BMW will defend its American Le Mans Series GT titles in 2012 after announcing that Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing will continue to field a works team in the championship.
RLL ran BMW's factory assault in the series this year, winning the teams' and manufacturers' titles, while Joey Hand and Dirk Muller took the drivers' championship in one of its M3 GTs. No drivers have been announced for the program. Alongside champions Hand and Muller, Dirk Werner and Bill Auberlen drove the second car this year and finished third in the drivers' standings.
BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt said: "It goes without saying that we will not be sending a successful car like the BMW M3 GT off to the museum after a season like the one we enjoyed in 2011. BMW Team RLL will be back with this model to defend its GT titles next year."
Marquardt also confirmed that BMW's European customer racing program would centre around the Z4 GT3, which is now eligible for the GT World Championship following a series of rule changes, and will receive a series of development upgrades over the winter.
"We believe that the GT3 class has a successful future ahead of it. You only need to look at how many manufacturers are racing in this class with competitive GT3 versions of their production cars," he added. "The strength of the field is incredibly high - which is why we will be doing everything in our power to ensure that the BMW Z4 GT3 continues to guarantee victories for our privateer drivers and teams."
BMW's World Touring Car, the 320 TC, will not receive any upgrades ahead of the new season.