DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 26, 2025) – Turner Motorsport earned a fifth place in its BMW M4 GT3 EVO at the 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona, a career-best finish for the team in its 16 years competing in the historic race.
Robby Foley took the green flag in the No. 96 from 13th in the 22-car GTD field. Foley along with co-drivers, Patrick Gallagher, Jake Walker and Jens ‘The Maschine’ Klingmann all had strong stints, driving smart to keep the car out of trouble. The Turner crew performed well completing 27 pit stops, including a front brake change with 10 hours to go. The team ran in the top 10 for most of the race, led the class for 14 laps, and collected a total of seven championship points toward the Michelin Endurance Cup for its position at the six, 12 and 18-hour marks. While the car lacked the straightaway speed of the competition, the team is very happy with its debut of the EVO car.
“We had a great, well executed race, and I think the whole team can be proud,” said Foley. “Unfortunately, we didn’t quite have enough to fight for the win at the end, but to finish on the lead lap with a solid top five is strong, and we look forward to learning more about our new M4 GT3 EVO at Sebring to try and maximize the result there”
“Fifth place feels like a win in a lot of ways, but it also feels like we were so close to a win, that I’m a little disappointed,” said team owner Will Turner. “All the planets aligned today, and we overcame some challenges and ultimately, with the restart, were running as high as second. I really thought we could get a podium. I didn’t think we quite had the pace to win the race, compared to our competition, but I thought the planets may keep aligning and we could get up on the podium.
“I think I might have been more disappointed if we got on the podium and didn’t win. So, we’ll take fifth place, polish the car up, head to Sebring, and come back and try to win this thing next year.”
Previously, the team’s best finish was sixth place, in which they finished in 2021 (Foley, Bill Auberlen, Aidan Read and Colton Herta), 2020 (Foley, Auberlen, Dillon Machavern and Klingmann), and 2016 (Michael Marsal, Markus Palttala, Jesse Krohn and Maxime Martin).
“Having done this for sixteen years, this was the race that went the smoothest, and it shows in our fifth-place finish, which is our best finish that we’ve had,” says Turner. “It’s not only because we finished in the top five, but because we also finished on the lead lap – I don’t know that we’ve ever finished on the lead lap before. This year we were also much closer to a victory as pace and luck and a little bit of everything goes.”
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship resumes at Sebring Interantional Raceway March 12 – 15 with the Twelve Hours of Sebring, the second of five Michelin Endurance Cup races.
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