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Turner Inherits GTD Win After Inception McLaren Flunks Tech

Bill Auberlen claims record-extending 65th top-level IMSA class victory after McLaren found to be underweight…

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

The No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley have been declared GTD class winners of Sunday’s Lexus Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio after the Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 failed post-race technical inspection.

The Jordan Pepper and Brendan Iribe-driven McLaren was found to have been underweight, resulting in the car being moved to the rear of the finishing order in class.

It has given Auberlen his record-extending 65th career top-level IMSA victory and the first 1-2 class finish for the new-for-2022 BMW in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition.

Paul Miller Racing’s Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow have been moved to second, with the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Aaron Telitz and Frankie Montecalvo now third. 

“The fuel number they wanted me to hit to make it to the end seemed impossible but everybody else, for the most part, had to do it as well,” said Auberlen.

“Bryan Sellers and I made an agreement on the radio. Our teams were talking in that we were going to work together to save as much fuel as we could and leave it until about a lap-and-a-half at the end.

“That’s how much fuel we would have so we could race at least one lap to try to defend.

“The McLaren caught us too early so we had to let them by. We thought for sure he was going to quit; we didn’t think he was going to make it.

“Turns out he was underweight. We did the best we could. We barely finished with any fuel.

“If we had to do one more lap — which we’re lucky we got passed by the leader so we were one lap shorter than we thought — we wound’t have made it.”

It marked Turner’s second consecutive win at Mid-Ohio, with Auberlen and Foley victorious in their BMW M6 GT3 last year.

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John

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