BMW M MOTORSPORT
– 24H NÜRBURGRING.

2020 saw the 50th anniversary edition of the 24 hours at the Nürburgring - and BMW had reason to celebrate, too. As the winner of the inaugural race in 1970 and the winner of the anniversary race in 2020. It was the 20th overall victory for BMW at the marathon through the 'Green Hell' - no other manufacturer has won more often at this race which is one of the most challenging one in the world. The spectacular layout of the Nürburgring-Nordschleife and the duration of 24 hours not only make the race in the Eifel mountains one of the absolute highlights in the GT calendar but also demand everything from drivers, teams and cars. This is compounded by unpredictable weather that also influenced the 2020 anniversay edition. The huge number of cars on the tight track also adds to the challenge for drivers and teams. For the last half a century, BMW has been taking on one of the biggest challenges in motorsport. With success.

50 years after the inaugural Eifel marathon, a BMW race car crossed the finish line as a winner for the 20th time in 2020 – as happened at the premiere in 1970. After 85 laps around the world's most difficult circuits, Nick Catsburg, Alexander Sims and Nick Yelloly took the win in the ROWE Racing #99 BMW M6 GT3 and secured the long-awaited BMW triumph. BMW had waited ten years for an overall victory. The race itself was a rollercoaster of emotions. In the early stages, the BMW M6 GT3 were unable to match the pace of the frontrunner. Due to heavy rain, the race was red-flagged for over nine hours during the night before it was re-started on Sunday morning. In drying conditions, the BMW teams started a fantastic fightback and laid the foundation for a great result. Next to the winning crew in the #99 BMW M6 GT3, BMW Team Schnitzer also stepped onto the podium; Augusto Farfus, Jens Klingmann, Martin Tomczyk and Sheldon van der Linde finished third in the #42 BMW M6 GT3.

When Nick Catsburg crossed the finish line in the the BMW M6 GT3 at the anniversary edition of the endurance classic, the celebrations knew no bounds. Together with ROWE Racing and his team-mates Alexander Sims and Nick Yelloly, he had just won the 24h Nürburgring. This was the first victory for ROWE Racing at this race. And it was also a very special success for record winner BMW: the manufacturer’s 20th overall victory came exactly in the anniversary year. Lucas Auer, Tom Blomqvist, Philipp Eng and Marco Wittmann, driving the second ROWE Racing BMW M6 GT3, only narrowly missed out of the podium by finishing fourth but completed an outstanding team result for the squad around Team Principal Hans-Peter Naundorf. This success was of particular importance to ROWE Racing. The team was very close to the overall win already in 2017 but missed out in it by just 29.418 seconds after a dramatic climax. The team principal was all the more delighted that the win came now at the anniversary race: “With all the factors that made this race so special, the history of BMW, the yearning desire of all of us to finally win this race, and all the joint efforts, this success is something very, very special,” said Naundorf.