BMW Team RLL and drivers Bill Auberlen and Alexander Sims delivered the milestone first victory for the BMW M6 GTLM at the big Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

The win was the first for the BMW M6 GTLM which debuted at the start of the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

“This is a fantastic result for BMW and the BMW Team RLL and drivers,” said Ken Payne, technical director motorsports, Michelin North America.

“Everyone at BMW Team RLL has been working incredibly hard to get that first win for the M6 GTLM and it paid off today with a great drive and a great team effort.

“The BMW M6 cars qualified second and third, led large stretches of the race, and Sims set the fastest lap of the race just ten laps from the finish.”

The first victory for the BMW M6 GTLM followed a 2-3 finish at the previous IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event at the Circuit of The Americas near Austin, Texas.

The win was also the first victory for British racer Sims who debuted with the BMW Team RLL team at this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona.

“This circuit worked the tires pretty hard so we had to make sure we managed the tires well,” said Sims.

Auberlen’s impressive winning record in US professional sportscar racing now totals 56 victories.

“Our engineers have been working really hard and combined with Michelin to find our combination,” said Auberlen.

Finishing second was the No 67 Ford GT driven by the defending race champions, Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe. The GTLM Championship leading No 3 Corvette C7.R of Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen recovered from an early spin to finish third, slightly extending its championship lead over the pole winning, fourth place finishers Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller of Ford CGR.

Seven of the eight factory backed entries from BMW, Chevrolet Corvette, Ford, and Porsche, all Michelin technical partner teams led the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class at various stages.

The top seven cars posted best race laps within a narrow 0.489 second range led by Sims with a 1 minute 41.608 second lap of the fast and hot 3.4 mile circuit.

Next stop on the WeatherTech Championship is the Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, next Sunday, July 9^th at 12:05 pm.

VICTORY!

Alex Sims, Bill Auberlen and BMW Team RLL celebrated the first win of the BMW M6 GTLM in North America. ?? pic.twitter.com/MfmTa36L76

— BMW Motorsport (@BMWMotorsport) July 2, 2017

#FordIMSA | @RWestbrook1 & @Ryan_Briscoe finished p2 at @WGI #Sahlens6HRS pic.twitter.com/M4wW1aKI8t

— Ford Performance (@FordPerformance) July 2, 2017

//imsa.alkamelsystems.com/Results/17_2017/13_Watkins%20Glen%20International/01_IMSA%20WeatherTech%20SportsCar%20Championship/201707021010_Race/Hour%206/05_ClassificationByClass_Race.PDF