SPECTACULAR PASS AT MID OHIO

Bill Auberlen and Robin Liddell held a seminar on proper side by side racing.

Photos: Turner Motorsport

Grand Am has seen its share of asshattery lately  mostly at the hands of Colombian driver Gustavo Yacaman,  the Baghdad Bob of racing ( "Not my fault, Rojas gave me no room"!).  

Here are a couple of real pros showing you can race side by side at the limit and not ball it up.

Turner Motorsport's Bill Auberlen is catching the Stevenson Motorsport Camaro of Robin Liddell at Mid Ohio, a very technical track with slippery off camber corners.   Auberlen sets the Camaro up for the "Esses" on the outside of turn 6 and makes a great lunge into 7,  a tricky left with a blind exit. Beautiful.

Auberlen, with co-driver Paul Dalla Lana won the race after the Corvette of Eric Curran was penalized for blatantly punting the Turner M3 in the final lap.

2013 Grand Am of the Americas

Photos: Danny Sullivan for Axis of Oversteer

Grand Am made its debut at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas this past week end. Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty in the Gainsco Red Dragon Corvette took the DP win and Turner Motorsport's Bill Auberlen and Paul Dalla Lana the GT win in two races very much conditioned by flags and penalties.

Penalties changed the out come of GT especially, the Scuderia Corse Ferrari of Alessandro Balzan and Alessandro Pier Guidi had been dominating the race when it was penalized for a very minor contact with the Magnus Porsche of Andy Lally. Lally went wide and allowed the BMW through to P2. Pier Guidi was given a Drive though plus a time penalty on the final lap giving Turner the win.



More pictures by Danny Sullivan who was shooting for us at CotA and video highlights after the break

Is that a Mclaren F1 in your mirror?

I remember, as a very young boy, my father taking me to Monza to see the 1000Km and seeing the E9 Batmobiles flying down towards the Parabolica spitting flames out the sides. Such a distant memory but one I will never forget.

Very cool of BMW to take these priceless four wheeled treasures out and share them with the public who might not have seen them when they were "Just race cars".

I never saw a Mclaren F1 GTR in the heat of battle, the more reason to enjoy a ride in one driven by Mr BMW himself, Bill Auberlen (a.k.a. "best race driver ever" :)). At this year's Oktoberfest BMW track day at Barber Motorsports Park some lucky attendees got to sit in the right....and left seats!

That sound...wow. One day I'll get a ride in that monster. Kind of funny watching people giving point bys, like Bill would have waited around!



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11/10ths

Just sit back and enjoy this battle between the Flying Lizards Porsche Gt3 RS of Jörg Bermeister and the BMW M3 GT of Bill Auberlen at the Mosport ALMS race. They are both driving the boobs off the cars

Speaking of driving the boobs off a car, check out the last lap battle between TRG teammates Dion Von Moltke and Spencer Pumpelly (CG's driver coach) after the jump.

Sunday Drive

Joey Hand chasing Bill Auberlen during practice at Homestead, Florida. The two BMW works drivers are testing the Turner Motorsport M3 entered in the Continental Tire Storts Car Challenge.


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Bill Auberlen, Scott Tucker crash at Road America: You be the judge.

To me it looks like the BMW must have cut the LMPC rear left in the first contact and then slowed, I can't tell if the Porsche that was right behind the M3 had any kind of a role in this.

The other Rahal Letterman BMW M3 of Joey Hand and Dirk Müller went on to win GT though.





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More Coolness from Lime Rock... Rain lessons from Bill

OK the other ALMS clip was more, shall we say, decorative. This is more ...badass. Bill Auberlen was always at home in the rain at Lime Rock, catch some tips, just in case you ever find yourself driving a 500+hp car on that slippery New England track!


(BMW-RahalLetterman Racing)
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Who's Joy and what's her number?

ALMS at Laguna Seca starts soon, 2:30 PT. you can see the race live on the web after you register at THIS LINK. Hurry because the viewing slots are limited.

Below is a qualifying lap in Bill Auberlen GT(2) BMW M3. The BMW's qualified 5th and 6th for the 6 hour race. The front row of the GT grid went to two Ferraris followed by two Corvettes. Never mind the lamest slogan ever plastered on the dash, it's always nice to see that fantastic northern California track!



meanwhile, during warmup..



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A Hot Lap with Bill

...in Will's car

The great Bill Auberlen on a practice lap for the this year's Daytona 24 hour race in the Turner Motorsport BMW Riley M6 (the car is a tube chassis silhouette with a Fletcher built BMW S62 V8.)
The Freep points out a cool read about Auberlen and the second Rolex race at Homestead-Miami. Check it out HERE



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Hard Fighting at the Glen.

A great in car video from Joey Hand's Turner Motorsport BMW M3 from the June 7 2009 Grand-Am Koni Challenge race at Watkins Glen.

As the video starts, there is a restart after a yellow flag, it's mayhem! If there was ever a better illustration that there is no such thing as a "racing line", this is it. Don't miss what happens between Bill Auberlen and Andy Lally in turn 7 (the Toe).

As a bonus, after the jump, you can see the race side by side from Auberlen's and Hand's cars.