A major chapter in North American sports car racing is coming to a close. BMW and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) will part ways at the end of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, concluding a 17-year partnership that delivered multiple titles, iconic wins, and helped re-establish BMW as a force in American endurance racing.
The news, first reported by RACER.comsignals a strategic realignment for BMW Motorsport. The German marque is expected to consolidate its top-level prototype racing under one banner, with Belgian team WRT set to take over as the sole factory team for BMW’s M Hybrid V8 program. WRT currently fields BMW’s Hypercar entry in the FIA World Endurance Championship and will reportedly expand its responsibilities to IMSA beginning in 2026. RLL, which informed staff of the decision earlier this summer, is already exploring new opportunities beyond the current season.
“We are obviously disappointed that our racing relationship with BMW is coming to an end after so many years where we’ve had a lot of success with them,” team principal Bobby Rahal told RACER.com. “It was a privilege and an honor to represent BMW on the circuits of America and in Canada, and now it’s time to move onto new things.”
We reached out to BMW Motorsport USA for a comment, but they were not able to “comment on any plans for IMSA for 2026” at this point in time.
A Historic Run of Success
The BMW-RLL alliance began in 2009 in the American Le Mans Series and quickly delivered results. The team captured the GT2 Teams’ title in 2010 and swept the Teams’, Manufacturers’, and Drivers’ championships in 2011 with the E92 M3 GT, establishing itself as a benchmark in the category. That momentum continued through successive platforms—Z4 GTLM, M6 GTLM, M8 GTE—with standout victories at marquee events like Long Beach, Laguna Seca, and the Twelve Hours of Sebring. The pinnacle came with back-to-back wins at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in 2019 and 2020, cementing RLL’s legacy in modern IMSA history.
The lmdh era
The partnership extended into the hybrid prototype era in 2023, when RLL debuted the M Hybrid V8 in IMSA’s new GTP category. Although results were initially elusive amid fierce competition from Porsche, Cadillac, and Acura, the team scored an inherited win at Watkins Glen in 2023 and claimed its first on-track GTP victory at Indianapolis in 2024.
This year, RLL has demonstrated front-running pace, capturing pole positions at Daytona, Sebring, Long Beach, and Laguna Seca, though a victory has remained just out of reach. The final three races—at Road America (Aug. 3), Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Sept. 21), and Road Atlanta’s Petit Le Mans (Oct. 11)—offer the team a chance to cap off the era with a statement result.
While RACER’s Marshall Pruett reports that Team WRT is expected to assume responsibility for BMW’s IMSA GTP program starting in 2026—adding to its existing FIA WEC Hypercar campaign with the M Hybrid V8—BMW has yet to officially confirm the move. The Belgian squad appears to have emerged as the frontrunner following a delay in the decision earlier this year, reportedly to allow time for U.S. trade policy around tariffs to stabilize. Until BMW makes a formal announcement, the structure and scope of its North American prototype effort are still subject to change.
