Daytona Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Street Tuner winners Jeff Mosing and Eric Foss in the #56 Murillo Racing 328i were fastest in class in the Sebring tests on February 20-21, finishing just ahead of the Team TGM 328i driven by team owner Ted Giovanis and David Murry.
Foss, who was an instructor for the Panoz School at Sebring from 1999 to 2007, said, “I was shaking off the cobwebs on Thursday – it was my first time here since 2009. It probably will be a pretty crazy race when we come back here next month. It seems every time we race at Sebring, if you’re in the top five on the last lap you have a chance of winning. We’re working on getting our car to put us in that position.”
While the M3s were quick in the CTSCC Grand Sport test sessions, Andrew Aquilante set the fastest time in the Phoenix American Motorsports Mustang. Ken Wilden set the second-fastest time in the #47 Fall-Line M3. The #46 and #48 Fall-Line M3s were fourth and seventh, while the #96 Turner M3 was sixth fastest.
BMW Team RLL brought one of its cars to the test; the #56 Z4 GTLM was driven by Andy Priaulx and Dirk Werner. Over the course of the four TUSC test sessions it was sixth fastest, about 1.4 seconds off the pace of the leading GTLM car, the Daytona-winning Porsche North America 911 RSR driven by Nick Tandy, Patrick Pilet, and Richard Lietz. The team’s second 911 RSR was next up; the Porsches were the only GTLM cars to turn sub two-minute lap times. The Turner Motorsport GTD Z4, driven by Paul Dalla Lana, Dane Cameron, and Markus Palttala, was a strong third in class, just two tenths of a second behind the class-leading Park Place Motorsports 911 GT America driven by Patrick Lindsey and Kevin Estre (who set fastest time).
There was no BMW presence in the prototype class; the Starworks Riley DP car was there, but the team has switched from BMW to Honda power.
Both series run again at Sebring in March; the CTSCC racers run a 2 ½-hour race on Friday, March 14 and the TUSC teams contest the 12 Hours of Sebring on Saturday, March 15. –Brian S. Morgan
