John Edwards and Lucas Luhr in the #100 BMW Team RLL M6 GTLM finished third in the GTLM class in the IMSA WeatherTech Series race at Road America. Their teammates Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner finished eighth in car #25.
Both Team RLL cars started from the back of the pack because of technical infractions in qualifying. Both moved up over the course of the two-hour-forty-minute enduro. Edwards moved up to fourth late in the race, and then moved up to a podium position as two front runners, the Porsche of Nick Tandy and the Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella, fell back in the waning minutes of the race because of incidents. The class win went to Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin in the #4 Corvette. Milner passed Richard Westbrook in the #67 Ford GT for the lead on the final lap. The Ford that Westbrook shared with Ryan Briscoe finished second.
Team RLL principal Bobby Rahal said, “I think we have to feel pretty happy, given where we started. It was a trouble-free race for us and we were able to take advantage of some mistakes by others. In general I am pleased, but when you are that close to the lead it is frustrating. I am pleased after the disaster at Lime Rock we have recovered and all credit for the team for changing the cars so quickly. So now on to the next one at VIR.”
Sportscar365.com reports that Edwards and Luhr were in the team’s test car that had been returned to competition after Lime Rock. The original #25 car had been returned to BMW Motorsport in Munich for repairs after its Lime Rock crash; the #25 car that Auberlen and Werner drove at Road America had been #100 in previous races.
Jens Klingmann and Bret Curtis in the #96 Turner Motorsport M3 GT3 finished seventh in the GTD class; their teammates Michael Marsal and Markus Palttala finished ninth. The GTD class win went to Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ben Keating in the #33 Dodge Viper GT3.
The series runs again at VIR on August 26-28.—Brian S. Morgan
