Michael Marsal takes top-10 in CTSCC at Barber Motorsports Park

Birmingham, Ala. (9 April 2013) – Michael Marsal delivered another impressive performance in the No. 71 Multimatic Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage in Saturday’s GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge event at Barber Motorsports Park this weekend. Marsal and co-driver Tonis Kasemets drove to an eighth place result in the 2.5-hour race around the 2.3-mile Alabama road course.

#71 Multimatic Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage: Tonis Kasemets, Michael Marsal

Photo by: Eric Gilbert

Showing that he’s getting ever more comfortable with his new Aston Martin, Marsal earned his best qualifying position of the year and opened the race from ninth on the 55-car combined class grid. He immediately showed strong pace at the wheel of the Aston as he made his way forward throughout the first 20 laps to run as high as fourth.

After handing the car over to Kasemets to take to the finish, the No. 71 continued to run among the top-10 and looked poised for a fifth place finish in the closing stages of the race, but a quick spin saw the Aston Martin off track with Kasemets falling to 13th in the order. With less than 20 minutes remaining, Kasemets was able to rally his way back forward to take eighth at the checkered flag.

“The Continental Tire race was awesome,” said Marsal. “We started ninth and I made it all the way up to fourth. It was a great stint, I had a great battle with one of the Fall Line cars and then I hung on for as long as I could with Eric Curran and it was really good.”

Marsal also competed in the Porsche 250 event which marked Round 3 of the GRAND-AM Rolex Series championship, having matched his career-best Rolex Series qualifying effort of ninth in Friday’s quick 15-minute qualifying session. Marsal once again showed strong pace in the No. 93 Turner Motorsport BMW M3 that he shares with Gunter Schaldach to run eighth in the early stages of the two-hour sprint race.

Unfortunately that strong run came to a halt when contact from a Daytona Prototype machine sent the BMW off track and into the wall. The front suspension sustained race-ending damage and Marsal was forced to retire early from the race.

“I got a little loose coming up over the hill and kind of tracked out a little bit and the 60 car took the opportunity to come down in and as I was recovering I pulled it back in and we collided and I went off,” said Marsal of the incident. “We made contact and then I sailed off and hit the wall pretty hard. That was really unfortunate because we had a good car and had good pace, but sometimes that’s how it goes.”

Marsal returns to GRAND-AM action for Round 4 of both the GRAND-AM Rolex Series and Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge championships in two weeks at Road Atlanta.

Michael Marsal Press