Alton, Va. (23 August 2014) – Michael Marsal was back in top form on Saturday, as the Turner Motorsport pilot led the Oak Tree Grand Prix in the No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M3 before racing home to a sixth place finish at Virginia International Raceway.

While Marsal typically takes on the role of starting driver for the Turner Motorsport team, the VIR weekend saw him tabbed to anchor the No. 97 to the checkered flag and go toe to toe with some of the strongest talents in IMSA.

In the 2.5-hour race set under the heat of the late-August day, Marsal’s co-driver Tom Kimber-Smith took the green flag from ninth position on the grid. After pitting at the 40-minute mark, Kimber-Smith gave a storming drive all the way to the front to hand the car over to Marsal in the race lead.

When Marsal took over with just 52 minutes remaining in the race, he made the most of his fresh tires and full tank of fuel while other cars in the field started to fall behind as he maintained the lead for the beginning of his stint.

With just 35 minutes remaining, Marsal was ultimately forced to cede the lead, but he continued to run strongly. He challenged the cars ahead of him and fended off advances from behind.

“It was a lot of fun out there!”said Marsal at the end of the race.“This is such a fun track to run around and the Turner guys gave me a great car. At the end there I had a really great battle with Eric (Curran). I think we had a top-four car today actually. All the guys here at Turner did a great job, we just didn’t quite get the yellows we needed to make it happen.”

At the drop of the checkered flag, Marsal added another top-10 finish to his resume.

Marsal will now have a short break in racing action before he heads back out in the No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M3 at Circuit of the Americas on September 19-20th.