Bill Auberlen, Paul Dalla Lana, and Billy Johnson piloted their Turner Motorsport M3 to a close second place GT class finish in the Grand-Am Rolex Series six hour enduro at Watkins Glen. Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, starting from the pole, finished fourth in the Daytona Prototype class, holding on to first place in drivers’ points going into the series next race at Indianapolis.
James Clay and John Capestro-Dubets finished third in the Street Tuner class in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race run on the day before the Rolex Series race.
Pruett and Rojas keep their points lead and Dalla Lana moves up to third
Scott Pruett placed the Ganassi Riley-BMW on the pole for the Watkins Glen enduro. It was the team’s first pole of the season. He led at the start, and both he and Rojas stayed in or near the lead for much of the first four hours of the race. Then the car had to pit for a radiator change. While the stop was quick it set the car down a lap. In the end, Pruett got the car back on the lead lap, but he finished fourth. Darren Law and Joao Barbosa won their second race of the season in their Action Express Corvette DP.
The Turner Motorsport M3 of Billy Johnson, Paul Dalla Lana, and Bill Auberlen circulated down in the pack early in the race, but moved into the top three in the fourth hour. While Bill Auberlen challenged Camaro racer Robin Liddell for the lead throughout the last hour of the race, he could not find his way by. He finished just 1.3 seconds behind Liddell.
With five races left in the Rolex Series Pruett and Rojas lead DP drivers’ points, while Paul Dalla Lana is third in the GT drivers’ standings behind Ferrari’s Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato, who are tied for first, and second-place Robin Liddell.
Clay and Capestro Dubets score their second-straight podium finish
BimmerWorld’s James Clay and John Capestro-Dubets reprised their third-place Street Tuner class finish at Road America with another at Watkins Glen. Their car was the best finishing BMW in Saturday’s 2 ½-hour CTSCC enduro, a race with seven caution periods that took up 22 of the event’s 59 laps. The ST class win went to Michael Valiante and Chad Gilsinger in their Hart Honda Civic Si.
The best finishing BMW in the Grand Sport class was the fifth place Fall-Line M3 of Bryan Sellers and Mark Boden. Matt Plumb and Nick Longhi won the race and the GS class in their Rum Bum Porsche 997. Fall-Line’s Hugh Plumb and Al Carter finished sixth, Turner Motorsport racers Bill Auberlen and Paul Dalla finished eighth and their teammates Michael Marsal and Boris Said finished tenth.
With three races remaining in the CTSCC season, Hugh Plumb and Al Carter are third in GS drivers’ points behind Plumb and Longhi, tied for first, and Porsche racers David Empringham and John Farano, tied for second. BimmerWorld’s Greg Liefooghe and David Levine are fifth in ST drivers’ points; Mazda racer Pierre Kleinubing leads.
The next race for both the Rolex and CTSCC series will be run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 27.—Brian S. Morgan, motorsports editor, bmwcca.org
