| August 2, 2019 Staff Report IMSA Wire Service ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – There was no epiphany or major change that’s led Turner Motorsport to three consecutive podium finishes in the GT Daytona (GTD) class of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition. It’s been about continuing the process and believing that good things will come from it. That it has. The No. 96 has finishes of second, first and third in the three most recent GTD races, allowing drivers Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley to vault from 13th place to second in the season standings. And with the series here at Road America this weekend, a high-speed road course built for the power of the BMW M6 GT3, excitement runs high in the Turner camp for the IMSA Road Race Showcase. “We’ve had three podiums in a row,” Foley said. “We had a good race at Lime Rock (a third-place finish on July 20), where typically our car struggles a little bit more. Hopefully we can carry that momentum into Road America, which is typically a good track for the M6. “Hopefully we have a shot for the pole and shot for the podium, and try to keep closing the gap to the No. 86 (Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3).” Not many would have predicted such a thought after the first four races this season, when the best finish Turner Motorsport could muster was ninth place in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona. Mechanical gremlins bit at Daytona and the succeeding race, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts. Following that came a first-lap crash in the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio and a pole-winning effort in the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic in Detroit wiped out when the car failed post-qualifying tech inspection. Auberlen and Foley still rallied to fourth place near the end of the Detroit race before another mechanical issue put the car out of the race with less than two minutes remaining. “Those races were all just bad, bad luck,” said Auberlen. “Then all of a sudden, once we got on track, we’ve been fighting for the front and good to go.” Foley added, “Things are just kind of working out. We’ve been fast all year, but we’ve had mechanical failures or we’ve gotten taken out, just things haven’t gone our way. Things are starting to click a little bit. I feel like we’re getting better as a team each time, but it’s nothing drastic.” Now, with momentum building, the task at hand is simple. “For the rest of the year, we just kind of have to be there when it counts,” Foley said, “Get good finishes and win when we can or live around the podium.” Auberlen and Foley trail No. 86 drivers Mario Farnbacher and Trent Hindman by 30 points with four races remaining. The deficit is sizable, but not insurmountable in Auberlen’s mind. “We have a gap to the leaders but if they have a string of bad luck – which isn’t likely, but it happened to us so it could happen to them,” he said. ”Then we’re right in the hunt to go battle for the championship.” Auberlen also must constantly address the elephant in the room, his bid to tie Scott Pruett for most wins in IMSA annals with his next victory. The 50-year-old Californian, named one of the 50 greatest drivers in IMSA history, tries not to think about it, but … “Everybody else does, so it’s like an every five-minute reminder,” he said with a laugh. “Every fan that comes up says, ‘Wow, you can do it!’ It’s a constant reminder. “If we just do our job properly, the win will come like they all did. (Team owner) Will Turner was right when he said, ‘Let’s not focus on the wins, let’s focus on the championship.’ As soon as we did that, everything just straightened out and we went podium, podium, podium. Along with podiums, the wins will come. I’ve got plenty of career left to do it.”The Road America schedule features two practices on Friday and a third Saturday morning ahead of WeatherTech Championship qualifying that streams live on IMSA.tv at 1:25 p.m. ET Saturday. The two-hour, 40-minute race streams live Sunday on the NBC Sports App and NBCSports.com 2:30 p.m. ET, with a same-day telecast on NBCSN at 6 p.m.Fans can follow along with the action on IMSA.com and on social media using the hashtags #IMSA and #RoadAmerica. Tickets for the weekend are available at RoadAmerica.com. IMSA TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and FACEBOOK Follow on Twitter @imsa, use the hashtag #IMSA, follow on Instagram @imsa_racing and ‘like’ IMSA on Facebook –www.facebook.com/imsa. For further information logon to www.imsa.com. |
