BMW North America attempted to debut the car at the 1986 24 Hours of Daytona, which opened the IMSA GT season; however, a fire during a Road Atlanta test left the only completed car too badly damaged to race.

They returned for the Watkins Glen Grand Prix, with the same two-car entry that had competed at the Grand Prix of Miami; this time, both cars held together, with Jones and Andretti taking fifth, a lap ahead of Watson and Hobbs, who took sixth.

[6] However, the Road America 500 saw a dramatic disintegration of the team's recent form; Jones crashed out after just two laps, and was classified 60th and last overall (16th in class), whilst Watson and Hobbs experienced a fuel system failure after 71 laps, and were classified in 43rd overall, and 12th in class.

[9] Things improved at the Daytona Finale, which was the final round of the IMSA season; Jones and Andretti lasted for 83 laps before retiring, and were classified in 20th overall, and tenth in the GTP category, whilst Watson and Hobbs finished the race and were classified ninth overall, and seventh in class, after 91 laps.

[12] Chassis 86G-1 earned the only race victory for a March 86G at the Watkins Glen 500 Kilometers, 86G-2 having its best finish of 4th at Portland.

[15] Nissan Motorsport bought the 86G-5 Chassis for one race, the 24 hours of Le Mans 1986, failing to finish with gearbox failure after qualifying a distant 24th on the grid.

[21] The Hasemi Motorsport 86G-7 was retired from competition after this race, the team purchasing a R87E and campaigning that for the rest of the season.

The car was 5th fastest in Le Mans testing, qualifying 24th on the grid in the race and failing to finish with accident damage.

They entered their car into the final three races of the year, finishing all three races and earning two pole positions at the final two Fuji rounds, finishing a best of 4th in the Fuji 500 Kilometers to close the year.

[24] March-Nissan (grouping together the works of the R86V and the R87E) came 4th in Manufacturers points, with 22 overall, defeating Jaguar and losing out to Mazda, Toyota and Porsche.

In the course of its running, the car earned 5 pole positions, though the highest result it could obtain was 4th in the last race it ran as a Nissan R86V Starting in 1988, the Person Racing Team began to modify their Nissan R86V in an attempt to keep the car competitive.

[26] The next race it attempted was the 500 km of Suzuka, qualifying 10th and once again failing to make the finish of the event due to a transmission failure.

[28] This chassis was taken to Le Mans, along with a 87G-based car, the 86G earning a 25th place starting spot and failing to finish due to engine failure.

Neither car managed to finish, though despite this, R88C-7 was scored in 8th despite retiring with electrical failure, R88C-5 went out with engine trouble.

[35] In the last race their ran, the JSPC Fuji 1000 Kilometers, the two Nissan R88C's dominated the front row of the grid, with R88C-7 on pole and R88C-5 alongside in 2nd place.

Despite the strong performances the two R88C cars were putting in, they were retired after the race and Nissan used the new R89C for the rest of that JSPC and WSC season.

As a result of this, the Conte team missed the next race of the season, the Road Atlanta 500 Kilometers.

[38] The Conte team managed to enter 86-11 into one last race, the 150 Laps of Lime Rock, qualifying 6th and earning a 4th-place finish.

Within two months, Moretti's Momo team would bring the 86G-11 chassis to round 11 of the championship, the 300 km of Portland, qualifying the car 6th and finishing 9th.

[41] The car wasn't brought to the series final round, the 2 hours of Del Mar.

Despite earning a fairly respectable qualifying position, the HP Racing team's 12 hours were marred due to the death of Bob Copeman in a GTU Porsche 911 they had entered during the preliminary sessions for the race.

For the next round of the championship at Road Atlanta, Moretti began to make aerodynamic modifications to their cars, first implemented on 86G-10.

Moretti then concentrated on simply running the one-car operation with 86G-10, taking the car to the Lime Rock 150 laps, qualifying 11th and failing to finish the race once more, scored in 20th place.

[54] The Momo Course team would purchase a Porsche 962 for the rest of the season, racing it alongside the 86G-10 car at Sears Point.