John Edwards in the #24 BMW Team RLL M6 GTLM that he shared with Martin Tomczyk held off Ferrari racer Toni Vilander to win the two-hour-forty-minute IMSA WeatherTech Series race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca by a scant .152 seconds. It was the first IMSA win for Tomczyk.
Bill Auberlen and Alexander Sims in the #25 Team RLL M6 finished eighth in class, two laps down after Auberlen was spun by the #67 Ford.
Edwards’ race started with a spin into the gravel on the opening lap after a light tap from car #25. Edwards carved his way through the pack of GTD cars, and was 23 seconds behind the class-leading Ferrari after eight laps. He was running eighth in class when he handed off to Tomczyk on the first round of pit stops. Alexander Sims was fourth when he handed off to Auberlen.
When Auberlen was spun into the gravel the track went yellow for the only time in the race. The crew brought in Tomczyk for a stop just before the pits were closed; he handed off to Edwards, who stayed out for almost 1¼ hours to win the race.
Edwards moved into the lead as other cars pitted. Vilander took over the lead in the Ferrari that he shared with Giancarlo Fisichella, but he had to pit for fuel with just 35 minutes left. He moved up, running on Edwards’ tail in the waning laps, but he was not able to find a way past the M6.
Edwards said, “The last time I drove a black-liveried BMW (Z4) at Laguna Seca Lucas (Luhr) and I won by 20 seconds. It was spectacular to be able to do it again - this time with Martin (Tomczyk) - in a black-liveried BMW M6. I believe stressful may be the headline today. I had saved enough fuel, but I lost some time behind a prototype car and the Ferrari was right on me in the last corner. Luckily I was just able to hold him off.”
The eighth-place finish for Auberlen and Sims effectively takes them out of the chase for the drivers’ title with one race remaining in the season.
Jens Klingmann and Jesse Krohn in the turner Motorsport M6 GT3 finished fifth in the GTD class; Alessandro Balzan and Christine Neilsen won the class in a Ferrari.
Pierre Kleinubing and Ray Block in an Audi S3 won the Street Tuner class in Saturday’s four-hour Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series race. Mini racers Mike LaMarra and James Vance finished fifth, BimmerWorld 328i racers Greg Liefooghe and Ari Balogh were sixth, and Bimmerworld’s James Clay and Tyler Cooke were eighth.
The IMSA season ends at Road Atlanta on October 6-7. The CTSC finale will be run on Friday and the ten-hour Petit Le Mans race will close out the WeatherTech Series’ season on Saturday.—Brian S. Morgan
