At Road Atlanta, Michael Marsal, Markus Palttala, and Cameron Lawrence finished fourth in the GTD class, driving the #97 Turner Motorsport M6 GT3 in the ten-hour Petit Le Mans race, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar championship series. John Edwards, Lucas Luhr, and Kuno Wittmer finished sixth in the GTLM class in the #100 BMW Team RLL M6 GTLM.
With just over a half-hour left in the race Palttala was running side-by-side in a battle for third with Jens Klingmann in the second Turner car, the #96 M6 GT3 that he shared with Ashley Freiberg and Bret Curtis. The two cars came together; Palttala pitted and returned to the race while Klingmann retired. Palttala crossed the finish line in fifth, but was moved up to fourth when the #44 Audi driven by Andy Lally, John Potter, and Marco Seefried that won the class on the track was demoted to last because Potter did not drive his required minimum three hours. The class win went to Jeroen Bleekemolen, Marc Miller, and Ben Keating in a Dodge Viper GT3 R. The season drivers’ title in GTD went to Ferrari racers Christina Nielsen and Allesandro Balzan.
It was a difficult race for both Team RLL cars. The #25 M6 GTLM driven by Bill Auberlen, Dirk Werner, and Augusto Farfus appeared to be headed for a podium finish when its steering rack failed with about two hours remaining in the race. It went to the garage for repairs, but was retired. The #100 car came together with the #67 Ford GT 2 ½ hours into the race. Alternator damage that resulted from the incident eventually sent the car to the garage for a long stop that took it out of contention. The GTLM class win went to Toni Vilander, Giancarlo Fisichella, and James Calado, who dominated the class in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE. The GTLM drivers’ title went to Corvette racers Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin, who finished third at Petit Le Mans.
BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt said, “The race in Road Atlanta was a turbulent conclusion to a thrilling debut season with the BMW M6 GTLM in North America. Unfortunately BMW Team RLL missed out on another top result at Petit Le Mans this year. However, two pole positions and three podium finishes in the new car’s debut season is a result we can build on for next year. The whole team, in Munich and at RLL in the USA, worked hard to make use of the experience gained and to improve our overall package, race by race. Thanks for all the hard work and dedication. We will now prepare in detail for the new season – and we will be ready to attack at the 2017 24-hour race in Daytona. A big thank you also goes to our customer team of Turner Motorsport. With its two wins in the GTD category, Will Turner’s crew successfully proved the competitiveness of the new BMW M6 GT3 here in North America.”—Brian S. Morgan
