A Little Patience Helps Michael Marsal Lead BMW Brigade At Watkins Glen

A Little Patience Helps Michael Marsal Lead BMW Brigade At Watkins Glen

Michael Marsal Media Contact: Matt Cleary
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http://www.marsalracing.com/
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Photo courtesy Wes Duenkel Photography–Marsal Will Be Ready to Go on Saturday

Watkins Glen, New York (29 June 2012) – Michael Marsal used just the right mix of patience with a little bit of aggression at Watkins Glen International to score his second consecutive top-ten qualifying position with the No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M3 on Friday.

Marsal’s fast lap time of 2:03.849-seconds around the 3.4-mile natural terrain road circuit will see him start from 10th on the 65-car combined-class grid for Saturday’s 2.5-hour enduro (SPEED, July 14 1:00 PM ET). The fifth-row starting position is the best qualifying performance from any of the BMW teams entered, marking the second consecutive week that Marsal has carried the torch for the Roundel in qualifying.

Despite being one of the longer tracks on the GRAND-AM calendar, traffic can still play havoc as the teams and drivers look to clock a “flier lap” to set the grid. But Marsal played the smart card, leaving as much of a gap as he could before dropping the hammer to set successive fast lap times before a caution flag cut the qualifying short of the full 15-minute timeline.

“The past couple qualifying sessions I’ve had have been decent. In the past, I was so anxious to get the fast lap in as quickly as possible,” said Marsal. “It’s important because we have yellows in our qualifying and it’s definitely important to get a first lap. But I think having the patience to give some space and go towards the end or wait a little bit sometimes works out better. At these longer tracks that’s definitely the strategy and it has just been working for me. Every time I’ve tried it guaranteed I’ve got a clean lap.”

After a successful test at Watkins Glen earlier in the season, Turner Motorsport has repeatedly shown strong pace through the race weekends that followed, only to suffer from a range of racing misfortune.

“We’ve had good cars, and I feel like I’ve been driving well but the results unfortunately just don’t show that,” said Marsal. “So it is good to qualify close to the front, with a car that I think is going to be quick over the long stint. We just have to avoid some of the bad luck we’ve had with people hitting us early in the race and hopefully we can convert this into a solid result tomorrow.”

Live timing and scoring can be followed at www.grand-am.com. The race will be televised on SPEED Sunday, July 14 at 12:00 PM (ET).

Matt Cleary
Sunday Group Management
mediawww.sundaymanagement.com
youtube.com/sundaymanagement
317.908.2975 (m)

Sunday Group Management is a leading motorsports management and communications consulting firm. Clients include Penske Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup driver AJ Allmendinger, Rolex 24 at Daytona Champions Michael Shank Racing, Riley Technologies, Continental Tire, and several teams and drivers in Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge competition.

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