Woodcliff Lake, N.J. – July 12, 2010… With second- and fourth-place GT class finishes in yesterday’s Utah Grand Prix, the BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team has raced BMW to the top of the GT Manufacturer point standings after four rounds of competition in the 2010 American Le Mans Series.

Bill Auberlen and Tommy Milner, co-driving the No. 92 M3 GT, finished 14 seconds behind the winner in the two-hour-and-forty-five-minute contest, continuing this season’s BMW-RLR podium streak. Joey Hand and Dirk Müller finished fourth in the No. 90 M3 GT, losing a third-place finish in the closing minutes of the race, as a damaged exhaust reduced the BMW’s power.

Auberlen and Milner’s third podium finish of the year leapfrogs them ahead of teammates Hand and Müller to third in GT driver points. Hand and Müller stand fourth.

Download the entire newsletter.

Eight entries, including Emirates Team New Zealand and American syndicate BMW Oracle, have already been confirmed. Organizers said Tuesday the two others will be announced in days.

The 10-teams will compete in existing boats from the previous editions of the America’s Cup in a round-robin, one-on-one match racing format, spokesman Bruno Trouble said. Team New Zealand leader Grant Dalton said the competition is not set up to compete with the America’s Cup. “At this stage, the sole purpose is to create an environment where the teams will be more in control of the future, more in control of their destiny,” he said.

The Louis vitton World Series follows the introduction this year of the Louis vitton Pacific Series in Auckland. “The Replica Louis Vuitton Card Holder Pacific Series was a great success,” Dalton said. “It seemed logical to try and build on this and that is what we have done.” The circuit has been created in association with the newly established World Sailing Team Association. It will start in Nice with a first regatta Nov. 7-22 before a stop in Auckland in March. A third stage is scheduled for La Maddalena, Italy, in May. One big selling point is costs — teams don’t have to build boats.

Each team will have a budget of $435,000 to $870,000. The eight confirmed entries also include France’s K-Challenge and Team French Spirit, Italians Mascalzone Latino and Italia By Joe Fly, Swedish Challenge Artemis and Synergy Russian Sailing Team. Alinghi, runner-up in the Pacific Series won by Team New Zealand, is not among them. “They hadn’t the budget to be involved both in a monohull competition and in a multihull competition,” Trouble said. “But they don’t see us as rivals.” Alinghi is expected to defend its America’s Cup title against BMW Oracle in February, with both teams racing in massive multihull boats. But the two teams have been involved in legal wrangling that has lasted more than two years.