The final round of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship at Road Atlanta was a very tough race, not just for Augusto Farfus but for the entire field. Driving rain meant for atrocious track conditions and, after many full course yellows and even a red flag, it was no surprise that the chequered flag came out two hours before what was scheduled to be a ten hour Petit Le Mans.
Augusto was sharing the number 25 BMW Z4 GTLM with American Bill Auberlen and German Dirk Werner. Going into this final round of the American championship the BMW Team RLL pair were only three points behind the leaders for the drivers’ title, and BMW was only three points behind Porsche for the manufacturers’ championship. However, in the end a win by Porsche in the GTLM class meant that both titles eluded BMW.
The race was started with Bill in the car, then Dirk took over before Augusto did his stint. The track was covered in water and all the drivers were complaining of aquaplaning. At the end of the race in which they finished fourth in class Augusto said: “We were hanging out there with the leaders and we had a really good strategy for the end of the race, but then the chequered flag came out two hours early, which we were not prepared for. I was hoping to leave Petit Le Mans with a victory, but that didn’t happen. However, well done to the boys, we didn’t have the fastest package but we did a good job with what we had, and at the end we managed to bring the car home.”
The race started at 11.10 local time on Saturday after the practice and qualifying sessions on the previous days had also been held in the wet. A rain affected race had been forecast all week long, so it came as no surprise. In total it ran for 7hours 52minutes 16 seconds. Of these 3hours 19minutes 36seconds were green flag racing, 3hours 26minuts 52seconds under full course yellows and there was a red flag period of 1hour 4minutes 59seconds.
With this behind him, the Brazilian can now return to Europe to get ready for the final round of the DTM at Hockenheim in two weeks. “I always enjoy racing in America and it was fun doing the races this year, but now I have to get back to Europe and give the DTM my full attention,” he said.
