BMW Team RLL has announced the drivers for the 2022 edition of the 24 hours race in Daytona.
Six of the 2021 drivers has been called back once again, but there is a shakeup in the pairings.
The team ran in the four 2021 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races which counted towards the Michelin Endurance Cup. That was in the now-defunct GTLM category with their BMW M8 GTE model. The brand new BMW M4 GT3 model is the weapon of choice in the brand new GTD Pro category.
Car #24 will see Philipp Eng move over from car #25, and will be joined by Sheldon van der Linde, Marco Wittmann and Nick Yelloly as teammates for the 24 hours race. Van der Linde will only run Daytona, while the other three will stay on for the Sebring 12 Hours. The South African has previously raced in the event in 2018, in the GTD category.
Car #25 has Connor De Phillippi as the constant from last year. He will be joined by John Edwards, who has been the backbone of car #24 for many years. They will be joined by Augusto Farfus and Jesse Krohn for the opening round, which will be the only IMSA round for Krohn, with the current plans. He has been paired up with Edwards in the 24 for several seasons.
It’s not yet announced exactly which of the six drivers, that is going to stay on for the full season, but a cautious guess would be Eng and Yelloly in #24, and De Phillippi plus Edwards in #25.
The two works cars from Team RLL won’t be the only BMW cars in the field. Turner Motorsport will once again run in the GTD category, with Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley being the season-long drivers in car #96. They will be joined at Daytona by Michael Dinan and Jens Klingmann.
The test and qualifying prior to the Rolex 24 at Daytona will start in one and a half weeks time, with the race being run on 29-30 January 2022.