M4 Coupé provides the BMW M4 GT4 with a very strong basis, and we are extremely confident that the race car will become a guarantee of success for our customers. We wish our customer teams the very best of luck for the next race season.”
BMW’s release notes that the starting price for the car is 169,000 Euros, although it is noted that this price is not valid for customers in the USA.—Brian S. Morgan
