Why BMW’S World Endurance & IMSA Return Is Huge News

Munich is All Set to Fight for the World Endurance Championship. And Another Le Mans Win.

BMW’s informal announcement of its Le Mans and World Endurance Championship racing return after 20 years away, is big news in so many more ways than one.

BMW M boss Markus Flasch confirmed the news on a personal Instagram post. The image of BMW’s 1999 Le Mans 24 Hour winning V12 LMR prototype was simply captioned, ‘We are back, Daytona 2023’.

BMW Has Already Dumped Formula E

Munich has already dumped Formula E and with the DTM German Touring Cars limited to a production GT3-based future, Mr. Flasch’s announcement indicates a LMDh attack against multiple Le Mans winners Porsche and Audi, as well as Honda (as Acura in the US).

Both Lamborghini and Cadillac are also understood to be on the verge of confirming an LMDh WEC campaign, the latter with a fresh car to follow ts highly successful IMSA challenger. Let alone several privateer LMDh efforts in the making on cost-constrained rules.

The LMDh class will soon dovetail with the WEC’s all-new Hypercar class as the combined WEC top echelon. Toyota, Alpine (Renault) and plucky privateers Glickenhaus are already racing Hypercars in this year’s WEC, with another former champion and Le Mans winner, Peugeot confirmed for 2022. And Ferrari returns a year later, 50 years since its last Le Mans and WEC start with the 312PB in 1973.