BMW Performance Center to contest 2015 One Lap Of America with new BMW X6 M (Updated)

[Jason]

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BMW Performance Center to contest 2015 One Lap Of America with new BMW X6 M

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Woodcliff Lake, NJ – April 28, 2015… The BMW Performance Center, with partners BMW Manufacturing, BMW Performance Parts and IHG Rewards Club today announced that it will compete in the 2015 One Lap of America with the all-new 567 horsepower 2015 X6 M starting May 2, 2015. This year’s team will be co-piloted by BMW Performance Center Driving Instructor, Michael Renner, BMW Powertrain Engineer Michael Broad and One Lap veteran Tom Lappin. The trio will compete in two classes, Truck/SUV and Stock Touring. The 2015 One Lap of America competitors will depart South Bend, Indiana on a 3,245 mile, 7 day route spanning eleven states and consisting of Time Trials, Drag Racing, Skid Pad Car Control and of course, long overnight transit stages.

The BMW Performance Center is the home to BMW’s Performance Driving School. The main campus is located in Greer, South Carolina and incorporates the BMW Performance Center Delivery Program and the Zentrum museum featuring 95 years of BMW history. A second location with dedicated road course and training facility opened late last year partnered with The Thermal Club, a premier private motorsports club few minutes outside of La Quinta, California. The BMW Performance Driving School offers a variety of driving classes that highlight the performance, responsiveness, and safety features in each BMW product. Driving schools are offered in 1 and 2 day formats. They include a Teen Driving School, Car Control School, M School, and Advanced M School. Exclusive corporate driving events are also offered in many variants ranging from half day programs to 3 day events with on track driving and offsite tours and excursions.

The new 2015 X6 M is the most powerful xDrive vehicle ever offered by BMW. The M TwinPower Turbo 4.4-liter V8 produces 567 hp and peak torque of 553 lb-ft 2,200 to 5,000 rpm. The power is fed to the advanced xDrive system through an eight-speed M Steptronic transmission and allows the X6 M to sprint 0-60mph in 4.0 seconds on its way to an electronically limited 155mph. A sophisticated oil sump system works alongside multiple low and high pressure radiators, M Compound brakes and Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires to insure that the X6M is as capable on track above 1.0g of sustained lateral forces as it is in wrapping the passengers in comfort during the long transit stages. The new X6 M is produced by BMW Manufacturing in Greer, SC.

BMW Manufacturing in Greer, SC is the global producer of the BMW X3 and X5 Sports Activity Vehicles and X4 and X6 Sports Activity Coupes. Approximately 1,200 vehicles are produced each day for more than 140 global markets. In 2014, nearly 250,000 vehicles, totaling $9.2 billion were exported making BMW the largest exporter of vehicles by value from North America. BMW Manufacturing employs 8,000 people and supports 30,000 jobs, including suppliers in SC.



















DAILY UPDATES BY STEVE MAGUIRE:

One Lap of America 2015 Day 1

Here are a few highlights of the BMW Performance Center / IHG Rewads Club BMW X6M team on the 2015 One Lap of America.

The event started in South Bend, IN at Tire Rack’s headquarters with registration and the first competitive event on May 2nd. The crew spent most of the day renewing old friendships, registration and technical inspection before the competing in the first event; the traditional wet skid pad.

The crews then faced a short (in One Lap Speak) transit section of 500 miles to Mid America Motorplex in Pacific Junction, IA.



One Lap of America 2015 Day 2

Mid America Motorplex consisted of two time trails. The first session went well with 14th overall and 26th in the second. For the latter session we dropped tire pressures but didn't re-calibrate the TPM system and it unfortunately worked as it should fearing an issue with the tire pressure and placed us into limp mode. Lesson learned and remembered for the rest of the week!



And here's an in-car video of one lap with Mike. Watch the eyes.

Departing Pacific Junction crews headed west for a 1000 mile trip to Limon, CO for a few our sleep at our favorite hotel chain; Holiday Inn Express. We arrive in the early morning hours for a brief opportunity to rest our bodies before heading to High Plains Raceway for Monday’s two time trials.



One Lap of America 2015 Day 3

High Plains Raceway is located about an hour east of Denver and offers a challenging track with plenty of elevation change.

In both sessions Mike was placed 16th overall, completing the three laps in a time of 6:23.415 and 6:21.975 respectively.


Now onto Pueblo, CO for tomorrows events.



One Lap of America Day 4

One Lap of America 2015 Day 5

One Lap of America 2015 Day 6

[davem3fan]

On behalf of my friends at The Tire Rack One Lap of America Presented by Grassroots Motorsports, thank you to The BMW Performance Center for your continued participation in the event.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the new X6 does in the 2015 edition.
Safe travels!

[HMN]

All the best!

[raysspl]

Neat. Looking forward to the updates!

[SteveMaguire]

Here are a few highlights of the BMW Performance Center / IHG Rewads Club BMW X6M team on the 2015 One Lap of America.

The event started in South Bend, IN at Tire Rack’s headquarters with registration and the first competitive event on May 2nd. The crew spent most of the day renewing old friendships, registration and technical inspection before the competing in the first event; the traditional wet skid pad.

The crews then faced a short (in One Lap Speak) transit section of 500 miles to Mid America Motorplex in Pacific Junction, IA.

[SteveMaguire]

Mid America Motorplex consisted of two time trails. The first session went well with 14th overall and 26th in the second. For the latter session we dropped tire pressures but didn't re-calibrate the TPM system and it unfortunately worked as it should fearing an issue with the tire pressure and placed us into limp mode. Lesson learned and remembered for the rest of the week!



