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Race Engineer Fife Joins BMW Team RLL
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Veteran IndyCar and sports car race engineer Neil Fife has found a familiar home with BMW Team RLL as the factory IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans program prepares for its 2016 campaign.
Fife departs the race-winning Team Falken Tire GTLM program to engineer one of the team's new twin-turbo BMW M6s as part of a RLL homecoming.
"We worked together before when Neil was our lead IndyCar engineer in 2007 and 2008, and was there when we won Watkins Glen with Ryan Hunter-Reay," said Bobby Rahal. "Neil will be the lead engineer on one of the BMWs, and it was unfortunate we couldn't keep working together in IndyCar when we stepped out of IndyCar for a little while. Unfortunately with Derrick Walker losing the Falken deal, the opportunity came to bring him back.”
In addition to his familiarity with RLL's leadership group, Fife's previous experience with the team's engineering staff should ease the transition.
"It's great because Neil will get to work with Jeff Schaffner again," Rahal continued. "They were the lead and assistant engineers with us in IndyCar, and Jeff rejoined us last year, and now they'll be together again on the BMW program, so we're really pleased with how everything is working out."
BMW Team RLL is preparing for a busy off-season as the brand-new GTLM M6s are expected to arrive Stateside from Germany and begin private testing prior to the first official IMSA test at Daytona on November 17–18. The M6s are expected to share the track with Ford's new GTLM challenger and other new or revised GTLM and GT Daytona models prior to the Roar Before The Rolex 24 on January 8–10.
Fife departs the race-winning Team Falken Tire GTLM program to engineer one of the team's new twin-turbo BMW M6s as part of a RLL homecoming.
"We worked together before when Neil was our lead IndyCar engineer in 2007 and 2008, and was there when we won Watkins Glen with Ryan Hunter-Reay," said Bobby Rahal. "Neil will be the lead engineer on one of the BMWs, and it was unfortunate we couldn't keep working together in IndyCar when we stepped out of IndyCar for a little while. Unfortunately with Derrick Walker losing the Falken deal, the opportunity came to bring him back.”
In addition to his familiarity with RLL's leadership group, Fife's previous experience with the team's engineering staff should ease the transition.
"It's great because Neil will get to work with Jeff Schaffner again," Rahal continued. "They were the lead and assistant engineers with us in IndyCar, and Jeff rejoined us last year, and now they'll be together again on the BMW program, so we're really pleased with how everything is working out."
BMW Team RLL is preparing for a busy off-season as the brand-new GTLM M6s are expected to arrive Stateside from Germany and begin private testing prior to the first official IMSA test at Daytona on November 17–18. The M6s are expected to share the track with Ford's new GTLM challenger and other new or revised GTLM and GT Daytona models prior to the Roar Before The Rolex 24 on January 8–10.
