It’s hard to believe that 25 years have passed since the V-8-powered E46 M3 GTR was competing in its sole season of racing in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). Back in 2001, I was pretty new to sports-car racing but had photographed and written about the Team PTG E36 M3’s from 1998 through 2000, and the Schnitzer Motorsport V12 LMR program in 2000.
The M3 GTR was nothing short of fantastic, and I still clearly remember being thrilled by their speed and fire-spitting antics at the ALMS round at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in August, 2001. It was the first and only time I had seen them race in person, though I did get a memorable ride with Boris Said in one at Watkins Glen in 2001. The photographs here are from that race 25 years ago this month.
As good as they ended up being, the M3 GTR got off to a rough start. The car debuted at the 12 Hours of Sebring with drivers JJ Lehto and Jörg Müller and finished fifth in the GT class in the BMW Motorsport entry, which was run by Schnitzer Motorsport. After Sebring, the ALMS held two races in Europe in conjunction with the European Le Mans Series at Silverstone and Jarama, and the second #43 M3 GTR was ready for drivers Fredrik Ekblom and Dirk Müller. Silverstone was a disaster, with the #42 car catching fire after an oil leak and #43 suffering a differential failure. Everything came together at Jarama, where the M3 GTRs finished first (#43) and second (#42).
Once the ALMS returned to the U.S., it was all hands-on deck to catch Porsche in the championship, as the Alex Job Racing team had finished one-two in the opener at Texas Motor Speedway, as well as at Sebring and Silverstone. The first round back in the U.S. after the European races was at Sears Point and there were now four M3 GTRs on the grid, with the pair from BMW Motorsport and two new cars from Team PTG.
M3 GTRs took the top four spots at Sears Point, with Lehto and Jörg Müller getting the win in #42 and the #6 PTG car of Hans Stuck and Boris Said finishing second ahead of the #43 BMW Motorsport car of Ekblom and Dirk Müller. Bill Auberlen and Nic Jonsson were fourth in the #10 PTG car. An eye-opening stat from that race was that the fastest M3 GTR lap was 1.6 seconds quicker than the fastest Porsche lap.
In the next race at Portland, the #6 PTG car was victorious, with the #23 Alex Job Porsche in second ahead of the #42 BMW in third and the #43 in fourth. BMW responded by finishing one-two-three in the next race at Mosport in Canada, with #42 getting the win, #43 in second and #6 in third.
Boris Said in action in the #6 PTG car.
Coming into Mid-Ohio, Porsche driver Sascha Maassen and Jörg Müller were tied for points, while JJ Lehto, Boris Said and Porsche driver Lucas Luhr were all tied for second, just one point back from Maassen and Müller. Hans Stuck was in third, just two points back from second place. In qualifying, Maassen put the #23 Porsche on the pole, just eight-thousandths of a second ahead of the #42 BMW of Müller and Lehto.
Once the race got underway, the #42 got by the #23 early on, and the #23 later dropped to sixth with a broken halfshaft. Lehto and Müller won in the #42, followed by the #43 BMW of Ekblom and Dirk Müller in second and the #10 PTG BMW of Jonsson and Peter Cunningham (who was subbing for Auberlen) in third. “It was a fantastic circuit,” said Jorg Muller about Mid-Ohio after the race. “I really enjoyed going on a proper race circuit.”
The Mid-Ohio win put Jörg Müller out in front in the championship, and he and Lehto followed that up with a win at Laguna Seca and Müller then finished second in the Petit Le Mans finale at Road Atlanta in the #43 car with Dirk Müller (BMW had split Jörg Müller and Lehto to get a better shot at the championship). Boris Said, Hans Stuck and Bill Auberlen won the Petit Le Mans finale in the #6 M3 GTR. Jörg Müller won the 2001 ALMS drivers’ championship, BMW Motorsport won the team championship and BMW won the manufacturer championship. Lehto finished second in the driver’s championship. “I came here with the aim of winning the title,” said Jörg Müller after the race. “I tried to go easy on the car, and now of course I’m incredibly thrilled and relieved that it has worked out. I’m deeply disappointed that I can’t celebrate the title together with JJ. JJ deserves the title as much as I do.”
Jörg Müller (left) and JJ Lehto celebrate on the podium at Mid-Ohio.
Of course, that’s where the M3 GTR story ended in the U.S. The chassis’ from the PTG cars went on to race very successfully with six-cylinder motors in Grand Am, but the V-8 was effectively outlawed from ALMS after complaints from Porsche resulted in balance of performance adjustments that would have made the V-8-powered M3 GTR uncompetitive. Even though the cars only competed for one ALMS year, that one season, along with wins at the Spa and Nürburgring 24 Hour races and gaming popularity on Need for Speed, has made the car a legend and it’s still considered one of the greatest BMW race cars of all time.
—David Haueter
[Photos by David Haueter]