(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE)
Turner Motorsport Brings a GOAT and a Zebra to the 69th Sebring 12 Hour Weekend
Amesbury, Mass. --- Mar. 15, 2021 ---
The 69th edition of the 12 Hours of Sebring weekend will see Turner Motorsport enter a virtual and real menagerie of BMW racing cars and drivers for both the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge and WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races.
Team principal, Will Turner said, “Shortly after her arrival in Oz, Miss Dorothy Gale asked if she, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow would meet any wild animals? More importantly, the Scarecrow queried, would there be any that eat hay? Lions, tigers, or bears perhaps?”
Never one to conform, Turner decided on a Zebra and a GOAT– easily the scariest kind of hay-eaters.
Oh My. Welcome to #ZEBRing.
The GOAT? Non-other than Bill Auberlen. The racing driver most associated with BMW has three GT class victories at the Sebring 12 Hour (1995, 1997 and 1998), those three wins part of his 62 all-time IMSA win tally placing him at the top of the IMSA win standings. With 43 IMSA poles in his career he also tops the all-time pole position standings. No doubt the Greatest Of All Time.
Auberlen, Robby Foley and Australian Aidan Read will co-drive the No. 96 Liqui-Moly BMW M6 GT3 this weekend. The trio, along with IndyCar star Colton Herta, finished sixth in the GT Daytona class at the season opening Rolex 24 At Daytona. The day prior, Auberlen and Foley won the one-hour qualifying race to make Turner Motorsport the first GTD polesitter of the 2021 IMSA season.
The Zebra?
The No. 96 Turner Motorsport Michelin Pilot Challenge BMW M4 GT4 of Robby Foley and Vin Barletta will race with a special one-half real world and one-half virtual world livery highlighting a mashup of the real and eSports racing worlds. The livery, brought to life by Andy Blackmore (real world) and Juan Diego Sánchez (virtual), features the classic blue and yellow Turner Motorsport colors one side and the blue and black Zebra striping of one of BMW’s pro sim teams, BS+COMPETITION. The intersection of this partnership is Robby Foley who successfully does double duty as a driver in both worlds.
The two Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 machines scored a double-podium finish at the season-opening BMW Endurance Challenge At Daytona in January. In an edge-of-your-seat final minutes of the four-hour contest, Bill Auberlen raced the No. 95 M4 to the runner-up spot following an excellent opening stint by Dillon Machavern. Using some stellar side-drafting, Robby Foley scored the third finishing position coming to the checkered flag in the No. 96 M4. Foley co-drives with Vin Barletta. The duo won their first race together last season at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
The two-hour Alan Jay Automotive Network 120 for the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge is scheduled to take the green flag at 2:35 p.m. Friday, March 19th. The race will be streamed live on NBC Sports Trackpass (subscription-based) and will be broadcast on NBCSN at 1:00 p.m. on April 2. The 69th Annual Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Advance Auto Parts will take the green flag at 10:10 a.m. on Saturday, March 20th. Live race coverage begins at 10 a.m. on NBCSN, moves to the NBC Sports App at noon, before returning to NBCSN at 7 p.m. for the concluding hours. The entire telecast also streams on TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold.
#TacoTaco
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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 380 professional races, winning seven professional racing championships in four different series since 2003. The most recent being the 2014 Team Championship in the GTD-class of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. 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.
