63rd MOBIL 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (BMW Results + spoilers on page 4)

[Dackelone]

Originally Posted by 954Stealth

^^@0:39 WTH... they built a huge hotel at Sebring?


PS: I wonder IF it will rain this year?

[Pig Farmer]

Originally Posted by Dackelone

^^@0:39 WTH... they built a huge hotel at Sebring?


PS: I wonder IF it will rain this year?

They built that hotel several years ago but the TV camera angle hardly ever picks it up. It's on outside of the turn 7 hairpin. When the crowd thins out, which is never, you can watch the race from the pool. Turn 7 is one of the best viewing areas hands down. It's the hardest braking zone at Sebring (harder than turn 1 and 17 where you can carry more speed) and the glow of the rotors at night is amazing.

As for rain... Not likely. It's humid as hell, but no real rain clouds in the sky. Just hazy. But the weather changes fast in Florida, so I guess we'll see.

[954Stealth]

...

[954Stealth]

This was a front cradle replacement

[954Stealth]

I don't want to give anything away... Spoiler alerts for posts below this one


*** proceed with caution!

[954Stealth]

... Turner finished inside the top 10 and secured some points early.

and congrats to the #24 BMW Z4 GTLM entry which finished 4th and the No. 25 finished 8th.

Good job guys!

[954Stealth]

Burton Racing Press Release



Disappointment in Sebring for Burton Racing

Sebring, Fla. (20 March 2015) “ After executing a perfect pit strategy that saw the No. 23 BMW Automotive Chemicals/Excelda BMW 128i run up the pack from their 26th starting position to fifth, Burton Racing faced disappointment in the Visual Studio 150 when the rear left wheel broke with just under 45 minutes remaining in the 2.5-hour race.

The team opened the day playing host to a great group of BMW Club members, with the Burton Racing drivers hosting a Q and A session and letting the Roundel fans get an up close and personal look at the BMW 128i ahead of it taking to the track.

In the close to 90 degree midday heat, Mike LaMarra took the green flag for the Visual Studio 150 focused and prepared to make his run up the pack. An excellent start saw him move up four positions within the first five laps of the race. He then settled into the BMW machine to maintain pace with the field through an opening stint that featured multiple caution periods.

Unfortunately, contact from a pursuing competitor knocked LaMarra back during a longer green flag run which cost him a few positions. Without a competitor directly in front of him, LaMarra focused on running clean and consistent laps around the 3.74-mile challenging road course.

However, three full-course caution periods in short succession slowed the team to make the most of the yellow to maximize their fuel strategy and when LaMarra pitted with just under an hour remaining to hand over the car over to co-driver Terry Borcheller, the team was able to take just a splash of fuel and cycle out ahead of the rest of the pack, still completely refueling.

Perfect pit stops by the crew and excellent drives by both drivers positioned Borcheller in the top-five when issues with the rear end stemming from the previous contact began to appear. As the rest of the field sped on, Borcheller was forced off track and Burton Racing's race day came to an early end with just under 45 minutes to go and settled for a 26th place finish.

"It was a bit of a disappointing day, to be sure," commented Team Manager, Keith Burton. "I have to congratulate the guys. After qualifications we sat down and worked everything out and we knew we were going to have to do something drastically different from what everyone else was going to do and for a while the race was really going our way and the guys and Mike (LaMarra) and Terry (Borcheller) all did a great job. But this is a track that is really unforgiving on equipment and you just can't have contact like we had today. We will take what we have learned about the car here and apply it going forward and see what we can do."

The team will now utilize a short break in racing action to prepare their BMW machine before Round 3 of the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge on May 2.

[954Stealth]

The chequered flag for the 12 Hours of Sebring is out: Lucas Luhr, John Edwards and Jens Klingmann finished fourth in the #24 BMW Z4 GTLM. The second BMW Team RLL car came eighth. It was a tough fight out there at the Sebring International Raceway.