And here's an in-car video of one lap with Mike. Watch the eyes.

Departing Pacific Junction crews headed west for a 1000 mile trip to Limon, CO for a few our sleep at our favorite hotel chain; Holiday Inn Express. We arrive in the early morning hours for a brief opportunity to rest our bodies before heading to High Plains Raceway for Monday’s two time trials.

[SteveMaguire]

High Plains Raceway is located about an hour east of Denver and offers a challenging track with plenty of elevation change.

In both sessions Mike was placed 16th overall, completing the three laps in a time of 6:23.415 and 6:21.975 respectively.


Now onto Pueblo, CO for tomorrows events.

[w0ady]

Just saw this, very cool! A few buddies have been competing in OLOA for a few years now. Unfortunately the blue GTR had to retire last night but the GoTurnStop crew is currently in first in their GTR. I can only imagine but I hear it's an awesome experience.

[SteveMaguire]

Tuesday morning crews awoke to torrential rain, but this put a huge smile on the faces of our team of Mike Renner, Tom Lappin and Michael Broad as this weather will certainly highlight the true capabilities for BMW’s xDrive system.

At the track a driver meeting was called to discuss options for the day as track and One Lap officials deemed it too dangerous to run the drag race and full time trials as the circuit crosses over the start of the drag strip. It was agreed to run the two time trials as Solo 1 type events, starting and finishing either side of the strip.

With the weather in our favor Mike put the pedal to the metal and recorded a 1:42.331, just 3 seconds slower than the leading Nissan GTR driven by Catesby Jones! And just for good measure repeated the same for the afternoon session 1:41.198 for Mike and 1:40.326 for the GTR.

Once our runs were completed the team packed up and headed south east to Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, TX. With these two excellent drives from Ike we left Pueblo in P13 overall, can we maintain this climb up the leaderboard to get inside the top ten? But first another long transit section and with the team short on sleep, it was nice to have the ability to switch the X6M controls to full comfort mode and grab a few zzzzzzz’s, except for the driver of course!

[SteveMaguire]

Motorsport Ranch was a new venue for One Lap of America participants and everyone thoroughly enjoyed their time there. Organizers had laid on three configurations for the day; the 1.3 and 1.7 mile configurations for the morning and the 3.1 mile course for the afternoon time trial.

Mike was becoming at one with the BMW X6M and really put in some sterling drives; 13th in session 1, 10th in session 2, 13th in the afternoon session. All good enough for us to hold onto retain our hold on P13 overall.


Now it was on to North Star Dragway just north of Ft. Worth a 1/8 mile drag strip. Two events planned to wrap up the day; an elapsed time run followed by bracket racing. For the E/T run Michael Broad and the X6M recorded an 8th overall with a 7.950 time followed by an excellent run in the brackets to 3rd overall. This resulted in elevating our team to 10 overall. Not bad for a truck!

I’m sure many of you heard about the storms and tornados that swept through Oklahoma Tuesday evening. The team was fortunate to be one of the last to leave Ft. Worth which meant they avoided most of the severe weather and had a relatively trouble free run to their Holiday Inn Express near Tulsa.

[SteveMaguire]

Hallet was the venue for Thursday’s two events, a favorite track among the One Lap fraternity. Our goal was to solidify our hold on 10th overall, but we knew we faced some stiff competition especially from some of the more agile cars on our heels. The morning run placed us 12th and Mike did one better in the afternoon placing us 11th. So leaving Hallet we solidified our 10th position and no move on to the new track at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY.

[Em/1]

And how about Mdorphin in his 1M finishing first in class...

[SteveMaguire]

[N.S.A]

3 wheeling a SUV on the track is amazing. haha sure!. thats so dangerous and bad driving on a track.

[SteveMaguire]

‪‎BMW‬ rules! M3 P8, X6M P10, 1M P11. Lining up for One Lap of America traditional photo shoot then it's time for the final event, the dry skid pad. Hopefully we can hold on to P10.



Mike did a great job on the dry skid pad and we were all surprised to learn we'd jumped up one more position from 10th to 9th overall.

And of course Mike celebrated in the only way he knows!

Congratulations to all the ‪#‎BMW‬ teams competing in ‪One Lap of America‬. Four BMW in the top 10!

7th Overall 2011 BMW M3 Chris Mayfield/Mark Melchoir
8th Overall 2008 BMW M3 Dan Schaut/Ben Ben Schaut
9th Overall 2015 BMW X6M Mike Renner/Tom Lappin/Michael Broad
10th Overall 2011 BMW 1M Neil Simon/Brian Brian Hair
13th Overall 2009 BMW M3 Chad Lowers/Justin Duthie
51st Overall 1998 BMW M3 Roy Maranhao/Don Harris




Receiving one of the trophies from Brock Yates Jr.



Our trophy haul:

9th Overall
1st Truck/SUV Class
1st Stock Touring




A great end and reward for the BMW Performance Center / IHG Rewards Club team. Great driving from the two Mikes on track and excellent preparation, transit driving and logistics from Tom. Our BMW X6 M ran faultlessly the entire week. All we did was adjust tire pressures for track and transit sections and the only time we looked under the hood was during one of our video shoots.

Thank you everyone at BMW Manufacturing Plant Spartanburg for building an awesome BMW!

[DCG]

The X6M looked incredibly well planted with its AWD "M xDrive" especially in the wet track conditions. And that is what I want and expect.

Now BMW just has to make a true X4M which fits our needed size capacity, performance capabilities, and budget. The X4 size suits our needs just perfectly, and I prefer a more nimble, lighter and smaller vehicle compared to the beastly sized expensive X6M.

Bigger is not always better!