Jens Klingmann and Bret Curtis drove the #96 Turner Motorsport M6 GT3 to a ninth-place finish in the GTD class in the IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championship Series race on the Belle Isle circuit in Detroit, while their teammates, Markus Palttala and Michael Marsal, finished eleventh in #97.
Near the end of the race the Turner team tweeted that it was a “very uneventful race for us.” Marsal and Curtis started the cars; Marsal got out of #97 just past the 35-minute mark in the race, and Curtis pitted just minutes later. Klingmann and Palttala maintained their positions, unable to move up in the pack.
The 100-minute race on what the drivers described as a very bumpy circuit was punctuated by four full-course yellow flag periods. American cars tend to win in the motor city; this year was no exception. In the GTD class Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ben Keating won in a Viper, and in the Prototype class Jordan and Ricky Taylor won in a Corvette DP; it was the fifth consecutive Chevrolet win at the circuit.
The GTLM class did not run on Belle Isle, so Team RLL’s M6s did not compete. All classes will be on hand when the WeatherTech Series runs again in the six-hour race at Watkins Glen on July 3.—Brian S. Morgan
