BMW Employing “Strength in Numbers” in Title Bid

Nick Yelloly believes BMW’s “strength in numbers” at the Indianapolis 8 Hour powered by AWS will play a significant role as the German brand seeks to secure a first Intercontinental GT Challenge manufacturers’ title.

BMW currently sits second in the standings with only the finale at The Brickyard remaining, 16 points down on championship leaders Porsche.

However, while Porsche has elected not to enter a full-factory squad at Indianapolis, BMW is the best-represented brand in the IGTC Pro class thanks to a pair of cars from Team WRT and a single-car Random Vandals Racing effort.

Additionally, with an extra Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro car from ST Racing and three Pro-Am entries, BMW has the most cars on the Indianapolis grid with seven.

Yelloly, who will pilot the No. 8 Flying Lizard Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 alongside Elias Sabo and Andy Lee, believes the manufacturer has gone for the “best approach” having a larger number of entries.

“I think strength in numbers is always a good philosophy to have,” Yelloly told Sportscar365.

“Naturally the BMW won here last year, so obviously people that have their car are going to want to race here because of its competitiveness in 2023.

“So I think having more cars in any championship is the best approach to be honest.”

With a shot at securing its first-ever IGTC manufacturers’ title, BMW has parachuted in several factory drivers to supplement the lineups for the American squads.

“We’ve got Philipp Eng in one of the STR cars,” Yelloly added. “He’s obviously one of my teammates usually. So that’s going to be a strong car. Neil Verhagen, Robby Foley. You’ve got all these guys.

“Connor [De Phillippi], my actual teammate. Conor Daly, who’s also very fast. He might not be a factory driver but he can drive a race car.

“I think strength in numbers is key, making sure we get as much points or as many points as we can and more importantly finishing the race.

“An eight-hour race is a lot that can go wrong. Even if you’re overtaking an Am, you have to be very careful. They may or may not see you, so just need to stay clean and bring it up as far forward as we can ideally.”

Augusto Farfus, who previously won the Indy 8H in 2020 and is part of Team WRT’s two-car effort at the event, believes the addition of local entries to aid BMW’s IGTC bid is part of a “mutual exchange” that benefits both sides.

“I think you can’t force a customer to race,” he told Sportscar365.

“I think when you show up in events like this and you have local customers showing up, it shows how much they appreciate the brand.

“Because okay, the factory cars are here because they’re funded by the factory and it is a different story.

“Having, let’s say, small private teams showing up to an event aiming to compete against the factory and if you see the qualifying result where they are just as fast as we are, shows how much respect and how much interaction there is from the factory to the privateer.

“And then they show up racing here and there’s a mutual exchange because they will probably help us to secure the title.

“But on the contrary, BMW is also giving them enough support that they feel confident to show up and not be afraid to say, ‘Okay, we’re going to race against the factories.'”

While WRT’s pair of cars, which feature full-factory lineups, will form BMW’s spearhead in its quest to beat Porsche and Mercedes-AMG to the manufacturers’ crown, Farfus described it as “an incredible privilege” to enjoy backup from the other entries in the title hunt at The Brickyard.

“Everyone, as I said before, is treated the same by BMW,” he said.

“Everybody will have the same chance. So it just, of course, as a brand itself, it’s an incredible privilege to approach a race and have so many cars helping to get the title.

“But for us as a driver, I will try to help Max [Hesse] and Dan [Harper] to win the [drivers’] title. Charles [Weerts] in the other car will be on that fight as well. So I think we will all do our own race.”

Speaking from a Pro-Am perspective, Yelloly maintained he will ‘help if he can’ should the situation demand it, but will mostly place his focus on the fight for Pro-Am honors.

“If you can get in between and help then obviously we’ll enable the guys,” he said.

“I think WRT are obviously the people that are in for the running. So yeah, if we can get in between and help them, of course we will do, but we’re mostly focusing on our own race.”