[Elsabor67]

Originally Posted by 954Stealth

The chequered flag for the 12 Hours of Sebring is out: Lucas Luhr, John Edwards and Jens Klingmann finished fourth in the #24 BMW Z4 GTLM. The second BMW Team RLL car came eighth. It was a tough fight out there at the Sebring International Raceway.

That is an awesome picture!!!!!!!!!!!

[954Stealth]

BMW press release
Mar 22, 2015

Missing out on podium in Sebring.
Lucas Luhr, John Edwards and Jens Klingmann finished fourth in the GTLM class for BMW Team RLL in the 12 Hours of Sebring, the second round of the United SportsCar Championship (USCC).

The three drivers completed a total of 329 laps with the number 24 BMW Z4 GTLM. The Corvette crew of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Ryan Briscoe claimed GTLM victory.

With temperatures of up to 33 degrees Celsius, the endurance classic at the Sebring International Raceway turned out to be a truly hot affair. For most parts of the race, the GTLM field was running closely together, delivering some gripping racing action to the American fans. Following a final full-course yellow with two hours to go, the cars on the lead lap were once again bunched up before entering the decisive phase of the race. With final stint driver Luhr at the wheel, the number 24 car crossed the line in fourth after 12 hours of racing, despite a problem with the power steering in the final stages of the race.

For Dirk Werner, Bill Auberlen and Augusto Farfus the race didnt go according to plan with the number 25 BMW Z4 GTLM. After five and a half hours, Werner entered the pit lane with a damaged front subframe, running in sixth at that time. The necessary repair work cost the trio more than ten laps, and they dropped to the very back of the GTLM field. Werner, Auberlen and Farfus proved their fighting spirit in the second half of the race, ultimately finishing eighth.

In the GTD class Turner Motorsport raced a BMW Z4 GTD at the Sebring International Raceway. BMW works driver Andy Priaulx, Boris Said, Markus Palttala, the 2014 BMW Sports Trophy winner, and Michael Marsal took the chequered flag in eighth.

Prior to the start of the race, the winning BMW 3.0 CSL from 1975 went out on an honorary lap with Hans-Joachim Stuck at the wheel. Several members of the BMW Motorsport crew from 40 years ago followed him in two BMW M4 Convertibles. Among them were Jochen Neerpasch, the first Managing Director of BMW Motorsport GmbH, and Stuck's 1975 team-mate, Brian Redman. In addition, Stuck had the honour of serving as "Grand Marshall" for the event.

[954Stealth]

Andy's recap


While Andy Priaulx is disappointed that his second race of the season in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship didnt produce a better result than eighth, he was still happy after competing in the 12 Hours of Sebring in the Turner Motorsport BMW Z4 GTD.

“While on paper the result doesn’t look that good, there are a lot of positives that we can take from today. The car ran faultlessly and the team did a fantastic job. Its professionalism is impressive and it is just unfortunate that our performance was compromised by the balance of performance which gave us extra weight and a restrictor for this race. The team showed what it could do last year, and I know in the next few races it will be back up there winning. I wont be back now until the end of the year, but I shall be cheering the team on from Europe," said Andy.

Andy was sharing the number 97 IHG® Rewards Club loyalty branded car with America’s Boris Said and Michael Marsal and Finlands Markus Palttala. Boris qualified the car and drove the opening stint, then Andy was in the car for a couple of stints in the second half of the race. One thing that played an important part in the race was the ambient temperatures in the 30s Celcius, as he explained: "It was certainly hot and tough for all of us out there. These temperatures are pretty draining when you are in a car with a roof and take their toll. Luckily for me I learnt many years ago when we raced in Dubai in the European Touring Car Championship finale in 2004 how to deal with these conditions."

The first race for Andy in the car was in Daytona and he will return again for the championship finale, which is the ten hour Petit Le Mans in Road Atlanta. His next race will be the opening round of the British Touring Car Championship aft Brands Hatch on the 4th and 5th April in the BMW 125i M Sport, which also races in the livery of the IHG® Rewards Club.

[hellrotm]

Rolex 24 and Sebring 12hr wins for Corvette racing. Not a bad way to start off the season.

