Busy and fun weekend at Lime Rock Park for Marsal to close out 2012

Lakeville, Conn. (29 September 2012) – Running two races at Lime Rock Park on Saturday for Turner Motorsport in the season-finale events for both the GRAND-AM Rolex Series and Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series, Michael Marsal closed a busy season of racing – which included both GRAND-AM and ALMS competition – with an equally busy last day of racing.

Marsal completed the 2012 GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge season with a run to seventh in Saturday’s GS-only race with co-driver Boris Said. Having started from 13th on the grid after Friday’s qualifying session was cancelled due to heavy rains in the area, Marsal delivered a very strong performance in the No. 97 BMW to make the most of a quick car and run as high as fourth in the 26-car field.

After running fourth for 11 laps, Marsal brought the No. 97 to pit road when the Turner Motorsport team took advantage of a full course caution around the hour mark in the race. The team serviced the BMW and Marsal turned the controls over to Said who returned to the field 18th. He would run as high as fifth before ultimately taking seventh at the finish.

The result marked the fifth top-10 result for the duo this year.

“The car was quick--this is Turner’s home track and the guys know how to make a car go well here so I was really having fun out there,” said Marsal. “Some of these races have not been all that fun so it was good to have this kind of a race to close out the year.”

Just hours after the GS checkered flag, it was right back to race action for Marsal with the Rolex Series race slated for a 3:00 PM start as he joined team owner Will Turner in the No. 93 BMW GT machine. Turner qualified 10th on the grid and ran among the top-10 throughout the beginning stages of the race until a flat tire saw the BMW leave the track and sustain damage to the splitter.

Marsal took over the controls of the Turner BMW but the damaged splitter caused the car to develop severe understeer with Marsal fighting to wheel the machine around the 1.53-mile course. Once the team had completed the necessary laps to secure third in the team championship, the Turner squad opted to bring the No. 93 back to the garage.

“Our goal was to have some fun with the GT car but this wasn’t how we wanted to end the season,” said Marsal. “It was fun to get back into the GT car and especially to do so here at Lime Rock. But we had the issue with the splitter and it just didn’t make much sense for us to be doing laps out there so we parked it early. That was a shame but this was still a fun weekend even with the rain--it is all of our home race and a fun weekend to close out the year.”

Source: Michael Marsal media