If you’ve been around the Internet for any length of time, you’ve undoubtedly seen some of the BMW memes that depict its drivers as a-holes. I’ve posted one of the more popular ones (and my favorite) below–have you seen it? The BMW jokes range from its owners not using their turn signals to being overall crappy drivers. The universe aligned at Sunday’s closing of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and enthusiasts around the globe were able to witness retribution, paid on our behalf by the No. 4 Corvette Racing driver, Tommy Milner. [Author’s Note: This article is FREE and not behind a paywall. If/when any popups occur, please click to make them disappear and continue enjoying the article.]
First, here’s that popular meme, and then we’ll give you a quick rundown of what pushed Milner to flip the BMW off. Even more entertaining is the No. 4’s payback, and we have that video below. Also, you can click here if you missed CorvSport’s full coverage of the Rolex 24–spoiler: the AWA Corvette Racing team won their class!
Here’s Tommy Milner telling the BMW driver he’s number one!
What led to the one-finger salute?
Milner was in a battle for the lead of the GTD Pro class against the No. 1 BMW, driven by Kelvin van der Linde when the duo took their fight through slower traffic and lapped some cars in front of them. One of them just happened to be the No. 48 BMW of Augusto Farfus, who was over 50 laps down in the race.
Van der Linde’s teammate did his best to disrupt Milner’s charge–imagine that BMW driver who refuses to let you pass while he camps out in the fast lane under the speed limit. The No. 48 BMW of Farfus continued to throw blocks and eventually accomplished his goal, as van der Linde’s BMW was now on the heels of the No.4 Z06 GT3.R.
While the officials reprimanded Farfus for impeding the leaders and sent him to the pits for a drive-through penalty, the two drivers met again. And the penalty did not dissuade Farfus from returning to his antics, and the two drivers soon got stacked up heading into a corner. The No. 4 Corvette suffered damage, tearing out its left taillight, after Milner drifted high and made contact with van der Linde. Farfus was given another drive-through penalty, and that’s about the time Milner did what we all feel like doing to a-hole BMW drivers!
What Tommy Milner had to say after the race:
“That’s not what IMSA is about, sports car racing is about. First and foremost, the driver should be embarrassed, the team should be embarrassed… with that kind of racing. It is team racing here but not like that. They have a car that’s laps down out of the race whose only job is basically only to help the teammate, and not like that. Lap after lap, blocking, blocking, blocking, waiting for me. It’s just like I said, not how sports car racing should be. It’s disappointing. I don’t have an issue with 1 car. Those guys are in their own race. It’s just the sister car that’s out there just to be a nuisance. Poor sportsmanship, poor driving, just embarrassing on their part.
It sounds like they timed their pit stop to come out in front of me. On their previous stint, they waited for me until I got close, then held me up for a bit but for whatever reason, either he pit or got the black flag, then came out and did it again. Their only goal is to race dirty. Again, it’s just disappointing. It’s not how this kind of race should go. I was content for a while just to sit behind him. I’m not a big believer in spirits and those kinds of things, but if karma was going to work, it would be a good time today.”
More on the incident…
“Basically that’s not what IMSA and sports car racing is about. Hard racing between competitors is totally fine. I have no issue with the 1 car. At the end of the day the driver of the 48 should be embarrassed, the team should be embarrassed… a car that’s only out there to slow us down isn’t what this race is about. I have no issue with the 1. They’re still in the hunt. We’ll continue to race them clean as we have.
In the end what hurt us the most was to continue to stay out after they had a blocking penalty to block more. Whoever was in the 48 really slowed me up in (Turn) Three and got me a little bit crossed up and put me into the 1. The car isn’t totally right for sure. There’s lasting damage from all of that for sure, not to mention the problems we had with the bumper. Hopefully that is fixed now. It’s just disappointing. The team at Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports has done a great job all race long. I’m really proud of our guys. Nicky and Nico have done a great job all race long. It’s a shame for us to work that hard to put us into contention to have a good result and for it to be spoiled like that was pretty pathetic.”
As they say, payback is a b*tch! I was lucky enough to watch teammate Nico Varrone punt the BMW off the track in real-time.
#4 Corvette gets their payback on BMW
byu/SelectionVirtual1127 inIMSARacing
Do you feel better that at least one BMW driver got what was due to him?!? I sure do. If you want to keep up to date with all the fresh Corvette news and maintain a pulse on the lifestyle and culture of this exciting, iconic brand, CorvSport has the fastest-growing Corvette community on our Facebook page, with over 172,000 followers (53,000 since January 2023!). Come join other hardcore enthusiasts and say hello. This is Douglas B. signing off–click here if you would like to see more of my features.
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