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The construction deadline had been very tight as the opening round of ALMS was to take place on March 17th - the gruelling, car-breaking 12 hours of Sebring. Because of the schedule, for this race - the first of 10 rounds contributing to the ALMS championship - BMW entered just one V8-engined M3-GTR driven by J.J. Lehto and Jorg Muller as a fully factory-backed, Schnitzer-ran effort. PTG would not take delivery of their cars until July for the Sears Point race. Lehto and Muller finished tenth overall and third in GT class behind two 911s. A better reflection of the car's potential is shown by the race pace - the car recorded the fastest GT lap on lap 32, which was a record for the Sebring circuit. At Donnington on 14th April, a second works M3-GTR appeared in the hands of Frederik Ekblom and Dirk Muller. Both pairings failed to finish but were classified 10th and 11th in the GT class. The tide now turned the way of the BMW and the M3-GTR won GT class in each of the remaining races, tallying 7 ALMS wins in total. This began with a 1-2 at Jarama in May followed by a 1-2-3-4 when PTG took delivery of their M3-GTRs at Sears Point in July. To balance honours out a little, PTG took a class win from the Schnitzer cars at Portland in August. There were also back-to-back 1-2 results at Mosport, Mid-Ohio, Laguna Seca and the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. By the end of the season, BMW had destroyed the opposition. Muller won the driver's championship, Schnitzer took the constructor's title and BMW the 'brand championship' in what was their most important foreign market. It was an extraordinary feat considering that BMW were outnumbered by Porsche 911 GT3s by a ratio of 4:1.
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The domination of the M3-GTR was not unanimously celebrated. The V8 engine used by the GT class BMW teams was probably the most controversial issue during the 2001 ALMS season. Porsche were said to be 'incensed' by the success of the GTR against their own 911 GT3 car and questioned the validity of the homologation rules. This seemed more than a touch ironic when considering that, not less than 5 years earlier, the Stuttgart marque had used a similar interpretation with the 911-GT1 cars. But a change in rules followed and the requirement for 2002 was for 100 cars and 1000 engines to be built, forcing the V8 M3-GTR out of ALMS.
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