Racing News

John Edwards, Lucas Luhr, and Jens Klingmann piloted the #24 Team RLL Z4 GTLM to a fourth-in-class finish in the GTLM class in the Tudor United SportsCar Championship 12 Hours of Sebring. Z4 #25, driven by Bill Auberlen, Dirk Werner, and Augusto Farfus was set back by a long pit stop for front subframe repairs, but it recovered to finish eighth in class. It also set the fastest lap in GTLM.

The Team RLL Z4s sported special livery to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1975 Sebring victory of the 3.0 CSL driven by Brian Redman, Allan Moffat, Sam Posey, and Hans Stuck. Stuck, who was grand marshal of this year’s race, took the CSL out for a lap before the start.

The #24 Z4 finished fourth despite power steering problems that developed on the car’s last stint. Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen, and Ryan Briscoe won GTLM in the #3 Corvette. The #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 458 Italia driven by Giancarlo Fisichella, Pierre Kaffer, and Andrea Bertolini finished second, and the #17 Falken Tire Porsche of Bryan Sellers, Wolf Henzler, and Patrick Long finished third. The factory Porsches that dominated much of the race along with the #3 Corvette fell back late in the race; both had transmission problems.

Turner Motorsport’s Z4 GTD, struggling to overcome weight added by the sanctioning body after Daytona, finished eighth in class with Michael Marsal, Markus Palttala, Andy Priaulx, and Boris Said at the controls. The class win went to Mario Farnbacher, Ian James, and Alex Riberas in the #23 Alex Job Racing Porsche.

The Fifty Plus Racing Riley-BMW driven by Craig Hinton, Jim Pace, Byron DeFoor, and Dorsey Schroeder finished seventh in the Prototype class. The overall and prototype wins went to Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi, and Sebastien Bourdais in the #5 Action Express Corvette DP; the car dominated the race, lapping the field. Two more Corvette DPs finished second and third.

BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt said, “Obviously we had hoped for a more successful outcome of the race and would have loved to make it into the top-three, especially considering it was the 40th anniversary of BMW Motorsport’s maiden Sebring win. A podium was in reach for car number 24 until the final stint. However, a power steering failure made this impossible in the end. Number 25 also suffered a dose of bad luck: a technical problem took it out of contention quite early in the race. However, I would like to praise the whole team. Especially for our drivers, it was far from easy today due to the heat. Everyone put up a fantastic fight in these tropical conditions and gave their all. In any case, the presence of the winning squad with the BMW 3.0 CSL from 1975 made this race really special for us. We will now work hard to return to the podium in the forthcoming United SportsCar Championship race, as it was the case at the season opener. The race in Long Beach will be a completely new ballgame. Congratulations to the Corvette crew for this victory.”

The Team RLL GTLM Z4s compete again at Long Beach in April, while the Turner Motorsport GTD Z4 runs again at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. the next race in the Tudor United SportsCar Championship series contested by all classes.—Brian S. Morgan