Double-Duty Send-Off to GRAND-AM Season For Michael Marsal

Double-Duty Send-Off to GRAND-AM Season For Michael Marsal

Contact: Matt Cleary, Sunday Group Management
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Lakeville, Conn. (26 September 2012) – As GRAND-AM stages the final round of the 2012 GRAND-AM season with the GRAND-AM Championship weekend at Lime Rock Park presented by BMW, Michael Marsal will be a busy racer as he is set to return to double duty for Turner Motorsport – contesting both the Rolex Series and Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge events in the season-finale held at his home track.

In addition to running his 10th and final GS race of the season in the Turner Motorsport No. 97 BMW M3 with co-driver Boris Said, Marsal has once again been called up to the Rolex Series GT ranks to campaign the race with Turner Motorsport team owner Will Turner in the No. 93 BMW M3.

With two races on one day, Marsal will have an intense weekend of on-track action with the 2.5-hour GS race taking place just hours ahead of the 2.75-hour Rolex Series race on Saturday. The two-day event will see a full day of practice as well as GS qualifying to set the grid on Friday, with the 15-minute GT qualifying session also scheduled ahead of Saturday’s two races.

Despite some bad luck that has kept him from staging a stronger run in the season-long championship, Marsal has shown strong pace throughout the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge season with four top-10 finishes to his credit – highlighted with a fourth place finish at New Jersey Motorsports Park. He will look to transfer that pace over to the Turner GT car as he returns to the cockpit of the No. 93 BMW M3 machine for the second time this season.

Having won the LMP1 class in ALMS competition earlier this month, Marsal continues to grow his top-line racing experience with the GT run this weekend. Marsal raced the No. 93 in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona event earlier this year in which the team finished 16th. He also had five Rolex Series GT starts last year including three events (New Jersey, Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio) in the Turner BMW. He marked his best GT finish of the year with a 10th place result at New Jersey while driving with Peter Bassett.

The last race of the year tradition continues as Marsal and Turner teamed up for the season-finale event at Mid-Ohio last year and drove to a 15th place result.

In their final race of the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge season, Marsal and Said will look to rebound in GS competition this weekend after mechanical issues prevented the Turner duo from showing their podium potential in the previous round of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Having won the Lime Rock event in his GRAND-AM debut at the track in 2010 and taking fifth in last year’s event, Marsal knows what it takes to run at the front on the 1.53-mile Connecticut road course and would like nothing more than to end the season on a high note with a strong finish in Saturday’s 2.5-hour race.

“Lime Rock is my parents’ home track, my home track, Turner’s home track, and BMW’s home track, so it would be good to pull off a couple good results there,” said Marsal. “We’re fast there and it would be nice to end this season on a good note. It’s been a tough season full of a lot of wrecks, mishaps and malfunctions. It definitely hasn’t gone our way this year so it would definitely be a positive to end the year with a podium.”

The Championship Weekend kicks off with practice and GS qualifying (2:15 PM ET) on Friday. Saturday will see an intense schedule of GT qualifying (9:50 AM ET) followed by the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (10:30 AM ET) and Rolex Series (3:00 PM ET) races.

SPEED will carry live coverage of the Rolex Series race beginning at 3:00 PM ET on Saturday and will televise the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge event on Sunday, October 14 at 1:00 PM (ET).

Live timing and scoring can be followed throughout the weekend at www.grand-am.com.

Matt Cleary
Sunday Group Management
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