The #25 BMW Team RLL M6 GTLM driven by Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner finished third in its class in the IMSA WeatherTech Series' Sahlen Six Hours of the Glen on July 3. Teammates John Edwards and Lucas Luhr finished eighth in Car #100.
Both cars led the race; the BMWs were the only cars that could keep pace with the winning Ford GTs. Car #25 celebrated Independence Day with a stars-and-stripes livery that paid homage to the formidable 2001 M3 GTR. Tom Milner’s Team PTG ran the livery at Petit Le Mans in 2001 as a post 9-11 tribute.
The GTLM win at Watkins Glen went to Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook in the #66 Ford GT; it was their second consecutive IMSA victory. Le Mans GTE class winners Dirk Müller and Joey Hand finished second in the #67 Ford. Auberlen appeared to be headed for second until his one-time teammate Hand found a way by with a late-race pass that took his Ford off the edge of the track. Car #100 was quick, and it finished on the lead lap; but it was set back by pit stop problems.
Team RLL principal Bobby Rahal said, “It was a hard race. Bill and Dirk did a very good job, but it is clear that the Fords showed what they showed at Le Mans. They are the quickest cars out there. However, we gave them a run. We had a bad pit stop right there at the end with the number 100 car that took the wind out of our sails, so we were disappointed with that, but the car didn’t quite have the pace of the 25 car for some reason. It was still a good finish for the 25 car. We earned some good points and certainly when you consider how we ran at Laguna Seca this is a major improvement. On to Mosport.”
The Turner Motorsport GTD-class M6 GT3s had a difficult race. Michael Marsal had to bring #97 into the garage for work after the suspension was damaged in an early-race incident; the car that he shared with Markus Palttala returned to battle to finish tenth. The #96 GT3 driven by Bret Curtis and Jens Klingmann was retired with a mechanical problem. Jeff Segal (fresh from a class win at Le Mans), Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan won the GTD class in the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3.
On the day before the six-hour race James Clay and Tyler Cooke finished sixth in the Street Tuner class in the 2 ½-hour Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race at the Glen. The ST class win went to Porsche Cayman racers Spencer Pumpelly and Nick Galante. The overall and Grand Sport class win went to Trent Hindman and Cameron Cassels in a Porsche Cayman GT4. It was their third consecutive win.
There is no time to rest between races; both series run again at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on July 8-10.—Brian S. Morgan
