Turner Motorsport claimed its tenth team championship this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The trio of Robby Foley, Justin Rothberg, and Patrick Gallagher finished second in Pro-Am in the Indianapolis 8 Hour. To win the championship, Turner would have to win, and points leaders would need some bad luck. But the chips fell where they needed to, giving Foley and Rothberg the title in GT World Challenge America. Rothberg swept the weekend in GT America earning two wins-from-pole and finishing second in the SRO3 championship.
GT World Challenge America
No. 29 LATICRETE BMW M4 GT3 - Pro-Am
Robby Foley, Justin Rothberg & Patrick Gallagher
Indianapolis 8 Hour
Start: P4
Finish: P2
Robby Foley, Justin Rothberg, and endurance ace, Patrick Gallagher, took home second-place in Pro-Am in the eight-hour endurance race. All three drivers drove the No. 29 BMW M4 GT3 flawlessly, and the crew executed all nine pit stops perfectly, including doing a brake pad and air filter change without losing a lap. The Turner BMW ran strong and didn’t skip a beat the whole eight hours, a race that was tough on equipment for other competitors.
Rothberg settled into his first endurance race managing pro traffic to focus forward as the team prioritized the race against the championship contenders. Gallagher slid into the driver line-up seamlessly fighting to help the team stay in championship contention. Foley made the final push to the checkered making his way through traffic, briefly leading the class before crossing the line to finish second in the Pro-Am class.
Luck was also on Team Taco’s side when the championship leader took two trips behind the wall among other challenges, allowing Turner to claim the championship title by five points.
“I woke up on race day realizing that we had to execute perfectly, and we would need some luck to win the championship," said team owner Will Turne I’m not superstitious but I do believe in karma. I think it played a role in the outcome - we didn’t forget VIR!"
“What an amazing day for our team. It’s just a testament to the work we’ve put in all year. I feel super lucky and thankful to drive for BMW and Turner and all the guys and girls that make it possible,” said Foley. “We had an awesome car all day; it was very reliable, and that was the difference. We focused on what we needed to, which was winning the Pro-Am class in the American class. It was an amazing way to finish the season, and I’m super proud of Justin for his improvement all year.”
“From the beginning, this whole season felt like I was jumping into the deep end, but I had Robby, Turner, and a great support network behind me. I felt really comfortable with them guiding me the whole way,” smiled Justin Rothberg. “At the beginning, I didn’t even think a championship was on the table. I hadn’t thought about it at all, but slowly throughout the season we started getting better and better results, and here we are champions!”
GT America
No. 29 LATICRETE BMW M4 GT3 - SRO3
Justin Rothberg
Race 1
Start: P1, Pole
Finish: P1, Race Winner
Race 2
Start: P1, Pole
Race 2: P1, Race Winner
Justin Rothberg swept the weekend in GT America with two perfect wins-from-pole and finished second in the SRO3 championship, by just one point. Rothberg drove his No. 29 BMW M4 GT3 away from the field in both races taking the checkered by over three seconds in race one and over eight seconds in race two. The young rookie led every lap for both 40-minute races and ends the season with an impressive four race wins.
“It was an amazing weekend at Indy with my first sweep of the season. It felt amazing, especially considering where we started the season getting spun at Sonoma, so it’s just a polar opposite ending the season like this,” said Rothberg.
The whole season has been an amazing learning experience. Robby and the whole team were instrumental. Everyone was nudging me and helping me improve along the way. And I had people like Johnny O’Connell on the track, who I learned from tremendously from battling on the track. From trying to keep him behind me, trying to pass him, I learned so much from him and I’m so happy for him winning the championship – but only by one point, so if he returns next year, we’ll see what happens!”
