Burton Racing Road Atlanta Post-Race Report

Braselton, Ga. (2 October 2015) – Burton Racing ended the 2015 IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge on a high note as Mike LaMarra and Terry Borcheller drove their shared No. 23 303 Products / Gold Eagle BMW 128i to a spot on the podium with a sweet third place finish in the Road Atlanta finale. The result marked the best ST class finish among all the BMW machines as well as solidifying Burton Racing as the highest finishing BMW in the 2015 championship. 

Despite decidedly wet and tricky conditions all weekend long, the seasoned Indianapolis-based team made the most of the wet weather to continue their positive momentum following a top-10 finish in the previous round of competition at Circuit of the Americas.Wet was the word of the weekend, making track time both tricky and limited as Burton Racing worked to tune their BMW machine to constantly changing conditions from session to session.In fact, conditions were so treacherous that qualifying was washed out and the grid was set by points, seeing LaMarra take the green flag for the 2.5-hour event from the 14th spot on the grid.Although the race started under relatively dry conditions, Burton Racing elected to start the race on rain tires, which ultimately proved to be a smart strategy as the rain turned steadier and steadier throughout the race. LaMarra ran a massive stint of close to one hour and 15 minutes despite deteriorating track conditions to jump up the pack from his 14th place start to ultimately hand the car over to Borcheller in third place with just an hour and 22 minutes left to run.Unfortunately, a pit infraction forced Borcheller to serve a drive-through penalty with an hour remaining to race.Borcheller returned to the season-ending event in ninth position with added determination to take the No. 23 to a season-best result. As the minutes ticked off the clock, Borcheller picked off competitors, consistently setting lap times faster than cars ahead of him and even the class leader.In an impressive rain-racing masterclass, Borcheller executed a perfect pass for third position in the high-speed Turn 12 with under 10 minutes remaining and held his position to give the team their season best result.“This is a great way to end the season and a great show for the whole team and all of our sponsors, Gold Eagle, 303 Products, STA-BIL as well as for BMW.” said Team Manager, Keith Burton. “Obviously we do wish we could have done this earlier in the season, but the whole team has worked extremely hard all year long and we are proud to end the season strongly. We have been chipping away all season long and this puts us in good position for the start of next year. I think it speaks really highly of BMW to have them perform so strongly in the series finale, so we are looking forward to next season.”The team will now begin their plans for the 2016 season with the annual Roar Before the Rolex 24 set for January 8-10.FOX Sports 1 will televise the race on Sunday, October 18 at 9:00 AM ET. DRIVER QUOTEBOARD: Terry Borcheller – “I’m very pleased to end the season on the podium with Burton Racing. We have worked so hard all season and it seems like we have been climbing a bit of an uphill battle, but this is a great way to end the season. It got a bit dicey out there with the weather and everything. But a huge thanks to Mike (LaMarra) and a great opening stint. He did exactly what we needed him to do, ran a clean and strong stint and gave me the car in really great position up in third place. So thanks to Burton Racing and on to next season."Mike LaMarra – “It’s great to be on the podium at the last race here at Road Atlanta. We really like it here, although the weather wasn’t so great. The team gave me and Terry (Borcheller) a great car that handled fantastic. I was just trying to keep it clean and out of trouble and go as fast as possible. I had a good stint, I was able to hand the car over to Terry (Borcheller) in third place so I was pleased with that. It was a lot of fun for sure out there, but also pretty dicey in this rainy weather. The track got pretty treacherous with puddles and streams of water just running across the track and down the hills, so it was both a lot of fun and tense at the same time. A big congrats to Terry (Borcheller) as well, watching him pass Ryan (Eversley) for a podium in Turn 12 was awesome. So a big thanks to Burton Racing and 303 Products and Gold Eagle and STA-BIL, it was great to end the season on a high note for everyone.”