Racing News

Team RLL #56 Z4 finishes seventh in GTLM

Dane Cameron,  Marcus Palttala and Christoffer Nygaard teamed to finish fourth in the GTD class in the ten hour Tudor United SportsCar Championship Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta in the #94 Turner Motorsport Z4 GTD. Their finish clinched the GTD drivers’ championship for Dane Cameron and the team title for Turner Motorsport.

Palttala started fifth on the grid, but was penalized for jumping the start. A drive-through penalty dropped him to fifteenth in class. He moved up to fifth, where he had started, over the course of his long stint. Cameron took over and moved the car into the top three, taking the lead at the four hour mark and always staying in the top group. He was running second when he handed off to FIA World Endurance Series racer Christoffer Nygaard, on board with the Turner team for the Petit Le Mans race.

Palttala got back in with about two hours and forty minutes left when the team pitted just before a full-course yellow came out. He ran first and second for much of his stint, handing off to Cameron with about an hour and fifty minutes remaining. Cameron ran near the front in the first portion of his stint, behind the Audi R8 driven by Christoper Haase.

To win the title he had to stay in front of Porsche racer Leh Keen; Keen and his teammate Cooper MacNeil were just four points behind Cameron, and their Alex Job Racing team was just four points behind Turner in team points. The AIM Autosport Ferrari was also a contender; the team and its drivers Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler were seven points behind. The Turner team made its final stop with 54 minutes remaining, returning to the track in fifth, with the edge it needed over both Bell and Keen. Cameron finished fourth in class, winning the GTD drivers’ title and securing the GTD team championship for Turner Motorsport. Haase won the class in the Audi R8 LMS that he shared with Bryce Miller and Matthew Bell, and Porsche won the manufacturers’ title.

Cameron said, “It’s just an unbelievable feeling to win my first sports car title here at Road Atlanta. The fact that this is the very first United SportsCar Championship season makes it even more special. This was just an amazing season for us. Recently Turner Motorsport did its 300th race with BMW, and today we added another title to their fantastic record. A big thank you goes to the whole crew. It was an extremely close finish, and the final hour of the race was the longest of my whole life. Now I’m feeling just really happy.”
 

The GTLM class BMW Team RLL Z4s had a difficult race. Z4 #55, driven by Bill Auberlen, Andy Priaulx, and Joey Hand, back with the team between the two final DTM races of the season, started from the back of the pack. Auberlen had flat-spotted tires in qualifying, and the team elected to make a change, which moved them to the rear. The car moved up, but it was retired with an electrical problem one lap into Hand’s stint, before the three hour mark in the race. The #56 Z4, qualified seventh by Dirk Müller and shared with John Edwards and Dirk Werner, was also penalized for jumping the start. It moved up, running as high as second. But a problem at the left rear of the car led to a long stop past the seven hour mark and dropped to seventh in class. That’s where it finished, with John Edwards at the wheel at the end of the ten-hour race. Wolf Henzler, Bryan Sellers, and Marco Holzer won the class in the Falken Tire Porsche, and Viper racer Kuno Wittmer won the GTLM drivers’ title.

BMW Motorsport director Jens Marquardt announced at Road Atlanta that BMW would campaign the  Z4 again in TUSC in 2015.—Brian S. Morgan