The Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America was cut short after an optimistic and strong race start for the Turner BMW of Michael Marsal and Markus Palttala yesterday at the 14-turn 4.048 mile “National Park of Speed” in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
The No. 97 IHG Rewards Club BMW was involved in a frustrating incident in the turn 11 “kink” after just twenty-two minutes of green flag racing.
The incident came after Michael Marsal settled into a quick and consistent pace clicking off his best lap of the race just one lap prior. Contact with a Prototype Challenge car from behind sent Marsal spinning into the wall at one of the fastest corners at Road America.
“It was really disappointing to end our race so early,” commented Michael Marsal. “We had a strong BMW and I was just settling into a good rhythm out there. Markus (Palttala) and I both had good pace in practice so it’s really too bad we weren’t able to see how our race strategy would play out.”
The No. 97 IHG Rewards Club BMW stood consistently inside the top three of the GTD class in all three practice sessions on Friday and Saturday leading up to Sunday’s race.
“I’m just glad Michael is OK, that was a very hard hit,” said Markus Palttala. “Obviously it’s disappointing to end a race so early, especially since we had a competitive BMW. We will look ahead to focus on VIR in just two weeks and hopefully turn our luck around.”
The frustrating results come after the blue and yellow Turner BMWs have topped the podium at Road America for the past three seasons, including two race wins in 2013 and 2014.
“We really had high hopes for a strong finish coming into this race,” said Will Turner. “We have done so well at Road America in the past several years and with the race win at Lime Rock, we had confidence that we could show some good results this weekend. Now it’s onto VIR!”
The No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW heads to Virginia International Raceway for round 8 of the 2015 Tudor United SportsCar Championship in just two weeks. The Oak Tree Grand Prix takes place on August 23nd on the historic 3.27 mile 17-turn road course in Danville, Virginia.
The two-hour and forty-minute GT only race will be televised LIVE on Fox Sports 1 on Sunday, August 23rd at 1:00pm ET.