BMW has announced their 2010 plans which include a number of exciting sportscar programs. Firstly, they plan to contest the 2010 ALMS Championship with Rahal Letterman Racing. They will have an unchanged lineup of Dirk Muller, Tommy Milner, Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand.

They have also announced that they are planning on racing in the Eurpoean based Le Mans Series. Jorg Muller and Dirk Werner, will be racing for the Schnitzer Motorsport team. This program will commence at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car has not passed homolagation for European racing but they have assured the community that this will not be a problem.

They are also looking expanding into a bespoke GT3 machine. You may remember that Alpina have an M6 derived machine and a number of Z4's have been made for national Championships. They are now planning to do a Z4 of their own for VLN and GT3 spec championships.

Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus will continue in the WTCC program. Uwe Alzen and Dirk Adorf will compete with the squad for the 24-hour race at the Nurburgring.

In launching the programme, BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen said "In production car racing, BMW has enjoyed countless triumphs throughout the course of its long racing history - whether with close-to- production touring cars or imposing GT sports cars. We want to follow on from this success in 2010, in both the World Touring Car Championship and the ALMS. In addition, our programme will include works entries at 24-hour classics for the first time since 2005."

In a nutshell

ALMS
Full season
Team: Rahal Letterman Racing
Drivers: Dirk Muller, Tommy Milner, Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand

LMS
Part season
Team: Schnitzer Motorsport
Drivers: Jorg Muller and Dirk Werner

WTCC
Full season
Team: RBM
Drivers: Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus

Other races include Nurburging 24 Hours and Le Mans 24 Hours

Sam Tickell