A dramatic final run in the #24 BMW Team RLL M6 GTLM by Martin Tomczyk put him and his co-driver, John Edwards, on the podium in the IMSA Weather Series race at Lime Rock Park on July 22. Their teammates, Bill Auberlen and Alexander Sims, finished sixth in the #25 M6.
Tomczyk held off Corvette racer Antonio Garcia in the waning laps. It was a battle for fourth until Ford’s Ryan Briscoe pitted from third; it then became an intense battle for the final spot on the podium. Tomczyk, who had never raced at Lime Rock before, held off Garcia in the Vette for the third position.
Edwards qualified fourth in #24 and Bill Auberlen qualified eighth in #25. The range from the pole sitting #912 Porsche, qualified by Gimmi Bruni, to car #25 was just over .5 seconds. Edwards moved up to third early in the race. He and Tomczyk ran in the top four most of the way. Auberlen moved up to sixth after one of the Corvettes and one of the Fords fell back after a contact incident. After Sims took over he ran in fifth and sixth through most of his stint. The overall win went to Dirk Werner and Patrick Pilet in the #911 Porsche.
Jens Klingmann qualified the Turner #96 M6 GT3 fifth in the GTD class; he shared the car with Jesse Krohn in the race. The class pole went to Madison Snow in the #48 Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Klingmann was quick, running third early in the race. The car was given a drive through penalty after contact with a Mercedes sent it up the outside of the uphill, missing the chicane. Not long after it served its penalty the car went behind the wall for replacement of a broken left rear shock. It returned to the track with Krohn at the wheel and went on to finish fourteenth. The GTD class win went to Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Lindsey in a Porsche.
Clay and Cooke finish on the CTSC podium
Earlier in the day James Clay and Tyler Cooke in the #84 BimmerWorld 328i finished third in the two-hour Continental Tire SportsCar Champion race. Clay started the car from fourth on the grid behind a trio of Mazda MX-5s. He pitted from fourth and handed off to Tyler Cooke, who held on to the position until one of the leading Mazdas fell back after a shunt with about fifteen minutes remaining in the race; at that point Cooke moved up to third and stayed there.
Greg Liefooghe and Ari Balogh finished sixth in #81, the second BimmerWorld 328i. Michael Johnson and Stephen Simpson finished eight in the JDC-Miller Motorsports 228i, ahead of the #52 Mini driven by Nate Norenberg and Mark Pombo. The class win went to Chad McCumbee and Stevan McAleer in the #25 Mazda RX-5.
The overall win in the CTSC race went to Matt Bell and Robin Liddell in the #57 Stevenson Motorsports Camaro.
Both the WeatherTech and Continental Challenge Series run again on August 3-6 at Road America.—Brian S. Morgan