Hopefully they bring home the big trophy, 24hr Le Mans. Murica!

[954Stealth]

Originally Posted by BlackJetE90

Rolex 24 and Sebring 12hr wins for Corvette racing. Not a bad way to start off the season.

Hopefully they bring home the big trophy, 24hr Le Mans. Murica!

Good job so far to the 'Vette team!

[954Stealth]

STRONG TOP TEN FINISH AT SEBRING FOR TURNER BMW.

Sebring, FL. – March 22nd, 2015 - Enormous crowds, blue skies and abundant sunshine set the stage on the 3.74 mile 17-turn circuit for the 63rd Annual Mobil1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on Saturday for Round 2 of the 2015 Tudor United SportsCar Championship.

The twelve hour endurance race marks the second round of the Patron North American Endurance Cup attracting many manufacturers and teams to compete on one of the most historic endurance racing circuits in the world.

In 2014 Turner’s Dane Cameron captured the pole in qualifying to go on and lead most of the 12 hour competition with co-drivers Markus Palttala and Paul Dalla Lana. With just over an hour remaining the No. 94 BMW entered pit lane in P1 for the final stop ultimately finishing P7 after a mechanical issue during the final tire change.

“Last year at Sebring we were strong. Despite being 7 mph down on the front and back straights we were able to make up a lot of ground in other portions of the track to lead much of the race,” said Will Turner. “We had high hopes of being able to return to Sebring for 2015 and do well again after a difficult Daytona race.”

In this year’s Twelve Hour, the scenario was quite the opposite of 2014. The now heavier No. 97 Turner BMW of Michael Marsal, Markus Palttala, Boris Said and Andy Priaulx started from 14th place, nearly three seconds off the pace of the top five GTD entries.

“Since Daytona the IMSA competition department has added almost 150lbs of ballast to our Z4 along with a 19mm intake restrictor reduction – basically neutering any chances of the car to be competitive,” said Will Turner. “IMSA clearly made a mistake, we are now 20% done with the season so something needs to change quickly – I am confident that the results speak for themselves and IMSA now has all the data they need to make a change.”

Following the green flag Saturday morning, Boris Said, a two time Twelve Hours of Sebring Champion, kicked off the twelve hours working his way up into the top five, briefly holding onto to P1 by lap 58 under caution with some creative pit strategy by team strategist Don Salama.

At just over three hours into the race, Said entered pit lane in P10 for fuel and a driver change to get Michael Marsal in for his opening stint. Marsal battled through a double stint ending up in P12 before giving the No. 97 BMW to Markus Palttala.

“It was tough out there, keeping pace with the field was extremely difficult with all this (added) weight on the car. I was able to make up ground for position in some of the tighter portions of the track just to see it all disappear on the straights and faster segments,” commented Michael Marsal. “I did what I could to push the car to the limit while staying out of trouble.”

Palttala drove on to complete a double stint pushing the Turner BMW to the absolute max grabbing a couple spots to put the No. 97 into P9 before pitting. With almost seven hours completed, Palttala pitted for a driver change to Andy Priaulx.

“I drove the No. 97 to the absolute maximum of my ability, I was able to make up a little ground but just couldn’t keep pace with the GTD leaders,” said Markus Palttala. “Consistency was most important, I worked to get into a rhythm and did what I had to do to make up any track position I could.”

Despite the seven full course cautions and seamless stints by drivers in the No. 97 the team was never able to rejoin the lead lap. Priaulx pushed on with his impressive double stint pushing to keep pace with the field in an effort to prevent loosing another lap to the leaders.

Marsal and Palttala went ahead to finish the final two hours ultimately knocking off one more position to finish P8 at the checkered flag.

“With a top ten finish we earned some valuable championship points here at Sebring. Although the BoP was extremely frustrating for this round I am really looking forward to the rest of the season,” said Michael Marsal. “The team did an incredible job to work through this weekend, it really goes to show the perseverance and dedication of everyone here at Turner.”

Round 3 of the 2015 Tudor Championship will take place at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on May 1st.