derBayerische July /August 2022 - 26

S E B R I N G 1 2 H O U R S 2 0 2 2
Antonio Fuoco, attempted the blatant
dive bomb pass that punted Bill
off track and out of the lead. There
wasn't much damage, but position
was compromised, and the Ferrari
was given a drive through penalty.
The Turner guys started the climb
back up through the standings.
By the 9th hour, as the sun was going
down, the #96 and Robby Foley had
regained the lead in GTD with the
#24 and Nick Yelloly running in
second in GTD Pro. The M4 GT3
clearly showed its competitive speed
and the potential for a win.
Unfortunately, as 12 hours
■ The #24 BMW M Team RLL M4 running 2nd in the GTD Pro Class.
for repairs. The #24 car continued to
do well while the #1 Paul Miller car
led GTD. Unfortunately, one of the
prototypes had a spin in turn one
causing a pile up of cars and in the
mix the prototype driven by Juan
Pablo Montoya was unable to avoid
the #1 contacting his left rear breaking
the suspension. Erik Johansson
was able to drive the car to the pits,
but it would need to go behind the
wall for repairs. Tactics at Sebring
are typically, stay on the lead lap until
the sun goes down and then push
hard to the end. We were reduced to
just a pair of cars with the hope that
the damaged cars would return, but
the task becomes difficult. We were
thankful to still have two strong cars
in the mix for the win.
Having the GTD cars being all
the same spec and the only difference
being the drivers makes things
interesting. By the fifth hour, the
GTD Pro cars had all moved ahead
of the GTD cars. Given time, the
professional drivers were able to rise
above the amateur drivers. Maybe
not for every single lap, but over time
the higher rated drivers rose to the
top and that's not so surprising.
At the six-hour mark we had the
#24 BMW M Team RLL and Nick
Yelloly leading GTD Pro and the #96
Turner Motorsports car with Robby
Foley in third in GTD; solid positions
at the halfway point. There was some
outstanding racing between the #24
BMW, the #3 Corvette and the #9
Pfaff Motorsports Porsche. It was
very close and at the same time fair
with multiple position changes and
sufficient room being given to allow
for close racing.
At just past the seven-hour
mark, Bill Auberlen was leading GTD
in the #96 Turner Motorsports car.
The second-place Ferrari, driven by
■ Glowing brakes and exhaust on the 2nd place GTD Pro M4 begin to show as the sun goes down.
approached, both top BMWs
encountered problems. The #24
GTD Pro had transmission problems
and lost positions. The #96 Turner
team discovered a miscalculation in
Bill Auberlen's drive time, meaning
they would have to do an extra driver
change to put Robby Foley back in
the car or be penalized. This caused
them both to drop back to finish in
fourth place. So, both the M4s in
GTD Pro & GTD were just off the
podium in fourth.
The Sebring 12 Hours was
quite a race with many changes of
position and much drama to follow.
We didn't get a podium finish to
celebrate, but we did have lots of
close competitive racing to witness
26
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derBayerische July /August 2022

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