Following a rock-solid start for the No. 96 LIQUI Moly inside the top five IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD class field on the 2.23-mile, 11-corner WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Robby Foley and Bill Auberlen managed a strong seventh place finish.
Foley opened the two-hour and forty-minute race from fifth position to hold position with a hard charging GTD field on his heels. Foley handed the car over to Bill Auberlen after a hard fought fifty minute stint to keep pace with the second and third place entries.
“This was a super challenging weekend to find the setup to work for us on such a low grip track,” said Robby Foley. “We struggled to find a setup to minimize tire degradation and allow us to keep pace with some of the quicker GTD cars. Everyone worked quite hard to give us the car we had, unfortunately a small contact dropped us back and out of the fight.”
Auberlen continued to hold fourth place position for several laps until contact from behind in the Andretti hairpin caused Auberlen to spin. The No. 96 LIQUI Moly BMW continued on after losing several valuable positions.
Auberlen pushed to keep pace with the GTD leaders in an effort to make up lost positions ultimately resulting in a seventh place finish in a caution-less race.
“Our BMW was solid this weekend despite all the huge challenges with grip and tire degradation,” said Bill Auberlen. “The Turner guys gave us a competitive car that was super consistent and predictable over the course of the stint. It’s unfortunate we didn’t have the opportunity to put it to the test.”
The Turner BMW remains in third place in the GTD championship with a final race remaining to wrap up the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The Turner BMW will return to racing action for the ten-hour Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta October 10-12th.
