RACING TEAM TURKEY FINISHES FOURTH IN BARCELONA, TITLE FIGHT GOES TO MONZA

RACING TEAM TURKEY BROUGHT THE #34 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R HOME FOURTH IN LMGT3 AT THE INAUGURAL 6 HOURS OF BARCELONA, JUST 0.256 SECONDS OFF THE PODIUM. THE TEAM HEADS TO THE MONZA FINALE STILL IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT.

Racing Team Turkey finished fourth in the LMGT3 class at the inaugural 6 Hours of Barcelona, with the #34 Corvette Z06 GT3.R crossing the line just 0.256 seconds off the podium. The result keeps the team in the LMGT3 championship fight heading into the season finale at Monza on November 8.

From 10th to the Front

The race started on a damp track at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Salih Yoluç took the start from 10th on the class grid and worked his way up to second by the end of his double stint.

"We had a good car underneath. It was difficult, obviously. I don't personally prefer to drive in the wet. I would always like it when it's dry. But thankfully the Corvette is a good car in the wet. We were hoping for a bit of wet weather today. So I was able to capitalize as much as I could."

— Salih Yoluç

Peter Dempsey then completed two strong stints, keeping the #34 in second place and within range of the class leader.

"That was fun. I didn't push. We knew the (tire) deg was high from testing. I tried to listen to Charlie as much as I could to not push because he was giving me grief on the test day! So I tried to manage the pace and with the fuel coming out I could keep going a little bit toward the last five or six laps to match the Porsche although they had the gap already, although I was able to match them and extended the gap to P3. We got a little unlucky with the stop during the last VSC."

— Peter Dempsey

Timing Costs a Podium

Pit-lane traffic and a Virtual Safety Car period disrupted the timing of the final driver change. With a little over two hours to go, Dempsey had to stay out two laps longer than planned, and the stop under green-flag conditions dropped the car from second to fourth. Charlie Eastwood pushed to the flag but finished just two-tenths short of third.

"Two-tenths off my fourth podium in a row with Corvette which would have been pretty nice for four races in a row. It was a fuel-save race. We got a bit unlucky when one of the Peugeots stopped so we couldn't box on one of the VSC laps. We ended up stopping under a bit of green and that cycled us from P2 backward. The Hypercar field sort of played into the hands of a few others so they didn't need the extra lap of fuel. We pushed as hard as we could but fell a couple tenths short."

— Charlie Eastwood

Everything to Play for at Monza

Racing Team Turkey goes into the final round third in the LMGT3 Teams standings, 22 points behind the leading sister #33 TF Sport Corvette. With one race left, the championship will be decided at the Six Hours of Monza on November 8.