Burton Racing Lime Rock Park Post-Race Report

Lakeville, Conn. (25 July 2015) – Burton Racing was back in IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge competition over the weekend at Lime Rock Park as the series staged Round 6 of the 2015 Championship. The Indianapolis-based team returned to a two car effort for the Northeast Grand Prix event with fulltime drivers Mike LaMarra and Terry Borcheller in the No. 23 BMW Automotive Chemicals/303 Products/Gold Eagle BMW 128i. New for the Lime Rock race was the No. 21 Trim-Tex Drywall Products BMW 128i driven by BMW veterans Bill Auberlen and John Edwards.

The Lime Rock race was a thrilling one around the very fast, high-speed 1.5-mile bullring circuit. Over the years, the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge has run the GS and ST classes separately, but the 2015 event saw both categories run together which provided for an action-packed race.Despite the increased traffic, just two cautions were displayed during the 2-hour sprint race and the event ran at a furious pace with over 100 laps of green flag running.Mike LaMarra opened the race from 22nd on the grid and had a very strong first stint moving up into the top-15 before handing the car over to Terry Borcheller to finish. The car lacked the same race pace as that of the Mazdas and Caymans with the duo fighting to 12th at the checkered flag.The No. 23 Trim-Tex Drywall Products car started out strongly when Auberlen made a charge through the field in just a minute and a half of green flag time to move all the way from his eighth place starting position to third. But a sway bar failure left Auberlen and then Edwards fighting to simply keep the car on track and complete the race with the BMW drivers hanging on for a 22nd place finish.“It was good to start the first of our three races in a row running the 303 brand on the No. 23 car and to have the No. 21 car out there running the Trim-Tex brand,” said Team Manager Keith Burton. “Joe Koenig and everyone at Trim-Tex, I totally appreciate their support to make it possible for Burton Racing. And for John Edwards and Bill Auberlen to drive that car, those guys gave it 110%. Mike (LaMarra) and Terry (Borcheller) both did a great job with what they had.  It's unfortunate we had a front bar failure today in the No. 21 Trim-Tex car. We’ve just been adapting to a lot. Up until a week ago the GS and ST classes were supposed to run separately so we had to adapt to those changes for the series and ultimately that just took away a lot of our plans and we just had to work hard after that. And that's not always easy. The results weren’t exactly what we wanted, but both cars ran well considering what we have compared to the Caymans and Mazdas. We’re looking forward to getting back to Road America in two weeks.”Burton Racing won last year’s race at Road America with LaMarra and Borcheller and will return to the historic Wisconsin road course in Elkhart Lake onAugust 7-9 for Round 7 of the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge championship. DRIVER QUOTEBOARD:Mike LaMarra, No. 23 BMW Automotive Chemicals/303 Products/Gold Eagle BMW 128i: “Because it was a short weekend we just kept adjusting, adjusting, and adjusting and we just ran out of time and had to go with what we thought would be fast. That was still an adjustment from qualifying I think. The car was good until the tires went off and then it was a little understeer to oversteer. We had a good stint. There were a couple of spins in front of us that kind of broke our pack away from the lead pack. I got to make a few spots up, then I turned it over to Terry (Borcheller) who made a few more up. It was kind of a fight to the end, fighting for 11th place with the Caymans and the Mazdas.”Terry Borcheller, No. 23 BMW Automotive Chemicals/303 Products/Gold Eagle BMW 128i: “I don't know what happened to the car. Handling is so important to us and it just freed up way too much. If I look at the progression of it, who knows? But it was a decent finish for us considering the circumstances. The car's just not fast enough. We just need speed. There was a lot of traffic, and I like traffic. When you've got a car that's not fast it's the only thing that gets you positions so that was fun.”Bill Auberlen, No. 21 Trim-Tex Dry Wall Products BMW 128i: “On my out lap, as I left the pits, I already knew it (sway bar) was broken. The front sway bar link was broken, I could hear it and I knew we could have a problem. The fun part was we had a good start, I had good restarts. We worked our way up to I think it was third, or right up to the front. But then I wondered what kind of car we were going to have after this when we settled in. Very quickly I found out it wasn't a car you could race with, it was a car you had to try to keep from crashing with. It's a shame because the team works very hard. This deal was put together last minute, but I had hopes that when John (Edwards) and I were teamed together, teamed up with such a great sponsor with Trim-Tex, great team, I thought we had a real shot. But sometimes the sun shines on you and sometimes it doesn't. This was one of those days. We brought home what we had. We just want another shot to do it again and get it right.”John Edwards, No. 21 Trim-Tex Dry Wall Products BMW 128i: “Races like this are always frustrating because we know we could have done so much better. At the end of the day it's what we're here to do. Just kind of salvage anything we can. Unfortunately we didn't have much to salvage with our pace and the race running green for so long. With traffic I was just trying to stay out of the way. Unfortunately with ST cars you still get hit even when you try to leave lanes and let people by so I just tried to avoid damage and get the car to the end and that's what we did. It was great to be back in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge Series. I always love the battles that happen in the series, whether it's in GS or ST.”