Timeline! | The Chronology of Turner Motorsport's 557 Race Starts with BMW

The GTD car usually numbered 96 is changing its figures to commemorate Turner Motorsport becoming the team with the most race starts for BMW worldwide, surpassing the famous Schnitzer Motorsport team. Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher will pilot the No. 557 in Sunday’s race.

Team owner Will Turner reminisced on the journey to becoming one of the most prominent IMSA teams that now competes in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge and VP Racing SportsCar Challenge as well as the WeatherTech Championship.

Turner remembered how he maxed out credit cards to finance the team in 1998 as he moved up from the club racing ranks.

“We really did start out very humbly, building our cars in the shop with minimum resources,” Turner said. “I would get my hands dirty. I would need band-aids for scraping knuckles on stuff. You know, ordering pizzas in for all-nighters trying to get the cars ready. Sleeping five guys to a hotel room – somebody’s in the bathtub, somebody’s in the closet – that stuff really happened.

“Everybody jammed into a rental car because we did what we needed to do to go racing.”

Turner has built the team into a destination for drivers. Among those who’ve raced for him are Joey Hand, Jesse Krohn, John Edwards, Dirk Mueller, Boris Said, Dane Cameron and the great Bill Auberlen, the winningest driver in IMSA top-tier series history.

While he’s appreciated the accolades, wins and championships, Turner may be proudest of his determination to make Turner Motorsport a home for his staff.

“A goal of mine is that the continuity of what we’ve been doing all these years, it’s not just for me,” he said. “I have a lot of my crew and a lot of my employees that have been working for me for a lot of years, and they support their family with racing. And I know it sounds kind of cheesy, but one of my goals is really to make sure my crew guys and girls have jobs for the next year. And that’s always difficult in sports car racing.

“It’s important to me to keep this thing going and make sure that the people that have worked so hard and are as passionate about the sport as I am have jobs moving forward.”

Andreas Roos, Head of BMW M Motorsport, commended the team for the achievement.

“What a milestone for Turner Motorsport,” Roos said. “Congratulations on the record-breaking 557th start in a BMW race car and a big thank you for your decades-long trust in our brand. It is always a pleasure and great fun to work with Will Turner and his crew, who have a great professionalism. The long list of victories and titles speaks for itself: Turner Motorsport is an integral part of BMW M Motorsport’s racing program in North America, and I hope it will be like this for many more years.”

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