Amesbury, MA. April 3rd, 2013 -- Turner Motorsport carries their double win weekend momentum into Birmingham, Alabama for the third round of 2013 Grand-Am Series action at Barber Motorsports Park. Both the Rolex Sports Car and Continental Tire Sport Car Challenge series will race on Saturday April 6th after a month long break in the schedule since the historic Grand-Am weekend at Circuit of the Americas.
The Turner BMWs are no strangers to success at Barber Motorsports Park; especially after coming off of a double win weekend. Over the past four years the team has scored one victory, two seconds, two fifth place finishes and one sixth place finish on the 2.38 mile 15 turn road course. In 2011 the celebrated driver duo, Bill Auberlen and Paul Dalla Lana, took their second consecutive victory of the season in the No. 94 GT class M3 after narrowly missing the GS win in the No. 96 GS class M3 just hours before.
Just one month prior to the 2011 GT class win at Barber, Auberlen and Dalla Lana swept the Miami Grand Prix eventually going on to win the 2011 GS Driver and Team Championship in the No. 96 M3.
This year Auberlen and Dalla Lana continue to co-drive both the No. 96 GS class M3 and the No. 94 GT class M3. Michael Marsal will be joined by Gunter Schaldach for their third race together as team mates in the No. 93 GT class M3. The Marsal and Schaldach duo achieved a notable top ten finish in their first race together at Circuit of the Americas last month. Schaldach returns to Barber after his strong qualifying performance to start P3 in the 2011 Porsche 250 driving the Banner Racing Camero GT.R. Schaldach and co-driver Owen Gavin battled up front the entire race to finish 2nd behind the Turner No. 94 GT M3.
Paul Dalla Lana comments, Were past GT winners at Barber and will be looking for good results. We still need to catch up in Continental Tire so will be pushing there and will be looking for a solid result in Rolex to maintain or improve our top 5 standings.
Currently Paul Dalla Lana and Bill Auberlen are tied for fourth place in the 2013 GT driver points standings after the first two rounds of competition, only trailing third place Emil Assentato and Anthony Lazzaro by five points. Turner Motorsport rounds out the top three in Rolex GT team point standings behind second place AIM Autosport Team FXDD with Ferrari and first place Magnus Racing Porsche.
Will Turner explains, This year has been like a rollercoaster so far, lows at Daytona then big wins in Texas .I am really not sure what to expect at Barber especially after last years GS race , when both my cars got taken out at the start in the crazy chain reaction. Being 3rd in points after such disappointment at Daytona is exactly what we need, as a team, if we are going to compete for a championship. We have a long way to go and the competition is tougher than ever so we are hoping for solid results at Barber.
The Turner Motorsport yellow and blue liveried BMWs will take the track at Barber Motorsports Park this Thursday afternoon for GS and GT class practice sessions in preparation for Friday mornings qualifying sessions.
On Saturday April 6th the GT class M3s will take the green flag at 12:45pm for the 2 hour Porsche 250 and at 4:00pm the No. 96 GS class M3 will begin the two-and-a-half hour Continental Tire Challenge Race. Live Timing and Scoring will be available on Grand-Am.com
Images:
Photo Credit Halston Pitman/MotorsportMedia
About Turner Motorsport
Turner Motorsport is the leading BMW tuner in North America, bringing technology and expertise from the racetrack to the street for over two decades. Since 1993 the Turner Motorsport Team has competed in over 250 professional races, winning six professional racing championships in three different series since 2003. The most recent being the 2011 Continental Sports Car Challenge. Their success is passed into every component that Turner Motorsport designs and sells through their comprehensive website and performance showroom. Our race team, R&D engineers and Sales team work together, ensuring practical knowledge and state-of-the-art engineering flow in both directions. Few companies in North America can claim such a close relationship to what they sell and what they race.
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2013 ROLEX SERIES SCHEDULE
April 6th Barber Motorsports Park April 20 Road Atlanta June 1 Detroit Belle Isle June 15 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course June 30 Watkins Glen International July 26 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Aug. 10 Road America Aug. 17 Kansas Speedway Sept. 8 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Sept. 28 Lime Rock Park
Television coverage by
The Rolex Porsche 250 will be televised on SPEED Sunday April 7th at 5:30 PM ET and the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge will be tape delayed and televised on SPEED Saturday April 13th at 2pm ET.
Links
TurnerMotorsport.com - Parts, Performance & Service Parts for BMWs H&R Springs - Premium Quality Suspension Components StopTech Brakes - Experts in High Performance Brakes Recaro -The best in high quality automotive seats. MOTUL Lubricants - Race-proven Oil and Lubrication Products Borla Exhaust - The World's Most Winning Exhaust Intercity Lines - America's Premier Enclosed Automotive Transport Escort - Radar Detectors & Laser Detectors Spy Optic - Sunglasses, Snow and MX Goggles