Bill Auberlen

Bill Auberlen on a demonstration lap in the BMW M3 GT2 2012

The Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Pedro Lamy , Paul Dalla Lana and Bill Auberlen in the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans

Bill Auberlen (born October 12, 1968 in Redondo Beach ) is an American racing car driver .

Career in motorsport

Bill Auberlen is one of the most successful US Gran Turismo and sports car drivers . By the end of the 2016 season, he had celebrated no fewer than 91 overall and class wins. In almost 500 races he came 188 on one of the podiums of the respective races (overall and class ratings).

He got his first motorcycle at the age of five and rode motocross regularly during his teenage years . He started professional motor racing in 1987 as a partner to his brother Gary in the IMSA GTP series . When he first started at Sebring , he and his brothers Gary and Karl Durkheimer finished seventeenth in the overall standings and second in the GTU class in a Porsche 911 . The 1988 IMSA GTP Series finished ninth overall in the GTU class, his best finish in a championship in the 1980s. In the early 1990s, in addition to Porsche models, a Mazda RX-7 was the emergency vehicle in the series in which he was runner-up in the GTS-2 class in 1995 .

In 1995 he tried to gain a foothold in the monoposto sport. The three years in Formula Atlantic were unsuccessful. His only championship win in a monoposto series was the 1996 Peruvian Formula Three Championship . 1997 was the crucial year in Auberlen's career when he signed a test driver contract with BMW . From 1998 he became a works driver and in the following years competed for the German brand in all sports car series in which BMW was involved. He drove the BMW V12 LM at Le Mans and was a driver in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team until the end of the 2016 season . Bill Auberlen became the most successful BMW driver in North American GT racing. He celebrated countless class victories and won overall class ratings of the Grand-Am Sports Car Series in 2002 and 2004 .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1998	Gulf Team Davidoff	McLaren F1 GTR	Steve O'Rourke	Tim Sugden	Rank 4
1999	David Price Racing	BMW V12 LM	Thomas Bscher	Steve Soper	Rank 5
2002	Panoz Motorsports	Panoz LMP01 Evo	Gunnar Jeannette	David Donohue	failure	Engine failure
2005	Panoz Motor Sports	Panoz Esperante GT-LM	Robin Liddell	Scott Maxwell	failure	malfunction
2013	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Paul Dalla Lana	Pedro Lamy	failure	malfunction

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1987	SP Racing	Porsche 911	Gary Auberlen	Karl Durkheimer		Rank 17
1988	SP Racing	Porsche 911	Gary Auberlen	Adrian Gang		Rank 28
1993	Dibos Racing	Mazda MX-6	Eduardo Dibos			Rank 33
1994	Dibos Racing Team Peru	Mazda MX-7	Eduardo Dibos	Les Lindley		Rank 17
1995	Alex Job Racing	Porsche 911	Charles Slater	Joe Cogbill		Rank 12 and class win
1996	Juan Dibos	Ford Mustang	Eduardo Dibos	Luis Mendez		Rank 28
1997	Prototype Technology Group	BMW M3	Javier Quiros	Tom Hessert	Derek Hill	9th place and class win
1998	Prototype Technology Group	BMW M3	Boris Said III			Rank 10 and class win
1999	Price & Bscher	BMW V12 LM	Steve Soper	Thomas Bscher		failure	accident
2000	BMW Motorsport	BMW V12 LMR	Steve Soper	Jean-Marc Gounon		Rank 4
2001	Prototype Technology Group	BMW M3 E46	Joey hand	Niclas Jönsson		failure	Engine failure
2002	Panoz Motor Sports	Panoz LMP01	David Donohue	Bryan Herta		Rank 8
2005	Panoz Motor Sports	Panoz Esperante GT-LM	Emanuele Naspetti	Robin Liddell		failure	Electrics
2006	BMW Team PTG	BMW M3 E46	Joey hand	Ian James		failure	Gearbox damage
2007	Panoz Team PTG	Panoz Esperante GT-LM	Joey hand	Tom Kimber-Smith		failure	Leak in the oil tank
2009	BMW Rahal Letterman Racing	BMW M3 E92	Joey hand			failure	mechanics
2010	BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team	BMW M3 E92	Tommy Milner	Dirk Werner		Rank 7
2011	BMW Motorsport	BMW M3 E92 GT	Augusto Farfus	Dirk Werner		Rank 12
2012	| BMW Team RLL	BMW E92 M3	Jörg Müller	Uwe Alzen		Rank 21
2013	BMW Team RLL	BMW Z4 GTE	Jörg Müller	Maxime Martin		Rank 18
2014	BMW Team RLL	BMW Z4 GTLM	Joey hand	Andy Priaulx		Rank 14
2015	BMW Team RLL	BMW Z4 GTE	Augusto Farfus	Dirk Werner		Rank 22
2016	BMW Team RLL	BMW M6 GTLM	Bruno Spengler	Dirk Werner		Rank 11
2017	BMW Team RLL	BMW M6 GTLM	Alexander Sims	Kuno Wittmer		Rank 12
2018	BMW Team RLL	BMW M8 GTLM	Alexander Sims	Connor De Phillippi		Rank 11
2019	Turner Motorsport	BMW M6 GT3	Robby Foley	Dillon Machavern		failure	Engine failure

Web links

Commons : Bill Auberlen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Bill Auberlen at the Driver Database
• Results information on Bill Auberlen

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IMSA-GTP series 1988