BMW Captures TUDOR Championship GTLM Victory With Auberlen, Werner At Circuit Of The Americas

BMW Team RLL drivers Dirk Werner and Bill Auberlen earned their second GT Le Mans (GTLM) victory of the 2015 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season in Saturday’s Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of The Americas. The team’s first victory of the season came at the Grand Prix of Long Beach in April.

The No. 25 BMW team is now unofficially second in the GTLM standings, just three points behind leader Patrick Pilet in thee No. 911 Porsche North America heading into the season-ending Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda at Road Atlanta in two weeks.

Late in the race, the No. 911 and No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSRs looked as though they were on their way to their third consecutive 1-2 finish, but were forced to pit with three minutes remaining to refuel. Both cars were overtaken by Werner and Ferrari driver Giancarlo Fisichella. Nick Tandy was able to still place the No. 911 Porsche on the podium, finishing third with Pilet.

The No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari of Pierre Kaffer and co-driver Fisichella earned their third consecutive GTLM podium with today’s second-place finish. The team had two consecutive third-place finishes from the two most recent events, VIRginia International Raceway and Road America.

Keating, Bleekemolen Repeat Lone Star Le Mans GTD Victory

Texas native Ben Keating and co-driver Jeroen Bleekemolen – who were victorious in last year’s Lone Star Le Mans – repeated that fortune, capturing the GT Daytona (GTD) victory in today’s event at his home track, Circuit of The Americas. Keating also won at COTA in 2013 in the American Le Mans Series GTC class.

This is Keating’s third visit to the top step of the GTD podium in the 2015 TUDOR Championship season and the second for Bleekemolen and the No. 33 Riley Motorsports ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R after the team’s win at Road America. Keating won the class in this season’s Rolex 24 At Daytona in the No. 93 TI Automotive Viper, co-driven by Al Carter, Cameron Lawrence, Kuno Wittmer and Dominic Farnbacher.

Both the No. 33 Viper and the third-place finishing No. 48 Castrol EDGE Audi R8 LMS were penalized in the first half hour of the race for running the red light at the pit exit, but were able to make up time to finish on the podium.

Finishing one second behind class winner Bleekemolen the No. 97 Turner Motorsport Alverez & Marsal/IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4 of Michael Marsal and Markus Palttala. This is Palttala’s first podium of the season and the team’s second – their last was at Lime Rock Park in July when Marsal and substitute driver Dane Cameron took the class victory.

Paul Miller Racing driver Christopher Haase was able to hold off hard charging Mario Farnbacher in the No. 23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Heart of Racing Porsche 911 GT America at the finish, capturing a third-place finish. Haase and pole-sitting co-driver Dion von Moltke unofficially moved to second place in the GTD standings.

• BMW’s win today in GT Le Mans snapped a streak of four consecutive wins for Porsche – the No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche at Watkins Glen and three consecutive victory from the No. 911 Porsche at Candian Tire Motorsport Park, Road America and VIRginia International Raceway.

• GT Daytona points leader Christina Nielsen and co-driver Kuno Wittmer finished eighth in the No. 007 TRG-AMR Royal Purple/Orion Energy/LaSalle Solutions/PassTime USA Aston Martin Vantage. Nielsen’s lead in the standings has unofficially shrunk to a single point headed into the final round of the season at Road Atlanta, 256-255, over von Moltke and Haase.

• The DEKRA Green Challenge Award winner was the No. 24 BMW Team RLL IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4 GTLM. The award is presented each race to the most environmentally clean, fast and efficient GTLM competitor. The award is determined through Green Racing protocols established by the United States Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International.

QUOTES

Dirk Werner – No. 25 IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4 GTLM

“On one hand, we had to make up ground and overtake the others, but we also had to save fuel. That made in the end, our race. We could drive two more laps than the Porsches. We did a lot of saving fuel. That was just great work by the team. I could overtake a few guys, but then the last few spots the team did for us [with strategy] we are getting close in the championship, I think that’s where we belong, and its great to go into the last race for a fight. That’s how it should be.”

Bill Auberlen – No. 25 IHG Rewards Club BMW Z4 GTLM

“The win is amazing. I’ve won here a couple of times and it just keeps getting better and better. This came from the command center in our team, Bobby Rahal, Bruno Capri and Jeff (Schaffner). Coming out of the last stop they knew we were going to be tight on fuel. They leaned him out some more and pretty soon, we were on a pace-car map. I was like, “can we even race on this thing?” Then he was making it go. It was a hot day, it was a really great day. We are very close in the championship, and this is what we wanted.”

Jeroen Bleekemolen – No. 33 ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT

“It was great, it was one of the nicest races I’ve ever done. I got in the car after a yellow. We got in a fight with five or six cars. It was a lot of respect and good fight, but you couldn’t put a piece a paper between us. I had to push there at the end because Palttala was right on my back. It was a great day for us, it was the maximum result we could get out of it and that was what got us the win.”

Ben Keating – No. 33 ViperExchange.com Dodge Viper SRT

“It’s obviously good to be home. It’s good to race in a place where I get to come play where I race more than one weekend a year. You like coming to a track where you’ve been successful. I’m excited and humbled that we had a middle of the pack car but the race came to us. Rather someone made a strategy mistake, or making contact, or getting a penalty, but the race came to us. It’s just awesome to be on the top step again at COTA. It’s a great track. It’s special to win at home.”

Contact:

nsiebens@imsa.com

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