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BMW Of North America Commemorates 50 Years With Daytona IMSA Season Kickoff And M Endurance Challenge
BMW of North America is marking its 50th anniversary in 2025, continuing its motorsport tradition at the Daytona International Speedway. The year kicks off with the Rolex 24 At Daytona weekend. The BMW M Endurance Challenge for the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge will commence on Friday, preceding the 63rd annual endurance race.
The BMW Group has a significant presence in the United States, with nearly 30 locations across 12 states. This includes their National Sales Company and Financial Services headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, NJ, and a manufacturing plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Additionally, they have various operational facilities like Designworks in Santa Monica, CA.
Bobby Rahal will serve as Grand Marshall for the race. He is one of two individuals to win the Rolex 24 At Daytona as a driver, team owner, and father. Dirk Häcker from BMW M GmbH will wave the green flag to start the four-hour race. All current M vehicles were developed under his leadership.
The BMW Group's U.S. sales network includes 350 BMW retailers and 147 motorcycle retailers. There are also 104 MINI passenger car dealers and 38 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers. These activities support over 120,000 jobs nationwide and contribute more than $43.3 billion to the U.S. economy each year.
The first Michelin Pilot Challenge event of the year features four BMW M4 GT4 racing cars on the entry list. Three of these are new-for-2025 BMW M4 GT4 EVO models from three BMW Customer Racing teams. Turner Motorsport will field two EVOs: No. 95 for Francis Selldorf and Dillon Machavern, and No. 96 for Vincent Barletta, Matt Dalton, and Patrick Gallagher.
During last weekend's Roar Before the Rolex 24 test, Patrick Wilmot secured third place in Saturday's VP Sports Car Challenge sprint with his No. 12 Swish Motorsports BMW M4 GT4 in the GSX class. Samantha Tan finished fifth in her No. 38 ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 in the new GTDX class.
BMW Manufacturing Impact
The Spartanburg plant assembles more than 1,500 vehicles daily and up to 450,000 annually. Since its inception in 1994, it has produced nearly seven million vehicles in the U.S., making it the largest single BMW production facility globally.
A Sunday sprint saw Tan and Barletta replicate their previous day's performance in their respective classes while Wilmot finished seventh as the top-finishing BMW in GSX class conditions that were less favorable than expected.
A new-for-2025 GTDX class saw Vincent Barletta finish sixth driving No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 on Saturday's sprint event during last weekend’s Roar Before testing session at Daytona International Speedway.
The official Safety Car for this event is a 2025 BMW M5 model which will pace throughout this exciting racing occasion at Daytona International Speedway this year.
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