Augusto Farfus was looking forward to his third Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in Georgia, but the icing on the cake for the Brazilian would have been a strong finish in the number 25 BMW M6 GTLM he shared with Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner. However, this was not to be, despite the BMW Team RLL car being in a podium position with two hours of the ten-hour race to go. Eventually the car was forced to retire about an hour before the chequered flag.
The BMW M6 GTLM was running strongly and by 19.00 hours with two hours to go had made it up into third. However, then with Werner at the wheel it had to be taken behind the wall into the truck awning due to an issue with the steering. Unfortunately the problem occurred again soon after the car returned to the track and this time there was not enough time for the work to be carried out before the end of the race and so it was retired.
After the race Augusto commented: “We had a reasonable car here, we were not the fastest, but we were on the game. I was keen to help my team-mates Dirk and Bill. They always welcome me with open arms and it is nice. I wish I could have gone home with at least a result, but unfortunately today was not the day for this to happen. It is very frustrating, because we did not bring home what we deserved, but okay that is part of the job.”
For the driver from Curitiba the trips to America are always special, as he explained: “First of all it is always an honour for me to race with this team in America. There is such an energy over here. It is so nice to come to see old friends, who through your career you lose contact with as you are doing different championships.”
Talking more about his ‘job’ in the final round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on this 4.088 kilometre track he said: “This was the first time since 2011 that I have got here and had a dry track. I didn’t drive so much during free practice, because the priority was for Dirk and Bill to set up the car, as they have more experience. I am here just to help them. I think my stint was okay and I was pretty good. I had good pace, good fights on the track and made up some positions. It was all looking good. At the end of the day my job here is to just run in the shadows, to support Bill and Dirk. I think they both did brilliant jobs and unfortunately what happened to us is racing.”
Now for Augusto it is back to his ‘day job’ as the final round of the DTM has still to be held. This will be at Hockenheim on the 15th to 16th October and he is hoping for a good end to that season in his BMW Team MTEK Shell BMW M4 DTM: “There is my last shot of the year in Hockenheim in two weeks time and hopefully there we can finish on a high. Then we will start all over again preparing for a new season and hopefully a much brighter one.”
