Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner drove the BMW Team RLL #25 Z4 to a GTLM class win in the two-hour-and-forty-minute Tudor United SportsCar Championship race at Circuit Of The Americas in Texas on September 18. They took the lead with three minutes left in the race, when the two leading Porsches had to pit for a splash of fuel.
The win leaves Auberlen and Werner just three points behind Porsche’s Patrick Pilet in drivers’ points going into the Petit Le Mans season finale at Road Atlanta on October 3.
Team RLL’s Lucas Luhr and John Edwards were competitive in Z4 #24, but a stop to repair a puncture set them back; they finished seventh.
Team principal Bobby Rahal said, “I felt we could have a good day, but I didn’t know we were going to have to wait to that close to the end. It was a great day for the team and BMW. Great drives by Bill and Dirk, who both did a great job. We had to save fuel to make it, as did everybody. The Porsches had to stop two few laps ahead of us and it was just a matter at the end for Dirk to drive as hard as he could and save fuel. It worked out beautifully. After the last couple or three races this was pretty sweet.”
Turner Motorsport’s Michael Marsal and Markus Palttala finished second in the GTD class in the team’s #97 Z4, just one second behind the class winning Dodge Viper driven by Jeroen Bleekemolen and Ben Keating in the #33 Dodge Viper.
The overall win went to Scott Pruett and Joey Hand in the #01 Ganassi Riley-Ford prototype.—Brian S. Morgan
