A podium finish looked on the cards for Andy Priaulx and his BMW Team RLL team-mate, Bill Auberlen (US), at the Virginia International Raceway today. But a late full course yellow in the ninth round of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship played into the hands of the opposition and they missed out in what ended up being a seven minute dash to the finishing line.

Andy drove the first stint of the 2 hour 45 minute race and handed the black number 55 BMW Z4 GTLM to Bill in second place after about 50 minutes of racing. After this there were three full course yellows, and it was the final one with about 15 minutes of racing left that caused the problem for them. The eventual second placed Porsche was due for a late top up of fuel to make the chequered flag, but that was only if the racing had remained under the green flag. However, Andy stayed philosophical about this when he said: "It would have been nice to be on the podium. For these races sometimes it is a lottery. The team did really well on the strategy, but it is difficult to know when the next yellow is going to come, as it is looking into the future. I was really delighted with my stint, came in in P2 and was in touch with the leaders. Overall we did the maximum and I think it is a great result for BMW."

The team's other car driven by Dirk Muller (DE) and John Edwards (US) finished just a second ahead and claimed the last podium position. This result means that all four BMW drivers are now tied third in the driver points. The race was won by the Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella (IT) and Pierre Kaffer (DE) despite the German sliding off track in the early laps and the pairing having to come back from way down the field.

There are just two races left in the series, with the next one being at the very impressive Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas on the 20th September.