Will Patterson photo courtesy Turner Motorsport: 2013 saw Marsal on the podium at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, and the youngster will look to repeat the feat this weekend

Monterey, Calif. (29 April 2014) – After a month-long break in racing action, Michael Marsal is ready for his return to IMSA competition in the No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M3 in hopes of a repeat  podium finish in Monterey. The Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix powered by Mazda marks Round 3 of the 2014 IMSA Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge championship (Broadcast: Fox Sports 1, May 11 at 10:00 AM ET).

Marsal arrives to the fabled circuit having earned a healthy bit of success so far this year, which opened with a double-podium weekend in the 2014 season-opener at Daytona International Speedway as he took the Turner Motorsport GS machine to third place as well as going one better with 8Star Motorsports in TUDOR competition and scoring second in the historic Rolex 24 At Daytona.

He followed up that effort up with a huge performance in Sebring, which only saw the possible win chances evaporate after his co-driver was involved with an incident. Marsal also had the chance to keep in top form as he tested with Turner Motorport at the home Lime Rock Park track, as Marsal will race there as part of the Memorial Day weekend.

With all that positive pace and momentum, Marsal returns to another legendary track as IMSA makes a debut at the 2.238-mile  Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Marsal enters the 2.5-hour race with confidence  not only due to his strong start to the season, but also because he returns to the track having scored his best-ever Rolex Series result there last year with a second place finish in the No. 93 Turner Motorsport BMW GT.

“I’m really pumped to head back to Laguna Seca,”  enthused Marsal. “We were on the podium last year with Turner in the GT car so I’m excited to see what we can do this year with the GS car. I got the chance to test last week at one of my favorite tracks – Lime Rock Park – which was great. Hopefully we can take some positive momentum into the race in Monterey and bring the Turner guys home another big result.”

The green flag will fly on Saturday, May 3rd at 3:45 PM (ET). Live timing and scoring can be found at imsa.com and the race will be televised on FOX Sports 1 on May 11th at 10:00 AM (ET).