Michael Marsal and Markus Palttala pieced together two solid stints in the No. 97 IHG Rewards Club BMW to clinch a strong fourth place finish in Sunday’s two-hour and forty-minute Oak Tree Grand Prix at the 17-turn, 3.27 mile VIRginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia.
The No. 97 IHG Rewards Club BMW of Marsal and Palttala started round eight of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship from the ninth position to make a charge to the front of the pack. In Marsal’s opening fifty-minute stint he managed to improve three positions to sixth.
Marsal was able to use GTLM lap traffic to execute an impressive pass on the No. 22 Porsche in turn-1 following a thirty-minute battle for seventh place.
“We had a quick racecar this weekend, our BMW was good almost everywhere on track except for the straights,” said Michael Marsal. “VIR does not have a lot of great places to pass which made it a challenge for both Markus and I, unfortunately I got behind a slower car and could not get around him which set us back.”
Following the first pit stop and driver change, Palttala quickly settled into his rhythm to click off the fastest race lap in an effort to close the gap to the GTD class leaders. Palttala’s consistency throughout his first fifty-minute stint allowed him to make up ground on the GTD leaders.
With a caution-less opening two hours, team strategist Don Salama made the call to bring Palttala in for his final stop before the fuel window in hopes of a late race caution which would allow the No. 97 to catch the leaders.
“VIR is very difficult for us to pass, Michael got caught behind a slower car early on in the race which put us back about 20 seconds from the leaders,” commented Don Salama. “I played a strategy which was dependent on a late race yellow to bring Markus in before the rest of the field and short fuel the car to rely on our pace and fuel efficiency.”
With under one hour remaining, attrition took hold of several GTD entries allowing Palttala to work his way up to fourth position.
“I had good pace but unfortunately we were just never able to close that gap between our BMW and the leaders,” said Markus Palttala. “Michael got us off to a great start and made some great passes but with no yellows and hard passing zones it was difficult to make up ground late in the race.”
Despite a disappointing finish at Road America two weeks prior, the strong fourth place finish at VIRginia International Raceway allowed the Turner driver duo to score valuable points entering the final two races of the 2015 Tudor Championship season.
“This weekend went well. The No. 97 IHG Rewards BMW was strong all weekend and both Michael and Markus were on their game,” said Will Turner. “I’m happy we were able to walk away with a top five result and score some points going into the final two races. We are looking forward to COTA and the finale at Petit Le Mans.”
Stay tuned as the team prepares for the Lone Start Grand Prix on September 19th-20th at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.